Dragon Age Developer James Ohlen Has New Studio

James Ohlen, a creative director, designer, and writer behind beloved BioWare titles such as Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins, will be leading a studio in Austin, Texas. It will called Arcanum Worlds and will be developing games for Wizards of the Coast.

Ohlen retired from BioWare last year, but Wizards of the Coast was able to pull him back into game development.  Olen explained that both of their loves for RPG’s, world-building, and interactive storytelling made the pairing a great fit for both parties.

Ohlen told Gamesindustry:

I had pretty well turned down most opportunities for interviews to get back into the industry, but I talked to Wizards of the Coast president Chris Cocks and he gave me a scenario that was very intriguing and interesting. It was like the scene out of The Godfather where it was an offer that was too good to refuse.”

However, Arcanum Worlds’ new games won’t be based on Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights. They will be completely original projects not inspired by Wizards of the Coast’s properties.

As Arcanum Worlds will be developing new projects, Ohlen said he doesn’t want to have a workaholic environment. He noted that he has a family and other commitments. He specially said, “Obviously I want to create an environment and a studio that is one people enjoy coming into, where they’re not working themselves to death and are able to have a family life.” He also said he wanted creative control. He noted that the less you have, the more work it can become to create a project.

The studio seems to in its infancy. Ohlen said that he’s pretty sure that Wizards of the Coast wants Arcanum Worlds to be a AAA studio. However, there are currently no plans regarding Arcanum Worlds’ growth, and there isn’t a timeline in place.

While we wait for any video game news from Arcanum Worlds, it has already embarked on one adventure. It began a Kickstarter for a Dungeons & Dragons expansion book called Odyssey of the Dragonlords on April 16, 2019. While its initial goal was $50,000, it has already passed $191,000 as of April 24th.

[Source: Gamesindustry]