BioWare Austin Creative Director James Ohlen spoke about the reasons that inspired the studio to create its own space saga Mass Effect instead of working on the sequel Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic.
According to Olen, BioWare founded their own role-playing franchise in a sci-fi setting, as they wanted to have more creative freedom. Working under the Star Wars license imposed certain restrictions on the creators.
At the same time, Olen admitted that Knight of the Old Republic gave developers a lot of ideas, which were then implemented in Mass Effect. For example, a spaceship that served as a base for a team of heroes, where they interact with each other between sorties and adventures, migrated from KotOR to Mass Effect.
In order for a company to be successful and control its fate, it is necessary to have its own franchise. Mass Effect was what we decided to do instead of another Star Wars game
creative director of BioWare Austin
After the success of Mass Effect, BioWare launched Dragon Age, another original role—playing franchise, this time in a fantasy setting. The developers drew inspiration for Dragon Age in many ways from the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale series, which they worked on earlier.
James Olen led the work on such games as Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic and Dragon Age and MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.
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