David Gaider

One former Dragon Age writer would love for Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian to pick up the torch of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age veteran David Gaider has hit back against his former publisher's apparent "hunger" for AI development tools, referencing developer BioWare's biggest failure to do so.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the next entry in the series of beloved dating sims with rpgs crudely affixed with Blu Tack to their walls, is set to arrive by the end of March next year. That’s according to an updated product slate released as part of a recent quarterly earnings report, as spotted by VGC and given the Jeff Grubb seal of approval.

Hot on the heels of the breakout success of The Last of Us and Fallout TV shows, many are wondering which video games would make a great pick for the next great series. Dragon Age is often suggested as a good candidate for the TV show treatment, but according to its co-creator, that would be a “terrible idea.”

David Gaider, the former leader writer of the incredibly popular Dragon Age franchise has revealed that he doesn’t think creating a TV adaptation based on the series would be a great idea. The success of the recently released Fallout live-action series on Amazon Prime has gotten a lot of fans speculating about other popular games, like Dragon Age, that might result in a solid screen adaptation.

The lead writer of BioWare's Dragon Age series has shared what games he thinks will make a great TV adaptation, and the BioWare RPG isn't one of them.

A tweet from film critic Darren Lucas, asking what people would like to see adapted after the enormous success of Fallout, has been making the rounds, and former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider himself responded.

David Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age's setting, has spoken out against the current state of the games industry, and the "fear" developers have of needing to crunch to make enormous games as if it's the only way forward. He believes that "it doesn't have to be that way," but that if it did, "maybe the industry deserves to die."

Amid the altogether glowing launch reception for Baldur's Gate 3, which went on to win just about every GOTY award under the sun and which we also put at the summit of the best games of 2023, there were a fair few reviews and posts from long-time CRPG fans who argued that Larian's take on the series felt more like a Divinity game than a Baldur's Gate game. That's not necessarily calling it bad – the Divinity games are beloved, after all – but perhaps it just doesn't feel like the Baldur's Gates of old. And I remember similar conversations around Baldur's Gate 3's early access launch about three years ago.

Game developer veterans from RPG companies like Obsidian and Bioware say that the temporary death of the CRPG in the early 2000s was down to retailer meddling, as outlined in a series of tweets made just before the holidays.

Genre veterans have explained how retail companies (Best Buy, Walmart, GameStop, and more) contributed to the death of isometric role-playing games. 

The creator of Dragon Age has weighed in on a Baldur's Gate 3 debate about the difference between choices made by an RPG's hardcore fans and those made by the wider playerbase - suggesting that there was often a wide gulf between the decisions of each group.

Woe, woe unto the poor marketing teams of BioWare, who had the misfortune to release their latest Dragon Age: Dreadwolf video hours before the leak of the GTA 6 trailer. The Dragon Age trailer is just a teaser, with a full reveal coming in summer 2024, but it sheds some light on the new RPG's setting, and introduces a rather menacing character who sounds like Patrick Stewart - BioWare have yet to reveal the actor.

Humble Games, the Humble Bundle-owned label responsible for publishing indie hits including Slay the Spire, Signalis, Unpacking, Temtem and this year’s recently Grammy-nominated RPG musical Stray Gods, have confirmed a number of layoffs.

Cult of the Lamb, Unpacking, Heavenly Bodies, The Artful Escape, Moving Out, Untitled Goose Game, Hollow Knight. Standout indie games made in Australia have been abundant in the past few years. And Stray Gods is very much following in these footsteps this year.

For many reasons, Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the most talked about games of 2023. Along with its fantastic role-playing mechanics and its award-winning story, it also brought greater interest to the CRPG sub-genre - and now many are looking ahead to what this means for CRPGs going forward. Following the win for Ultimate Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023, Larian Studios founder and CEO Swen Vincke spoke with GamesRadar+ to talk about the game and his hopes for the CRPG sub-genre following the BG3's success. "We've always been very focused on just making our game, and a lot of people have attached a lot of things to that because the game turned out the way that we wanted it to be," said Vincke in response to industry attention for their game and CRPGs.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare had laid off 50 employees on the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf team, including former Baldur's Gate lead writer Lukas Kristjanson, who had worked there for the past 25 years. Almost two months on, several former BioWare employees are now suing for inadequate severance pay.

A former BioWare veteran wishes that the studio had done a better job differentiating between their two hit series: Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Everyone remembers the lovely romantic relationships in Dragon Age, but the series’ former lead writer, David Gaider, actually wasn’t a fan of writing these intimate storylines at first.

Dragon Age writer David Gaider has said Baldur's Gate 3's romances feel "like the work I was doing 10 years ago," but that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

Baldur's Gate 3 was released around a month ago to massive critical and commercial acclaim. In case that wasn't enough, Larian Studios got the approval of cRPG veteran David Gaider, who worked on Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and all of the Dragon Age games. Gaider said on Twitter that Baldur's Gate 3 managed to resurrect the feeling of the first two installments in every way, proving to be a worthy successor.

Over the past week, dataminers have been rifling through Baldur's Gate 3's code and have discovered a dragon's hoard of alleged "cut content". It's hard to specify what they've unearthed without accidentally sounding the Major Spoilers trumpet and initiating Armageddon, but the supposed buried offerings include additional areas, swathes of dialogue, storylines, cutscenes, characters, romance opportunities and even deities. Given just how much Larian's gargantuan RPG gives you to play with, I am kind of thankful for a generous amount of stuff being "left out" - certainly, I don't need any more romanceable NPCs, I'm already fending them off with a broomhandle. But the news has gone down badly with a few players, and especially those who feel the game's overall quality takes a dive in acts 2 and 3.

Baldur's Gate veteran and Dragon Age creator David Gaider has outlined their experience with cut content, after Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian addressed the issue in a recent update. 

Dragon Age writer and Baldur's Gate 2 dev David Gaider has finally finished Baldur's Gate 3, and like countless other fans, he reckons it's "a worthy successor" to BioWare's CRPGs.

Dragon Age's lead writer has taken to Twitter (sorry, X) to sing the praises of Baldur’s Gate 3. Having completed the game, David Gaider has made clear to the world his appreciation for the writing skill, and the love and care the devs at Larian Studios have put into the vast branching narratives of this true Game Of The Year contender. 

BioWare recently announced that it will be letting go of around 50 employees in a fresh round of layoffs, as it looks to become a more “agile” studio, and as it turns out, the list of people who’ll be departing the company as a result includes quite a few notable ones.

As part of its recently publicised cutbacks, BioWare has «let go of» Lukas Kristjanson, the lead writer behind Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, and the writer of the first three Dragon Age games, Mary Kirby.

BioWare writer Lukas Kristjanson, who has worked at the studio for more than 25 years, has been laid off. This comes as 50 developers lose their jobs at BioWare, despite having at least two huge games in development: Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 5.

A writer on the original Baldur's Gate has shared their surprise at stumbling upon a character they helped create as they explored Baldur's Gate 3.

BioWare is laying off 50 employees, studio manager Gary McKay announced yesterday. No mention of what roles were being made redundant was made at the time, only that the studio's «commitment remains steadfast» when it comes to the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. That's hard to believe now, in light of the fact that writer Mary Kirby, who gave the world the hairy-chested Varric, is among those looking for new employment. 

Dragon Age and Mass Effect’s storied developer BioWare have laid off around 50 employees, including veteran devs who had been with the company for 20 years, in what they call a “shift towards a more agile and more focused studio.” The reasoning behind the job cuts has a now-rote focus on efficiency that sadly echoes other redundancy announcements from this year - including ones from other widely admired studios like Firaxis and CD Projekt Red.

Devora Wilde, the voice actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Lae'zel, has responded to players' mean tweets about her character. 

The voice actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's least-favorite companion has reacted to players' mean tweets about the character, and it's hilarious. 

The race to see which Baldur's Gate 3 speedrunner can get to the game's first sex scene the fastest is heating up quickly.

Dragon Age writer David Gaider has defended Baldur's Gate 3's Lae'zel — the game's least popular companion — stating that fandoms are more forgiving of male characters.

For the most part, everyone loves the Baldur's Gate 3 gang. Whether it's Karlach's contagious enthusiasm or Astarion's bad-boy charms, most players can find something they like about their companions. The exception to this rule is Lae'zel, who appears to be the most unpopular party member by far.

It seems that every Baldur's Gate 3 player is coming to the same obvious conclusion: the best character in the game is Karlach, the extremely hot (and also hot) Tiefling Barbarian.

Dragon Age writer David Gaider has defended Baldur's Gate 3 companion Lae'zel, stating that the female characters in games always receive more criticism than the male ones.

The co-creator of the Dragon Age franchise has commented on the reaction to one of Baldur’s Gate 3’s main female characters, saying fans “always treated male characters with more forgiveness”.

Dragon Age writer David Gaider says female characters receiving more criticism than their male counterparts is "very much a Thing" in games. 

Flush with nerves ahead of the pending release of his new studio's first game, Dragon Age writer David Gaider is, like many of us, finding comfort in Baldur's Gate 3 and its sheer commitment to the bit.

Growing up, musicals were a huge part of my life, from performing Charlie & the Chocolate Factory as an elementary student to co-writing a rendition of Romeo & Juliet as a modern-style musical for the local area. As a huge musical theatre fan, the idea of a musical game in Stray Gods is an exciting idea.

We’ve seen some unusual genre combinations, but Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical immediately caught my eye for being a supernatural murder mystery visual novel musical; as far as I can tell it’s a one-of-a-kind video game, but an idea that we can only hope will become more common because of how boldly bonkers it is. There’s a magical moment when characters – both mortals and the gods of Greek myth – burst into song and you can choose your response, which impacts how your character feels, affects how other people respond, and even changes the lyrics of the tune you’re helping create. Musical battles evolve to a whole new level when you can decide who sings and how they’re expressing their emotions. Inevitably, the initial thrill of choice starts to wear off the more you play, and the story and characters’ predictability make the overall experience fall a little flat, but even so, it has plenty of wonderful art and top-notch voice acting to keep you entertained through it all.

The stage was set for a cow and a witch to fall in love. The stage in question was inside the actors’ minds and alternated between a shoddy, makeshift replication of a Romeo and Juliet backdrop and a glamorous setup ripped straight from Beauty and the Beast. One wrong line could have transformed the budding romance into an unspeakable tragedy, but with the right balance of emotional honesty and empathetic listening, Asterion the Minotaur and Hecate the witch walked away happy.

Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider has a new game coming from his new studio, and while it is officially an RPG, Gaider says it's not the kind of RPG you're probably thinking of.