Bonus Content Disc/Inside BioWare

This is a transcription of the documentary "Inside BioWare" found exclusively on the Limited Collector's Edition bonus content disc of Mass Effect released in 2007.

The interviewees are:

• David Falkner – lead programmer
• Drew Karpyshyn – lead writer
• Ray Muzyka – CEO, BioWare (listed in the game credits as executive producer)
• Ken Thain (uncredited in the documentary; listed in the game credits as lead cinematic designer)
• Mike Trottier – lead level artist
• Derek Watts – art director
• Greg Zeschuk – President, BioWare (listed in the game credits as executive producer)

Content

The History

Ray Muzyka: We financed the company, actually, through our medical programs. We were making some money as doctors, and we would work on weekends; I did emergency medicine. Greg did some family medicine as well. Greg did some emergency medicine and geriatric medicine, family med... and we got bank financing as doctors and basically put everything we made back in the company and didn't pay ourselves a salary for the first five years. And that result was we built something really great with the help of the people here. It was just three employees to start out with, at BioWare, and we grew from there to about 10 people or so, working with Shattered Steel. I think we peaked at around 60 or so when we released Baldur's Gate in 1998, and continued to grow ever since then. One interesting fact about BioWare is that, until we released Baldur's Gate, I think no one at BioWare, there were about 60 people at that point, had ever worked on a video game before. So we had people from all kinds of diverse industries, and we had a guy that was carving ducks that turned on a computer for the first time at BioWare and learned how to do 3D modeling. And we had people that were painters that became amazing artists, digital artists, and we had programmers from database companies, and on and on... We had writers that were doing-- One of our senior writers was actually running a comic book store, one of the first writers we hired, and became our director of design. He's now a creative director down in Austin. And, you know, on and on, there's all these amazing people. They come from interesting backgrounds. In the end, it's about their passion, and it's about their intelligence and what they bring to the job in that respect. We incorporated BioWare in 1995. And we started out with just a few people, and we were actually working out of Greg's basement at that point. And then we rapidly moved from there to another location, and ramped up quite a bit. So we had six-foot ceilings, and... I actually knocked myself out one time on a ceiling. I just kind of bumped my head because I'm 6'5, so... it's not a good mix, six-foot ceiling and 6'5 tall guy. But... So, we were there just for a short period. We moved to another space, which I think we had about 20 computers plugged in a breaker that was really meant for four or five, so we had continual outages of power in that space, our first space. And then we moved to an area that was in a trendy part of town near the university, and that was pretty good, until we outgrew it. And now we're in a larger space, and built it out and customized it for everybody here, and it's really good. And for BioWare Austin, we've actually been in a couple locations now so far. We were in a temporary space for the first setup, first startup period for about a year or so. We just recently moved into a really nice space. The guys down there did a great job setting it up; and it's modeled on the BioWare Edmonton space. So, it's eerily similar when you go down to BioWare Austin, BioWare Edmonton, and you compare the two. I think, you know, that we have great people at BioWare Austin, great people at BioWare Edmonton, and the cultures are quite similar, so it makes sense that the spaces are similar too. Any time you start a new studio up or a new company up, it's stressful, there's exhilaration, there's joy, there's pride in the work that your team is building and everything in-between. But I think-- I think it was worth it. We... You know, I wouldn't do anything else. I used-- I like medicine, but I love video games. I love the people we work with here, and I love the games we're working on. Like Mass Effect, for example.

Greg Zeschuk: I think that-- There's always that amazing experience of finally seeing your game on the shelf. Like, that's probably the most exhilarating thing, it really is a lot of work to get it done. And we had, you know, I think Shattered Steel was one of those things that, boy, we poured a lot of passion into that, and it got out. It was a pretty good game. I mean, it was back in the day. It was 1996, I think, we released in October. And we're very proud of it, and we look back and go, "wow", it's been a long time and we've released a whole bunch of games since. But every single one of them is, when you go to the store, I think we always even still kind of look, "okay, is this one here? Oh, no. Is this one here?" It's always nice to see the stuff on the shelves, and more so when people come up and try and buy it, we say, "hey, that's a really good game. You should buy that."

Ray Muzyka: Do a little product placement, put the games in front.

Greg Zeschuk: [laughs] Yeah, get rid of the competitors, throw them under... under the thing.

Ray Muzyka: I don't do that. You do that.

Greg Zeschuk: No. I think you do, too.

Ray Muzyka: I don't.

Edmonton, Alberta

Greg Zeschuk: I think... one of the interesting things about being in Edmonton, it really is our home. So, I mean, we never really sort of had any thoughts of starting anywhere else. Like, you know, it's the perfect place for it. And the reason it is a perfect place for it is there's a couple really big things. One is the great infrastructure; there's awesome schools here, there's art colleges in Edmonton and Calgary and Vancouver... We can draw from anywhere. Universities here are also extremely good, we actually get a lot of folks from the university, many of the people. A lot of other good tech companies. It's sort of a positive culture and very entrepreneurial. I think one of the things about Alberta and Edmonton is it's turned into a very entrepreneurial culture. We've been able to see that growth since we started. The other thing is just, you know, it's a great family city. You know, as game developers, we're all getting a little bit older now, too. We've got some young folks, but we've got folks, a lot of people with families. It's a wonderful place for families and for kids to go to school and grow up and all that sort of thing. So it's, you know, it's kind of got a nice balance of work, lifestyle, play, and, you know... it's grown very well now. We have tons of people here, over 300 people here at the Edmonton studio, and very proud of all of them, and of all the great work they do.

Working at BioWare

David Falkner: BioWare's been a really exciting place to stay at for this long period of time; it's gone through a tremendous amount of growth. When I first came here in 1997, we were about, you know, maybe 40, 50 people working on a PC title, our first role-playing game called Baldur's Gate. And everything was really, really small and really... everyone had to put in like 110% just to get everything done. It was really, really exciting. And since, we've grown, we've taken on more and more ambitious projects, we've maintained that energy the whole way through, and it's really exciting to see. And now, I'm on a team where I've got 40 programmers, just programmers in the first place. Peak team size is something like 120, I think, when you take all the content creators into it. And just seeing all that creative energy come in, is just fabulous to watch. I would actually say that with all of the changes that BioWare's gone through, just growing from, you know, 40 to 50 people up to 300 people, it's-- the essentials have not changed at all. Like, we've always been a very dynamic company, trying to roll with the problems as we encounter them, and a lot of our problems are now communication-based. We've got usually three simultaneous projects going on. We're trying to make sure that everyone's got all the resources they need, and everyone's got, you know, a focused vision that the rest of the company can see. And we're sharing ideas about, how can we make this thing better or that thing better? That part actually hasn't gone away. The challenge has just been, how do you do that with 300 people? So I think that's, in terms of the essentials, I don't think the company's changed at all since I joined it, which is why I'm actually still here. I've always loved the atmosphere that we've had at this company for that.

Derek Watts: I love working at BioWare because it gave me the start in the business. I got to work on Star Wars with LucasArts, which was a dream come true. And... Finally my nephews don't know me as the unemployed artist. Now I'm the guy that makes awesome video games. BioWare's pretty hard on buildings. I mean, the old office I was at, we pretty well... we trashed that one pretty good. I mean, every ceiling tile had a brown stain on it, a lot of leaking waters... Actually, one of the guys was working pretty late, Arun, and he was working on one of the levels on KotOR, and the janitor came in and he said "there seems to be some water leaking in one of the rooms." So, Arun went in there and there was water pouring out through the ceiling, ended up flooding part of the floors, ruining a few computers, but luckily, those two guys were there or we would have lost a tremendous amount of equipment on that. But yeah, we beat these places up. With so many guys in here and they're rough on stuff, it's... you know, the last building we cut a hole, two holes in the floor to put staircases in to the next floor. And, you know, it's just... we beat those places up. I don't know if you want to play that ring right in my hand. "What the hell is... You don't say that!"

BioWare Culture and Values

Ray Muzyka: Yeah. The culture at BioWare is something we really... I think it's-- we take a lot of pride in that and we focus on that a lot. And it's really the foundation of how we're able to continually make great games. First part of that culture is the people; we have amazing people at BioWare, and it's an honor for me to work with them. They're passionate, they're smart, they're creative, they're hardworking, and every day is a pleasure because of that. And I think our culture is founded around our core values of quality in our products, quality in our workplace in the context of humility and integrity. And quality in products is about making each game better than the last. The quality in the workplace is about making a place where people feel respected, treated as professionals. It's a great place to work. People work hard, they play hard. Humility about being self-critical, self-aware of the things we build, both of the products and the workplace. Those are the things that endure as BioWare changes. Everything changes at BioWare, but one thing stays the same. That's our culture, our core values, and that's very important to us.

Greg Zeschuk: Really, what we've tried to focus on is always reorganizing and trying to find better ways to communicate and build bridges within the teams and between the teams. You know... We use currently all kinds of tactics, things like agile development, which caused... you get teams into smaller units that work together and how they work on specific goals... There's a lot of things that we do, but at the end of the day, again, communication, making sure there's really good clarity, making sure people feel and know what they're supposed to be doing, that they're part of something big and important, is the key. I think, you know, the great thing about Mass Effect is a real clear understanding that it has... that it's going to be a special game and there's only a few of those made per year, you know, only a few per decade ultimately.

Ray Muzyka: So, as BioWare's grown larger, you know, we have about five teams here in Edmonton and one team in Austin, we've really found it's critical to empower the team leadership to make great games. And it's all part of being entrepreneurial even as you scale, and as you get bigger. And because we have great leads, we have great management on our teams, that's feasible. And we think it's incredibly important to allow them to pursue their passion, and to make something that's an amazing experience.

Ray & Greg

Derek Watts: Working with Ray and Greg is really good. I mean, they play an amazing amount of games. They're very interested in the product. They'll play it, they'll make constructive criticism of it, they'll enter bugs. They're passionate about the product for sure. Greg walks around the company a lot, likes to talk to you about what you're doing, what games he plays. He talks to all the British guys about football and so on. So... They love the product and that's great. I mean, it's nice to have owners that care about it. They're not just playing it for a couple hours and that's it, they play it a lot and they enter thousands of bugs, and want it to be the best it can be.

Mike Trottier: Ray and Greg are obviously a major part of the BioWare culture. They're both great guys that I think, no matter how big the company gets, we can all relate back to. They always come by our offices and we're always able to talk comfortably with them, so... Working with Ray and Greg, I think, is amazing, especially since they're keystones of the culture here.

David Falkner: Ray and Greg are absolutely awesome. Like... I don't know exactly how long they wanted to get into the games industry before they, you know, switched away from being doctors, but it must have been a long time because they pour everything that they had into this company, and they set the tone for the whole place, this whole "work hard, play hard" atmosphere and making sure that, you know, we're playing games and trying to figure out what other people are doing. What was exciting about that game? What can we roll into this game? You know. Greg spends most of his time playing role-playing games when he's not in the office as far as I can tell, because it's like encyclopedic, his knowledge of what other role-playing games are doing, and other kinds of games too. That may have an impact on what we're doing. So yeah, it's really great working with them and they're very serious about... unlocking the team, making sure that we have the ability to make the greatest game that we can.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Drew Karpyshyn: We spend... a lot of hours working on a project. As we get closer and closer to ship, those hours can become quite long, you know, 12, 14 hours a day sometimes, because we have such a passion for the game. But you really need a chance to sort of... let off steam, release that pressure. So, there's a lot of things we do. You know, we have a games room where we have our foosball table, so there's always a big foosball tournament or billiards or... you know, ping pong. We have a bunch of different old stand-up arcade games that you can play. We also do a lot of other things that we do for fun; we have poker tournaments sort of every couple months where people from the company just get together and you have 25, 30, 40 people in these all-night poker tournaments. So, it's kind of nice that you have all these friends and people here, that you can do these things with because if you're going to spend a lot of time with people, it really helps if you can consider them friends and not just co-workers.

Mike Trottier: I think one of the big things that makes working at BioWare amazing is just the sort of kindred spirits that everyone has... that everyone is around here, that everyone has the same interests. And a lot of it is, you know, sports in the summer and everything else that you really get a chance to go beyond just your typical co-worker. These are your friends you're working with around here, and that makes it just an amazing environment to be in every day. It makes you want to show up in the morning.

Derek Watts: BioWare has a great culture. I mean... there's a lot of people that have the same interests. A lot of us will go out mountain biking, there's ski trips they plan up to the mountains... It's fun. It's... You know, you get to play games a lot, which is always interesting. You have the same interests. It's a relaxed environment. There can be stress in there, but for the most part, it's fairly relaxed. I mean, it's actually a really fun job, a better job than I've ever had before. So... it's awesome.

Ken Thain: We've got a really great river valley here. So, there's a lot of, like... in the summer we did a lot of biking just all through the river valley. And, you know, we do a lot of running and stuff. So... it's really nice in the summer to get out there and enjoy what the city has to offer for those kind of activities.

Derek Watts: There's a few of us from work that go mountain biking. We do it in the river valley a lot, which is actually really good; there's some challenging trails in there. I've gone up to BC to do some of those mountains. They're not quite like that, but for our area, they're quite fun, and we've had a few people that have taken a few bad spells, broken bikes, and so on. So... it's quite fun. A lot of walking your bike back to the bike shop afterwards to get stuff replaced on it.

David Falkner: We like to go out to movie stuff together. We like to, you know, we bring food in in the launch room. It's really an exciting place to be. People sometimes will stay after hours to play games. Some people will stay after hours just to get that extra thing in the game. People really do take the experience of the game very seriously, and I think that's terrific.

4 Pillars of a BioWare Game

Ray Muzyka: So, the four activity pillars in a BioWare game are story and character, exploration, customization progression, and conflict or combat.

Greg Zeschuk: One pillar I'm personally really enthused about with Mass Effect is exploration. I mean, the chance to explore the galaxy, just pick a place in the galaxy map and look around, try and see if you can find some old space hunk that you can explore, or who knows what. Just there's an incredible range of things you can do in the game. You can go anywhere, do anything, really. It's incredible. The other thing I really like about games, you know, conflict or combat, that's one of the other pillars we really think about. And Mass Effect has this awesome combination of very action-oriented yet tactical combat where the choices you make really do make a difference. And, you know, you have got a party, you can direct them on what to do, but in large part they're actually pretty smart doing their own thing. If you go into squad command, then you can really get down to the details of how you finish those really tough battles.

Ray Muzyka: So, another important activity pillar in BioWare's games is story and character, and Mass Effect is innovating in story and character to a tremendous degree. Right from the start of the game, where you create your characters and you're able to customize your appearance, every detail, from the hair color to eye color, to facial expressions, you can make your character a living expression of how you want to appear. And that continues as you progress in the game. We have amazing digital actor technology that allows players to feel emotion as they identify with characters that they're interacting with, in dialogue and all throughout the game with other characters in your party, other characters you're talking to as the story unfolds. It's really truly an epic storyline that progresses across the entire galaxy. The last pillar of BioWare's games that's really important, of course, is customization progression. And we're doing a ton of things in Mass Effect to support that pillar as well. For example, you can progress your character, your main character that you have in the game, through skill sets and abilities and upgrading your weaponry and biotic powers. And in addition, it's not just you. You have a team, so you can really play the game as a tactical RPG. It's got a tremendous amount of depth, and you can upgrade all the party members you have with you, and experience the game in a rich tactical experience if you choose to do so. So, we're allowing the players to play the game they want to play, and with the characters they want to take with them.

BioWare Fan Community

Ray Muzyka: We've really expanded our marketing capabilities at BioWare, and we're not viewing marketing and promotion as something you do at the end of the project, we're viewing it as something that's core, it's at the start of the project. It's all about understanding what the fans want, because it's all about the fans in the end. It's all about making sure you're making a game that they're going to embrace, they're going to love, and you have to know what they want. So, the BioWare community is a really important part of how we stay in touch with our fans. It's a way for us to get feedback, it's a way for us to have a dialogue with them, it's a way for us to message what we're working on and to get information from them about what they want to see in our future projects. And we've grown to about 3.4+ million registered users, user accounts, on BioWare's website now, which is one of the largest independent developer communities in the world. And we're really, really pleased with that. We're really happy that we have such a close relationship with our fans, because it's all about making great games for the fans. And, in order to do that, you have to have a close contact, a close relationship with them. So, the culture at BioWare, I think, really complements our ability to create a great game like Mass Effect, a really epic scope kind of game like Mass Effect, in a few different ways. First of all, it's really founded on our core values, and so quality in our products means that we're trying to make something that each game is better than the last. So I'm very confident that Mass Effect will be BioWare's best game to date as a result of that. The quality in the workplace means that people know that they're going to have to work hard, but we're going to try and make that sustainable and balanced. If they have to take some time because they need it for family reasons and so on, we want them to do that, even though they have to pull together, obviously, to get the game done as we're going into the final push right now. And I think they know more than anything it's all about quality in the end. That's for our fans. The fans, the folks watching this video, they deserve a great experience. And we want to make this the best game they've ever played from BioWare. So, to do that, we have to work hard, pull together, and the end result is we have to take the time, we have to make sure that we're delivering the very best experience, the high quality experience our fans deserve.