BioWare: We won’t use ‘bolt it on’ Kinect features

If and when BioWare decides to use Kinect functionality in one of its games, it will do so in a thoughtful manner. That’s the situation as presented by the studio’s CEO and co-founder, Dr Ray Muzyka.

Dr Muzyka and his partner, Dr Greg Zeschuk, were speaking to VideoGamer.com at an EA showcase event, held in Greenwich earlier this week. As part of a lengthy conversation on Microsoft’s new toy we asked the pair about whether they would include Kinect functionality in their games.

“You could bolt it on, do it as afterthought, kind of ‘Hey, Ta-dah! It’s Kinect-enabled! Check!’ Well, that’s not how we would do it,” said Dr Muzyka.

“We would actually try to think about how you do it in a way that actually makes the game better, and how you do it in a way that if you’re not expecting the gamer to have a Kinect, they can play it with a usual controller interface, or with a keyboard and mouse on PC. How do you make it work so that it’s really, really good on all of those?”

The developer added that user interface is always a major focus point for BioWare titles, with each UI being built from the ground up in each case – even when dealing with the same game on different platforms.

“We do what we need to make our games awesome and accessible to play. So if we design a Kinect game or a Move game… we haven’t anything on that front, but if we were to at some point in the future, we’d do it really thoughtfully.”

But Dr Zeschuk playfully tried to undermine his partner’s spirited claim. “Aren’t we doing a BioWare Dance Dance Dragon Age Revolution?” he quipped.

For the record, both men seemed fairly impressed by Microsoft’s ambitions with Kinect.

“It’s a really interesting channel,” said Dr Zeschuk. “Microsoft is trying to crack a really big nut with this thing.”

Kinect for Xbox 360 launches in the UK on November 10.