Dragon Age: Dreadwolf completes Alpha milestone: What does that mean?
EarlEarlier this summer, EA and BioWare officially announced Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the newest chapter in the epic fantasy RPG. We saw a brief cinematic and learned a bit about the game’s overarching story. We also learned that it was still very early in development with BioWare confirming it would not be released this year.
What we did get this week, however, is an update on the game’s progress. BioWare celebrated the completion of the Alpha milestone. So what does that mean exactly? In the simplest terms, it means Dragon Age: Dreadwolf can now be experienced in its entirety.
Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience.
Keep in mind, that it being playable in its entirety does not mean its anywhere close to ready for release. It simply means they can now focus on different areas of the game, such as improving the visual fidelity and iterating on gameplay features. They’ll solicit feedback from various areas of expertise, including the quality verification team and extensive internal playtesting. Based on that feedback, they’ll know where to spend their time improving the game.
They can also focus on more specific gameplay-specific features such as “the game’s pacing, how relationships evolve over time, and the player’s progression, as well as narrative cohesion—essentially how the story comes together.”
Basically, now that the Alpha phase is complete, it’s all about refining the experience and polishing the different areas of the game like the actual gameplay and visuals.
Unfortunately, the celebration didn’t include any early gameplay look at Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
In addition to Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s Alpha milestone, BioWare also took some time to touch on some of the studio’s other projects. We know there’s a new Mass Effect game in development and it’s possible we could see more of that game on N7 Day next month. The studio also hinted at announcements for the next update of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
