Dragon Age's Mark Darrah Says "Bioware Magic" Is A "Terrible" Crunch Process
BioWare veteran Mark Darrah, who worked at the studio for over 23 years, has spoken out about the so-called "BioWare Magic" — a term used by studio management to describe excessive overtime. According to Darrah, such light phrasing doesn't make a "terrible" crunch process any better, and the industry should completely stamp out both the term and its old-fashioned approach to work.
In a new video shared on his YouTube channel, Darrah described game development using the analogy of a hockey stick and its curved edge. In his words, this shows the usual development process at BioWare, where things go along without a ton of visible progress for a bit, before picking up at the end. As the devs have their deadlines, there is a point where "everything clicks" and you start progressing way faster. But there was no way to tell when the "clicking" point would start, and this lengthy, last minute crunch would begin.
Related: Interview: Mark Darrah On The Ever-Changing Nature Of Dragon Age
"Things come together really late, and things get better really late," Darrah explains. So, instead of the part where you could be, this is just "lost understanding" and lack of completion urgency, resulting in delays and crunch time. "Don't say BioWare magic to refer to this," he concluded. "This is a bad process. So stop it. Make the process better, you'll never have to say this again."
Darrah's words resonate with other former BioWare employees. For example, David Gaider, a veteran writer who was with the studio for 16 years, agreed with him on Twitter. Gaider said that comparing such a terrible system to magic probably originated from the high-up personnel who have little awareness of what is actually happening. In real life, people would drain
Read more on thegamer.com
