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Mass Effect gameplay lead Christina Norman now at Riot Games
Christina Norman, lead gameplay designer for Mass Effect 2, announced on Twitter today that she has taken a new Lead Designer position at League of Legends developer Riot Games. Last week, Norman announced that she was leaving BioWare and moving to Los Angeles, but didn't disclose the identity of her new employer until today. Preston Watamaniuk, Mass Effect series lead designer, will take Norman's place at BioWare. "I'm looking forward to working with Riot on innovative new approaches to game design and game development in the rapidly-changing video game market," Norman told Gamasutra. League of Legends and Riot are emblematic of these changes, as a free-to-play, microtransaction-based game developed by a company recently acquired by China's Tencent.
BioWare's Christina Norman defines goals for Mass Effect 3
In a panel titled "Where Did My Inventory Go? Refining Gameplay in Mass Effect 2," BioWare's Christina Norman talked about the radical changes made to the second chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy. A key goal for Mass Effect 2 was to introduce "more satisfying combat," with an "intense feel" missing from the first game. One of the admitted failures of the first Mass Effect game was the incongruity between its look and feel: it looked like a shooter, but it didn't exactly play like one. With that in mind, Norman decided that the team needed to focus on rebuilding the combat in its entirety for Mass Effect 2. "BioWare is strong on RPG and story," but "not so strong on shooter combat." BioWare needed to rebuild its gameplay core, because the game's "other features depend on shooter combat." The streamlined gameplay and GUI of Mass Effect 2 made it a huge critical success, but Norman pointed out some major criticisms from vocal members of the official BioWare forums. Threads titled "Mass Effect 2 is not an RPG" and "Gears of War with interactive dialogue" were highlighted as examples of fans disappointed by the strong shooting focus of the second game. As with the transition from the first Mass Effect to the second, BioWare is taking these criticisms to heart for the third game, with Norman hoping the third will offer "richer RPG features" and "more combat options." What we can probably expect less of, however, is the mining minigame, which Norman described as the part that "nobody liked."
GDC10: Massively set to appear on live Internet TV
Massively's own Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster will be appearing on Internet television today at 12pm PST live from GDC 2010. That's right, Gamebreakr with Gary Gannon is going to do a live streaming web show and this particular blogger thinks it'll be worth catching -- even if only so Shawn knows that countless people are staring at him while he's on air. Actually, the show's had plenty of interesting people from the gaming realm on already including CCP's Nathan Richardsson, President of SOE John Smedley and Christina Norman of BioWare. And, as our leader extraordinaire, Shawn will most definitely make for an interesting guest. We can't wait to see it! [Edit: see the recorded video after the jump]
Mass Effect 2's Soldier class really likes guns
Hey buddy, you like guns, right? Lots of guns? Good! The newest Mass Effect 2 trailer is meant just for you, then -- packed from top to bottom with bullets and explosives, lead gameplay designer Christina Norman discusses the gun-centric proclivities of the Soldier class. Did you know, for instance, that the Soldier is the only class that can use the assault rifle? We sure didn't! But look, to be totally honest, we're still a bit smitten with the Engineer class from a few weeks back. It's kind of hard to think about using another shotgun (yes, even a space shotgun) knowing there's a class with its own killer robot. That being said, if you're into that whole gun "thing," Mass Effect 2's Soldier is right up your alley. %Gallery-83063%
Mass Effect 2 dev profiles Sentinel class, the 'Jack of All Trades'
After Mass Effect 2 lead gameplay designer Christina Norman walked us through the Engineer class and it's sanguinary droid last week, we were wondering how BioWare could possibly appeal to our inner tactician any more. It appears that the developer sought to do just that with this week's introduction to the Sentinel. Skilled in both biotic skills (thats space magic, folks) and tech abilities, Norman says the Sentinel is "the only class that can blast through any enemy's defenses ... with or without your squad backing you up." With only a handful of weeks left before the game's January 26 release date, it won't be long before we get to find out exactly how adept the Sentinel is for ourselves. %Gallery-80283%
