Now that action-heavy RPGs with branching stories based on player decisions are a lot more common than they were in 2007, what’s it like to reintroduce Mass Effect to the genre that it really helped popularize? You have to trust your instincts as a developer because at the end of the day, you’re going to have to make the call, but having that sort of affirmation and critical feedback on certain things is critical. Once we had the game to a point where we were pretty confident in the direction we were heading, we started bringing them into the fold and saying “We’re going to share with you what we’re doing,” to really try to get some feedback from them. One of the other key things we did was form what we call the “Community Council” of people from the modding community, streamers, cosplayers, and just people who we knew would be passionate and care deeply about those changes. You can start to create a sort of fan wish list without necessarily going out and engaging with the fans, because we wanted to maintain some level of secrecy around it. From that, you can start to gauge what people would change and what they already have changed within the modding community that’s had a really positive reception.
MAC WALTERS PC
Fans have been asking for this for a long, long, long time, so we have a community out there that’s been modding the PC version for years. You’re in this weird sort of zone where you want people to notice the things you’re doing - that’s just the nature of being a creative developer - but at the same time, you just want them to pick it up and go “Oh, yeah, this is just how I remember it.” So it’s only when they see it side by side, that they go “OK, I really see what you did there.” But on Mass Effect specifically, there were quite a few things we did. We’re not just remastering games and products, we’re remastering people’s memories of those games and the experience that they had. It’s very gratifying to see.Ĭonsidering that the first game is almost 14 years old now, how did you go about making it feel modern while still staying true to the original? When you’re remastering something that beloved - and also that critically acclaimed - one of the things people say is “Oh, you’re starting from this amazing foundation.” But my cynical nature looks at it as “Yeah, that means we have a really small margin of error, and anything we change is more likely to be a change for the worse - or at least a lateral move that could be perceived as worse by a large, large percentage of people.” So it means a lot of pressure in releasing it, but having it out there now and seeing the response - seeing old fans coming back in and new fans picking it up for the first time - is a huge moment, and obviously a bit of a relief. Mac Walters: I would say there was more pressure than just releasing any other single title because of the anticipation, the expectation, and the reception of the original trilogy. SPIN: Knowing how these remasters were anticipated and how people love the originals, was there any additional pressure in feeling like “OK, we have to get these right”?
MAC WALTERS MAC
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