Dragon Age Director Says Anthem Taught BioWare To Focus Only On “What You’re Good At”

In an interview with Edge Magazine (thanks, 80 Level), Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s creative director, John Epler, said that Anthem taught BioWare to focus only on “what you’re good at.” The dev noted that it understands that you should double down on your strengths. Therefore, the devs are prepared to nail down the sequel and avoid the mess that happened with Anthem.

I’m proud of a lot of things on Anthem – I was on that project for a year and a half. But at the end of the day, we were building a game focused on something we were not necessarily as proficient at. For me and for the team, the biggest lesson was to know what you’re good at and then double down on it. Don’t spread yourselves too thin,” says the director.

John understands that taking unnecessary risks seldom benefits a developer. Additionally, he recognizes the team’s strength and is using it to create the perfect Dragon Age sequel.

We’re a studio that has always been built around digging deep on storytelling and roleplaying. […] Don’t try to do a bunch of different things you don’t have the expertise to do. A lot of the people on this team came here to build a story-focused, singleplayer RPG.”

Anthem Had Many Fun Elements That Were Never Fully Realized

Anthem’s flight and combat systems were quite fun, and the worldbuilding still lives in my head rent-free. However, it still flopped hard because of a lack of content and other issues. On the flip side, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a single-player RPG filled with detailed storytelling that is right up the studio’s alley. So, many players are excited to see how BioWare will handle the sequel.

Similar Reads:

• Former BioWare Director’s New Studio Is Working On A Game In Unreal Engine.
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is Not A Live-Service Game By Any Means, Dev Confirms.
• Mass Effect 5 Is In Development By Trilogy Veterans, Confirms The BioWare Project Director.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard will drop later this year for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5. Although BioWare has yet to announce a release date. Additionally, Mass Effect 5 is also in heavy development by trilogy veterans, but it appears to be much farther away.