Mass Effect 2 confirmed?

Mass Effect 2 has apparently been confirmed via a session update on the official 2009 Game Developers Conference.

The site details a session, entitled “The Iterative Level Design Process of Bioware’s MASS EFFECT 2”, which will feature Corey Andruko (Project Manager, BioWare) and Dusty Everman (Lead Technical Designer, BioWare) as speakers.

From the site:

Session Description

This session examines the BioWare Mass Effect team’s new level-creation process, which is focused on maximizing iteration for quality while minimizing rework and cost. This approach to building levels strives to integrate the Design, Art, and Production teams such that the highest-risk level-creation issues are addressed early in the development cycle. Lessons learned from Mass Effect lead to a detailed description of the new level-creation process, and graphical examples of a level illustrate its progression through the necessary phases. The discussion also examines how BioWare is currently implementing this process using elements of Scrum and Lean Development.

Takeaway

Attendees will: – Gain insight into some of the major issues the development team encountered while building Mass Effect at BioWare; – Get a detailed look at the Mass Effect team’s new approach to creating levels while avoiding these issues; – Find out how this new process is working for the Mass Effect team; – Learn about new pitfalls the team discovered that can potentially be avoided on future game projects.

While Mass Effect 2 has never been officially confirmed to even be in existence by publisher EA, its existence has been expected following the success of the first game, released on Xbox 360 late 2007 and PC last year.

We’ve contacted EA for comment and will update as soon as we hear back.