CAUSE AND EFFECT

Bioware Montreal producer Michael Gamble on building a brand new galaxy and overhauling Mass Effect’s older systems

OPM: Mass Effect’s always been about its mainline story, so what is Andromeda’s core, central theme? Michael Gamble: The premise is about galactic exploration. It’s much like modern day Elon Musk-ism, which is: “I wonder if we can get here? I wonder if we can do that?” Andromeda is a human story, but much like on Earth where we would have people from all walks of life join these expeditions, the same thing happens in the Milky Way – all different types of races join this expedition, and we do it as one concerted effort as opposed to separate people doing separate things. We do so because we know it won’t be easy on the other side. There’s no animosity [in the team]. Everyone is doing this for the common good and for the same reason, which is: “Let’s find somewhere else to go.” OPM: Without that immediate extinction threat is it hard to keep the stakes high? MG: Once you get to Andromeda, the situations you’re put in will definitely lead to different levels of conflict between everyone who’s there! We’re using it as just a great, new starting point for all these different types of stories that can be told, and we get to do it with all these old Milky Way races who you know and love. It gives us a lot to start with. OPM: How do you design the galaxy so that it feels appreciably different? MG: The Heleus Cluster is a different place to the Milky Way; from the art style to the food sources to how creatures look. We’ve built that into the visual look and we’ve built that into the narrative. Everything is slightly different. You still get that commonality of Milky Way reliability and architecture and ship design that you’ve brought with you, but it juxtaposes with these new things. OPM: Have you been able to go really crazy with the new alien designs? MG: We try to bring in all different types of creatures. We bring in quadrupeds, bipeds, flying creatures… We want to make the new enemies of Heleus as distinct and unique and cool as possible! The best thing we can do is put ourselves in the role of an archeologist who’s digging up ancient things, and trying to imagine what that culture would have been like and to project that out. Even here on Earth, there are so many opportunities to learn about new cultures and new people. OPM: The decision to step away from the Paragon/Renegade system feels brave… MG: We’re trying to capture the grey areas of choice. One person’s Renegade may be another person’s Paragon, depending on what that person’s worldview is. There is no concrete idea of good and evil, black and white, so we want to get away from that a bit. We want to make sure we texture conversations with different levels of tone and different levels of choice in the responses that you actually pick. OPM: How do relationships progress now? MG: As naturally as possible. You’re always looking for opportunities in the dialogue to be flirtatious, or colder –and that should be obvious. By just reading the dialogue you’ll know if you’re taking it to the next level. OPM: How big are Andromeda’s planets? MG: I’ll be honest – we’re still tweaking the size of those worlds because we want to create experiences that have the right density and amount of content in it. So, if I were to say to you right now, something will take you 50 minutes to drive across, in two months from now it might take you 30. Or 60. We’re trying to see where the limits are, and we don’t want to make something too small where there’s not enough exploration, but we also don’t want to make it too big where it’s empty and lifeless. We want to find that balance.

“WE’RE TRYING TO CAPTURE THE GREY AREAS OF CHOICE IN CONVERSATIONS.”