Dragon Age: Inquisition writer details the reality of cutting content

BioWare writer David Gaider has detailed the current status of Dragon Age: Inquisition on his personal Tumblr, describing the cuts that will be made to the game throughout this pre-Alpha stage.

While new content is still in development, "at this point it's more about dealing with the content we have and getting it all to work," writes Gaider.

"This is also the stage where most of the big cuts happen, since we can still create new content to deal with those cuts (as in "change the writing to accomodate a change in the story flow"). Once we hit Alpha, cuts are generally things that are simply excised in their entirety, without any ability to really work around them for the sake of logic or flow."

Likewise, the game's writers are now moving on from creating the game's voiced dialogue and are developing "non-VO text," including codex entries, item and talent descriptions and GUI text.

"Still, we have to handle all bugs that come our way, and be responsive to any cuts that are occurring. This is a pretty stressful time for everyone," continues Gaider. "Every cut feels like it's reducing the overall quality of the game, until there are so many of them you feel like you're producing a piece of crap-until you remind yourself that every game goes through this, and the alternative is shipping late or not at all."

Late last year BioWare confirmed the game's then-current build featured a completely playable storyline with developers able to run through the title's plot from beginning to end. Executive producer Mark Darrah noted that all systems were working together as intended.

Dragon Age: Inquisition begins with the events at a peace conference between the warring mages and templars. An explosion wreaks havoc on the tentative plans, while causing the extinction of many members of the world's ruling classes.

The Inquisitor emerges from the chaos, ostensibly being blasted from metaphysical realm the Fade. The game's central character is given the power to fill the power vacuum, leading the Inquisition against invading demons, pouring through The Rift.

The studio recently released a class breakdown with details on the basic Mage, Warrior and Rogue classes, as well as each character specialization.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will launch on Windows PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on Oct. 9.