BioWare actually made Mass Effect Andromeda in 18 months

Most of Mass Effect: Andromeda was developed in a year and a half, Kotaku writes in a reconstruction of the development process. BioWare suffered a major delay after its plan to procedurally generate an infinite number of planets.

BioWare wanted to make a fresh start with Mass Effect and decided five years ago to start development at BioWare Montreal, which until then had made Mass Effect 3’s Omega expansion. The initial plans involved BioWare veterans, who decided that the new installment should not contain a Reaper threat or Commander Shepard, but be focused on discovery.

This gave BioWare the idea of ​​procedurally generating planets, which would open up infinite possibilities for discovery. This idea came before No Man’s Sky was announced, which procedurally generates planets. By 2013, Mass Effect: Andromeda had gone into pre-production, but soon the problems started.

For example, the question was how the idea of ​​procedurally generated planets could be combined with a storyline. In addition, there were problems with the Frostbite engine, which did not have enough tools for creating an RPG. In 2014, conflicts arose between employees of BioWare Montreal and Edmonton. By the end of 2014, at least twelve key Montreal employees had left and by no means all positions were filled. The animation team in particular was understaffed. In addition, at the end of 2015, BioWare came to the conclusion that procedurally generating planets was not feasible.

Game site Kotaku has spoken to many developers who claim that most of the game was developed from late 2015 to March 2017. The last few months would not have been spent polishing the game, as usual, but keeping all the parts together. Mass Effect: Andromeda received mixed reviews upon release. The game had a lot of bugs and seemed unbalanced.