Dark Horse Comics and BioWare are partnering on a different publishing model for an extremely exciting project. New Dragon Age comics are coming and they are exclusive to our Digital store beginning Feb. 22nd. We sat down with the writer David Gaider to chat a little bit about the upcoming series.
Dark Horse Comics: What's the most rewarding part about working on Dragon Age comics?
David Gaider: After working for so long in narrative design for video games and then getting the chance to try my hand at novel-writing, it’s fascinating to see the differences in storytelling from yet a third medium. Comics offer some of the benefits of collaboration you receive in game design, such as being able to see what life other people bring to the things you imagined, but it’s much more immediate. It’s quite the opportunity, and one not every writer gets the chance to take.
DHC: What challenges did you run into writing the DA comics?
DG: Primarily that, while I’ve plenty of experience reading comics, I’ve no experience writing them. From the outside it doesn’t seem like it would be all that much work (what’s 22 pages, after all?), but that’s what everyone says about big tasks which they know nothing about before they find themselves neck-deep. Trying to figure out exactly how much story will translate into a specific number of panels, and yet still leave some freedom for the artist, is harder than you’d think. It involves a few more cinematic elements than you’d expect. Thankfully I’m spared the task of actually turning the story outline into a script (that’s handled by Alex Freed), but even that I would like to someday try.
DHC: Dragon Age has an incredibly dynamic world built around it. Are there new locales you get to explore in the comics or would like to?
DG: Absolutely! One of the restrictions you encounter in game design is that nothing’s as easy to show as you’d like. Any location needs hundreds of man-hours to build a model for, so unless we can justify the work we can’t casually bring the player wherever our fancy takes us. The idea that I could go to locales in Thedas we’ve only mentioned without having to worry about the budget… what isn’t attractive about that? The comics will absolutely take fans of Dragon Age to places they’ve never seen. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
DHC: What do you hope readers take away from the new DA comics?
DG: I hope they’ll enjoy visiting some old friends who find themselves in new adventures—and maybe learn a secret or two about the Dragon Age universe that they won’t get anywhere else. Not even in the games.
DHC: If you had a super power, what would it be?
DG: The ability to speak through the radio of other cars. I tend to yell at people in traffic before I think to honk my horn. It would be nice if they heard me… and, hey, maybe it would even freak them out. Could you imagine driving and having your radio start speaking directly to you, like the voice of God? Maybe they would panic and swerve off the road. That would also be to my benefit.
Alternatively, I’d like the power to make the world around me break out into choreographed musical dance numbers. If I’m feeling depressed, a lively Bollywood musical in the BioWare halls would be just the thing. And if anyone complained about all the interruptions, I’d threaten to make them a shumka dancer in the next production. That would learn them.
I’m probably thinking too much about this question.