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David Gaider

David Gaider is the principal writer for the awesome "heroic dark fantasy" video game DRAGON AGE. Gaider takes us into a day in the life of a video game writer and discusses the writing process, challenges and opportunities of the field, as well as offering us a closer look at the game itself.

Horror Bound is pleased to present David Gaider of Bioware, as interviewed by Rex Chance, Horror Bound Video Game Specialist.

How long have you been writing for BioWare? What did you write before working at BioWare?

I've been working for BioWare for 10 years, now. I didn't work as a writer previously. Believe it or not, prior to starting with BioWare I actually worked in the hotel industry. Any writing I did back then was for personal interest, primarily.

Dragon Age is billed as "dark fantasy." Can you define dark fantasy? What was your process for making what is essentially an archetypal fantasy world, more "dark"?

I think the term we eventually came up with is "heroic dark fantasy", primarily because as a fantasy world it has some elements of both heroic fantasy and dark fantasy. Classically, dark fantasy can be pretty bleak. We're talking about places where everything has gone wrong and corruption and evil are around every corner. Warhammer is one example that comes to mind; it's an ugly place (not to say it isn't fun). What we wanted was something that resembled traditional, heroic fantasy on the surface but which wasn't romanticized. We wanted a fantasy world that reacted to the presence of the supernatural in a plausible fashion, something that looked a bit like what our world might if we had these things -- other races are subject to hatred, magic is subject to fear and superstition. Nothing's as clear cut as good and evil. Simple good and evil is a fine dichotomy for a romantic setting, but there are more serious ways to approach traditional fantasy without it needing to all revolve around bleakness and horror.

Was there anything that was "too dark" for Dragon Age that was either cut or toned down?

Not really. Some things might be considered realistic for a brutal world, but at the same time we want to make sure the experience stays fun. Most often if something has been toned down, it's going to be for localization reasons. Countries have different social views on what is appropriate content for their market.

The Dragon Age world is deep and developed. How do you go about world-building for BioWare games? What did you want to do differently with the Dragon Age world?

When I started on the project the mandate I was handed was to build a traditional fantasy setting, but something that we could put our own spin on. It needed to be recognizable, and have the trappings of fantasy that one might expect -- but at the same time we could take some of those elements and subvert them. I think part of it started from a conversation about magic, and how magic in a setting like Dungeons & Dragons isn't really recognized by the rest of the world. You have neophyte magic-users running around able to cast Charm Person, able to turn anyone into their best friend for ten minutes, and nobody thinks this is may be a problem?

We also wanted to pattern the land loosely on the history of medieval Europe. So I used real historical events and worked them into the history, making a fictionalized version of our own world. I seeded plots into many locations (as we didn't know what story we wanted to begin with, yet) and tried to give each corner of the world a hook that made it interesting... and then we slowly built on it from there. It was a fun process.

How does writing for a video game differ from writing a novel with respect to maintaining player interest? How do you balance intrigue, exposition and action and maintain a sense of free-will for the player? And how do you accommodate all types of players?

All video games limit the player's free will by their nature. The trick is to provide as much agency to them as you can, within the framework of the story we're providing. If you get the player to buy into your premise, half your work is done for you. They're along for the ride. BioWare has always focused on story-driven games, and the way we try to accommodate different players is by allowing them to proceed through our story in a way that pleases them. You're always going through the plot and reaching the same ultimate destination, but the route is up to the player and the way their character acts allows them to feel like they're in control. If they feel they have agency, then they're personally invested in their character's actions. That's a level of interaction that a novel is just never going to have. It's a different experience completely.

Of the six possible origin stories, do you have a favorite?

That's hard, because I tend to prefer plots I don't personally write. I'd have to say the Mage Origin is my favorite. That's where the differences in our world's magic really shine through, and I'm very partial to the idea of the Fade (the dream world in Dragon Age) which is where the Mage Origin begins.

Tell us a little bit about the actual day-to-day working at BioWare as a writer - what you do when you come into the office? What's the game development process from a writer's perspective?

It's probably a lot more boring than people think. For every day you do something sexy like imagine a new character or write a new plot, there's another ten where you're re-writing, editing, fixing bugs, adding voice-over directions to your dialogue, writing item descriptions and codex entries... the list really goes on. Writers have a bit different process than many of the other disciplines; for us, all the work comes at the beginning and the middle of a project. Near the end, the text has to all be locked down so it can have voice-overs recorded and be localized, so by the time everybody else is kicking into high gear our work is pretty much done.

A typical day for me, if I'm in the middle of the actual writing of the game, is to come in and update my toolset and then get to work on whatever piece of dialogue I'm currently cracking away at. A particular dialogue may take days, and a whole plot weeks to nail down. I'll review the work of other writers (as they'll review mine) and when problems are identified we'll likely have to go back in and make changes, or do a complete re-write... and the process starts all over again. It's hard work, and you just take it one day at a time. Nothing beats seeing something come together with all the art and voiceovers at the end, however. Sometimes it's frustrating when it doesn't go like you thought it would, or encounter limitations, but ultimately it's an incredible feeling.

How does The Stolen Throne and The Calling fit into to the Dragon Age: Origins video game world? Will there be more Dragon Age books? How do the books compare thematically to the video game? Would you say they are more adult or darker?

The novels both take place well before the events of the game, showing how the kingdom came to be the place it is and how a few of the characters you see in the game became who they are. They were always meant as an introduction to the world for people who weren't familiar with it, and they offer an opportunity for people who are familiar (when they play the game) to maybe have some additional insight they wouldn't have otherwise.

I'd say the tone is the same. I was intimately familiar with the tone of the game, obviously, so I wanted to maintain that when writing the books. I believe in characters making hard choices and bittersweet endings where everything isn't wrapped up neatly with a bow on it. That's not the only stories that I think can be told in Dragon Age, or that I will ever want to tell, but I think anyone who plays the game and reads the book will see where they correlate.

As to whether or not there will be more Dragon Age books... I certainly hope so! I don't know if I will be the one to write them. It's difficult to write all day and then go home and write some more as a side job, after all. If someone else were to take the world I've helped create and run with it and create something wonderful, then that would make me happy... if I could let go of it enough to allow that. It is my baby, after all.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us...!

Thanks for the opportunity!

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