Dragon Age creative director John Epler revealed that the game’s horses lied to us the entire time thanks to the magic of creative thinking and camera angles.
On the eve of Age of the Dragon 4there are more and more gems related to the beloved action RPG game Dragon Age Inquisition. on Twitter fast (opens in a new tab)Epler shared some hard truths about how sprinting on horseback doesn’t actually make you go faster.
In fact, the game engine that BioWare developed Dragon Age Inquisition called Frostbite “couldn’t stream levels fast enough,” said Epler. This meant the team was forced to change the camera angle and add a speed line when you started running on a horse to make it feel like you were faster.
Engine failure
This isn’t the only time Frostbite has let the development team down. According to [report] by Kotaku, the engine has been the bane of many developers’ existence. “Frostbite is like an internal engine with all the problems that come with it – it’s poorly documented, hacked and so on – with all the problems with the engine coming from outside,” said a former BioWare employee.
BioWare also used Frostbite in its online multiplayer RPG Anthem. This engine could create vast and stunning levels, but it wasn’t up to the finer details. This forced the team to reduce many features that couldn’t work because of the engine.
More lies
While the lie about the horse’s speed is certainly reality-shattering to me, it’s not the only slip-up Dragon Age Inquisition. This RPG has a rather complicated story with rogue mages, civil war, and a space-curving rift that breaks the line between the physical world and the Void, home to ghosts and demons. But one of the most important plot points is the mark left on your character’s hand, which is the only thing capable of closing said rifts.
As you might think, this vivid green mark immediately gives the character the characteristics of the main character and takes him right into the middle of this violent story. So I was quite surprised to see this iconic and powerful mark on the wrong hand in all of the Dragon Age: Inquisition marketing material. The posters show a glowing green light emanating from the Inquisitor’s right hand, when according to the game it should be on the left.
While it’s not as groundbreaking as finding out my horse had been lying to me all these years, I always thought it was a weird slip-up. I’ve seen a few reasons why it was a silent nod to The Legend of Zelda and Link having the same pose, while others just think it can be difficult to tell right from left at times. Either way, it adds to the oddly growing list of lies and bloopers in Dragon Age Inquisition, and I think it’s hilarious.