Casey Hudson
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Former BioWare GM Casey Hudson starts new game studio
On Tuesday, Casey Hudson announced the existence of a new independent game developer called Humanoid Studios.
Credit-stealing space cows and other Mass Effect series facts
A new video from the folks over at Did You Know Gaming will take you on a space odyssey, as guest host Really Freakin Clever narrates little-known bits of trivia related to the Mass Effect series. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes information here that explores the series' origins, as well as why the iconic races look the way they do. The Krogan, for example, were created by combining attributes of bugs and bats, while Salarian scientist Mordin's grizzled look was inspired by Clint Eastwood. Oh, and then there's that shifty space cow out to steal your money. Yes, that is a real thing in the original Mass Effect. Want to see it in action and learn some more interesting facts? Check out the video after the break.
Mass Effect creator Casey Hudson leaves BioWare's orbit
Casey Hudson, longtime BioWare employee and executive producer of the Mass Effect series, has departed the company, Studio General Manager Aaryn Flynn revealed on the BioWare Blog. It doesn't sound like Hudson is leaving to join another company or, as is becoming increasingly common these days, forming his own studio, as a letter to his colleagues merely mentions the need to "hit the reset button." "While I feel that the time has come, this is without a doubt the most difficult decision of my career," Hudson wrote. "BioWare is as magical a place today as it was when I started. The projects we are working on are some of the most exciting and prestigious in the world. The talent in our teams is second to none. And the people here are some of my closest friends. I've spent more time with many of you than my own family, and I have enjoyed every day of it." As Hudson moves on to fulfill his own goals, BioWare is moving forward with Dragon Age: Inquisition, a new Mass Effect game, and consistently teasing us with short videos about super-powered teens. We look forward to learning more about all of the above. [Image: BioWare]
New Bioware universe coming from Mass Effect and KOTOR creators
That new fictional universe in production over at BioWare Edmonton has some pedigree behind it, namely the folks responsible for critically acclaimed Xbox classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. "Most of our core team that worked on SWKOTOR has been together throughout the Mass Effect series, and now our new IP project," Mass Effect producer Casey Hudson tweeted earlier this week. Hudson initially announced the project during a PAX East panel last March, but beyond the fact that it exists and is being worked on by an RPG-centric team, nothing else is known about the new property.
BioWare Edmonton and producer Casey Hudson working on 'a whole new fictional universe'
During a panel this weekend at PAX East, Mass Effect producer Casey Hudson revealed that his team at BioWare Edmonton has started work on "a whole new fictional universe." Other details weren't shared, except that Hudson said that he and BioWare's Senior Creative Director Preston Watamaniuk are going to be "building something new" together.Hudson oversaw Mass Effect 3 as an executive producer, and he says he'll still serve that role on the next Mass Effect title. But that game is being developed at BioWare Montreal, so Hudson's team at BioWare Edmonton has moved on to something completely new. Hopefully we'll hear more about it soon.
BioWare Montreal's Mass Effect game runs on Frostbite
BioWare Montreal was largely responsible for multiplayer in Mass Effect 3, with some additional input on the single-player side like the upcoming Omega DLC, but it looks like the studio is ready to undertake its own game in the series. In fact, it already has – the next Mass Effect is already in the works at BioWare Montreal."To ensure a proper and effective transition, we'll continue to be supported by the Edmonton studio through the game's development, working with and learning from them on some critical initiatives," BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy says in a blog post. Casey Hudson will still serve as executive producer from BioWare Edmonton, but the project director will be firmly entrenched in Montreal. Roy can't go into specifics on the new game, but he says it will be powered by Frostbite, which has been "enhanced by many of the systems that the Dragon Age III team has already spent a lot of time building."Roy also adds the team is looking to explore new gameplay avenues and story ideas – while paying respect to the heritage the original trilogy has built, it seems like the team at Montreal is looking for new directions to take the series in. "You can still expect the pillars the franchise is known for to be fully intact though, including diverse alien races, a huge galaxy to explore, and of course rich, cinematic storytelling," Roy adds.
BioWare GM outlines new Mass Effect, original game after upheaval
Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare Edmonton and Montreal, doesn't want fans to worry about passion or creativity within the studio following the retirement of BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk."I know this might be concerning for some of you but the leaders at BioWare have had some time to think about it – to think about how the games, the fans, and the creative teams would move on without the two guys who started this organization back in 1995," Flynn writes.He outlines the projects coming from BioWare, noting yesterday's reveal of Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, which has executive producer Mark Darrah at the helm.Casey Hudson, executive producer of the Mass Effect series, has plans for another full game within the Mass Effect universe. The next piece of DLC for Mass Effect 3 is Omega, due out in the fall.Hudson is also creating a brand new game, Flynn says: "While Casey continues to oversee the development of our new Mass Effect project, he and his leads are putting together their vision for an all new game set in a fictional universe, built from the bottom-up with all new gaming technology."Flynn closes the roundup with a nod to Muzyka and Zeschuk, and to BioWare as a resilient brand. "Ray and Greg built BioWare to last. They've always known their retirement would come one day, so they developed a team of people who would ensure their standards and culture would endure. We'll humbly carry that torch and continue learning in the process."To the Doctors: I wish you the very best, and we will always honor your legacy. The games we develop will always share your unique creativity and steadfast integrity."
Mass Effect 3 'Extended Cut' DLC free this summer, offers 'further clarity to the ending'
EA this morning announced Mass Effect 3's "Extended Cut" DLC, which adds to the game's ending and will arrive for free at some point this summer. According to the publisher, the content will add "additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes," which will apparently offer fans "further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3" and "deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes."The additional content comes as a response to a group of fans who felt the third game ended in an unsatisfactory manner. That outcry apparently had a serious effect at BioWare internally, as project lead Casey Hudson says the team has, "reprioritized [its] post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player."No specific information is given about what said content will be, but we sure hope it means we won't see other DLC packs delayed or scrapped as a result. Studio co-founder Ray Muzyka notes,"With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc."Extended Cut will arrive on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC "this summer." It will remain free for download until April 12, 2014, at which point who knows what'll happen.
Hudson: 'Your feedback has always mattered' in Mass Effect 3, even now
Franchise director Casey Hudson has previously spoken out in brief defense of the Mass Effect 3 endings, but now he's made it official in a written message that explains BioWare's dedication, passion and reverence for the series and the feedback it receives from fans -- all of it. Yes, even the popular "you deserve to be skinned alive, made into jerky and eaten by rabid goats" (paraphrased) feedback.Hudson avoids spoilers, but suggests finishing the game for yourself and forming your own conclusions before reading his missive: "For us and for you, Mass Effect 3 had to live up to a lot of expectations, not only for a great gaming experience, but for a resolution to the countless storylines and decisions you've made as a player since the journey began in 2007," Hudson writes. "So we designed Mass Effect 3 to be a series of endings to key plots and storylines, each culminating in scenes that show you the consequences of your actions. You then carry the knowledge of these consequences with you as you complete the final moments of your journey. "We always intended that the scale of the conflict and the underlying theme of sacrifice would lead to a bittersweet ending -- to do otherwise would betray the agonizing decisions Shepard had to make along the way. Still, we wanted to give players the chance to experience an inspiring and uplifting ending; in a story where you face a hopeless struggle for basic survival, we see the final moments and imagery as offering victory and hope in the context of sacrifice and reflection." Hudson stresses that the Mass Effect team takes fan feedback seriously and often incorporates it into the games directly, and says it is still listening to that response now. "Throughout the next year, we will support Mass Effect 3 by working on new content. And we'll keep listening, because your insights and constructive feedback will help determine what that content should be. This is not the last you'll hear of Commander Shepard."
Mass Effect 3 director defends DLC, endings with 'common sense'
Turns out Mass Effect 3 is controversial. Some people like its DLC, ending and storyline, some don't, and some want to see the entire BioWare team thrown into pools of mud and flogged for days to pay for the things they put in their own game. Franchise executive producer and director Casey Hudson seems to be taking the mixed reactions in stride, and even has some simple, logical reasons behind a few of the supposed scandals, such as Mass Effect 3's day-one DLC, From Ashes."I think a lot of the common sense is prevailing," Hudson told Digital Trends. "Initially, it was spun in a direction that suggested that we had taken the lore out of Mass Effect 3 and were holding it inside the DLC only, which now the people who actually have played Mass Effect 3 and the DLC they know that that's not true."From Ashes is an optional piece of content not integral to the main story, Hudson noted."When we finish a game, we finish it many months before it actually hits the shelves and that team goes on to work on something else that in those intervening months represent millions of dollars of development time.... So in this case, we chose to work on a DLC which people really enjoyed for Mass Effect 2 and we also wanted to make sure that people had it as an opportunity to build it into their first play-through if they wanted that as an optional thing."As for the ending, Hudson said he likes its mystery and interpretation possibilities, and having a reactive ending is better than one that falls flat and fades out. "I didn't want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people -- debating what the endings mean and what's going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in -- that to me is part of what's exciting about this story."
Mass Effect isn't done after ME3, says Hudson
Presumably, the universe will be saved at the end of Mass Effect 3, but it won't be the last we hear of the franchise, according to executive producer Casey Hudson. The staff at BioWare is "probably too busy to feel sad" about the end of its space-faring trilogy, Hudson recently told the UK's PlayStation 3 Magazine (via CVG). Not that there's anything to be sad about, as Hudson noted "there will be more Mass Effect for Mass Effect fans, I'm sure."We know that a Mass Effect anime is in the works, though more games are certainly a possibility, as are more comics and (hopefully error-free) books.
Mass Effect 3 campaign details from Casey Hudson offer you a choice
Mass Effect 3 begins with a choice among three different game modes -- story, roleplaying or action -- that will affect how the campaign plays out for each person. As BioWare executive produer Casey Hudson explains it to Game Informer, these choices are basically difficulty and auto-fill settings for people who expect different things from the Mass Effect experience. "You have to make a game with a certain design before you realize that there are different player types," Hudson said. "One of the surprising pieces of feedback was for some players, it's not that they don't like the story. They love story. In fact, the story is so important to them that they feel the story choices are intimidating. "So all these settings do is that they set some of the options on the option screen before you've played it and know what those options mean. Once you get in and start playing, you can change things." The story setting will make it more difficult to die and makes the action scenes easier, so players can mow through enemies, Hudson said. The action mode fills in default dialogue that grants players access to a lot of interesting things, but "it's not canon," Hudson said. "We have a rule in our franchise that there is no canon." If you decide to choose the inquisitive path, the rest of Hudson's interview is right here.
Mass Effect 3 will/won't have multiplayer, part 6: PC PowerPlay edition [update 2: it's co-op]
We're just being facetious at this point, but let's go through it one more time: Mass Effect 3's near-mythical multiplayer mode has been outed, obfuscated, rumored again, glamorized on a magazine cover and then leaked by retailer information. Today, we're back to the news being blurted out on a magazine cover, this time on a forthcoming issue of Australia's PC PowerPlay magazine. The PC PowerPlay website describes the issue's content as such: "We travel to BioWare's office in Edmonton for hands-on time with the series' first foray into online gameplay, and chat with Mass Effect Series Producer and Mass Effect 3 Project Director Casey Hudson about the decision to go multiplayer in the epic battle for the galaxy." They also underlined "war" on the cover, so you know it's serious. EA has yet to officially announce any multiplayer functionality (be it co-op, deathmatch or renegade death-chat), but it's practically an obligation at this point. And not just because of all the magazine covers -- publishers probably can't imagine releasing a third-person shooter, even one with RPG elements, without multiplayer in the year 2012. Update: Here comes OXM with the spectacular conclusion to "Mass Effect 3 will/won't have multiplayer." It will. Gasp! Update 2: Casey Hudson tweets that the multiplayer consists of co-op missions. There goes our dream for death-chat mode! [Thanks, Max.]
Meet James Vega, Mass Effect 3's newest human
To celebrate hitting 10,000 followers, Mass Effect 3's Executive Producer Casey Hudson tweeted the above picture of James Vega, a human Systems Alliance soldier and Commander Shepard's newest compatriot. According to the May 2011 issue of Game Informer, Vega is meant to embody the mindset of a new player entering the franchise: capable as a soldier, but unacclimated to the delicate and often deadly inner-workings of galactic politics. Beyond that, not much else is known about Vega, how he'll fit into the series' spiderweb of emotional character interaction, or what's happened to his porcelain mask and claws.
Legendary Pictures hosting Mass Effect movie panel at Comic-Con
Looks like the reports were true: Legendary Pictures has announced the contents of its very first San Diego Comic-Con panel, a list of films that notably includes the silver screen adaptation of BioWare's interstellar RPG, Mass Effect. According to the event's description, the panel will feature "Game creator, Casey Hudson and screenwriter adapting the game to film, Mark Protosevich," writer of I Am Legend and, more recently, Thor. We have so many questions we'd like to see answered at this panel. For instance, will they hire an actor who resembles our very own, Elephant Man-esque version of the game's protagonist, Accident Shepard? More importantly, is the film going to be, like, really terrible? Is Shepard going to have his very own wisecrackin' Hanar sidekick? Let us know, so we can start getting in a place where that kind of disappointment won't outright kill us.
Mass Effect 3 will have gay romance option for male Shepard
Mass Effect Executive Producer Casey Hudson has confirmed that the final installment of the trilogy will finally allow a male Shepard to know the touch of another man. Hudson tweeted over the weekend that Mass Effect 3 will support "wider options for love interests," including same-sex for male and female characters "reactive to how you interact with them in-game." Previous installments of the stellar, interstellar saga allowed Shepard to participate in male/female, lesbian and Asari tentacle-head encounters. The omission of a gay pairing for Shepard became even harder to reconcile when BioWare's Dragon Age series allowed players the freedom to define the sexual orientation of their protagonists. In interviews, BioWare heads Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have been responsive to the subject. "The team has its perspective," Muzyka told us during February's DICE meeting. "When they created the character, when they defined him. We're pretty open to how the team wants to define their characters. We go with what they like." It seems the team is ready to try something different.
Mass Effect the MMO?
Could Mass Effect be an MMO? In a recent interview with Game Informer, Executive Producer Casey Hudson of BioWare says that the intellectual property makes sense for an MMO. We know that many Massively readers would absolutely pick up a multiplayer version of the series. Do the producers of the game think it is possible to transport the Mass Effect universe to the MMO space? Hudson told Game Informer, "We've been trying to think of a way that makes sense for people to experience Mass Effect with their friends. We haven't yet come up with a way to do that, so we don't have anything to announce at this time. But, obviously, multiplayer is something we want to do more of in the future as a company." We have to assume that Commander Shepard saves the galaxy once and for all at the end of Mass Effect 3, which comes out later this year. Is that world going to be interesting enough to continue? Hudson thinks so: "I think Mass Effect has that quality to it. If you get rid of the Reapers and win that, wouldn't it be amazing to just live on the Citadel or just take a ship to Omega? That makes sense." Whatever the case, we will have to wait for Mass Effect 3 to come out before any sort of official announcement, but that doesn't mean we can't hold out hope.
Half of Mass Effect 2 players imported a save (and other stats!)
Mass Effect 2 Executive Producer Casey Hudson has shared some juicy statistics about the game with IGN. Basic takeaways are that people really did treat the game as a "shooter," with the soldier class chosen more than every other combined. Also, the women's lib movement for intergalactic saviors still has some work to do, with 80 percent of players choosing the male Shepard. The "anonymous player data" collected by BioWare is obviously meant to inform the studio in designing future titles. For example, players skipped 15 percent of conversations in the game, most of the time in "non-critical moments like in the hub worlds." Hudson says that if the company found people skipping 80-90 percent of the lines that they'd have to "reevaluate the work" the team put into digital acting -- and we'd have to reevaluate why people are playing Mass Effect in the first place. Check out IGN's piece for more on how the stats support current decisions and influence future projects. %Gallery-100178%
New Mass Effect 2 DLC 'Overlord' welcomed in June
Overlord, the next content expansion for Mass Effect 2, was apparently revealed yesterday at Electronic Arts' European showcase event in London. According to Gamerzines, ME2 director Casey Hudson described the DLC as "five levels set across one story on one planet," with players battling through a laboratory (and occasionally piloting the Hammerhead tank) to defeat an artificial intelligence. There is currently no price nor official release date. Hudson also announced that no new squad mates would be added in the DLC, nor would there be in any future DLC. We'll be sure to update as soon as EA makes a formal announcement with more details. Update: The official Mass Effect 2 website has posted a more detailed description of the scenario (reproduced after the break), along with the price: 560 MS/BioWare points ($7). [Via VG247]
'Tremendous' amount of interest in Mass Effect film, BioWare says
[Image credit: Danny McL] "Huh?" you say, confused by the very prospect of the Mass Effect trilogy getting the film treatment. Don't worry buddy, we're right there with you. The BioWare space RPG may be getting said treatmentt, though, according to Mass Effect 2 project director Casey Hundson in a recent interview with MTV. "Obviously we have a tremendous amount of interest from people in Hollywood to make a major motion picture about Mass Effect," Hudson said. Thankfully, Hudson followed up his statement with a conditional position for the possibility of a Mass Effect film. "The most important thing for us is, we don't just want to see a movie get made ... we want to see a great movie get made, if it's going to get done at all." We have but one humble request should a movie ever be made of the series: it goes fully 3D -- if only for text trees in the third dimension. %Gallery-70022%
