Bioware's level & tech designer Jos Hendriks has been teasing the level design process for the upcoming Mass Effect - Andromeda.

　　Hendriks doesn't specifically mention the upcoming Mass Effect, but since his tweets mention missions, levels, writing and cinematic, its safe to assume that his teasing involves Andromeda. On top of that Hendriks tagged Mass Effect producer Michael Gamble in his teasing.

　　Incidentally, as a side effect of doing top-down layout stuff, @GambleMike gets to see it and hopefully thinks I know what I'm doing, too.

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

Connecting the dots

　　I have found that it's actually pretty handy to try and draw out a mission in top-down rough layout sketch to break down story beats. #space

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　Not only does it help me actively visualize what spaces the player will be going through, but also everyone working with me. #space

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　What if you need to be in a type A environment for scene 1 to work, but scene 2 requires a different kind of space? How do you connect them?

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　What kind of location is it? Does that dictate the general shape of how layouts work? (yes it does) Does the space connect naturally?

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　The connective tissue of a mission or level is almost just as important as the "setpiece" moments and scenes. It needs to be convincing.

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　Interestingly Hendriks uses the word 'space' in each of its tweets, probably referring to the space setting of Mass Effect, as well as using the term for his level design. In later tweets Hendriks talks about Matt Damon, probably hinting at Damon's new space movie 'The Martian'.

　　What if Matt Damon one day portrays a video game developer, and he sits down late one night at his desk and says to himself...

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　Hendriks' level design needs to be supported by the game's writers and the game's cinematics.

　　That is also to say, I spent my day today poring over mission notes, and constructing a layout on a whiteboard to put it together. #space

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　And now that layout is a picture in an email shared with all the people working on the mission, and we can use it as a point of reference.

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　Because my artist needs to get a cool moment to really make something awesome, and the writing needs to be supported, and cinematics.

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　The level designer jokes, that the team will just polish up the game's visuals, while imagining the rest into existence.

　　The reality isn't a lot of people under pressure to create something cool for sometimes years on end and hoping people will like it.

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　The reality is, of course, that we just polish up the graphics in level 3 with a gamepad, and just imagine everything into existence.

　　— Jos (@Sjosz) October 5, 2015

　　Bioware has been teasing a lot of Mass Effect over the past year. Unfortunately the developer doesn't show off much with regards to Andromeda. The last public showing was at the E3, where Bioware unveiled Mass Effect: Andromeda. Following the announcement Bioware’s Aaryn Flynn and Yanick Roy made a blogpost on the official Bioware blog “introducing Mass Effect: Andromeda”. According to Bioware: “they wanted to start with a foundation composed of the best parts of any Mass Effect game: exciting new worlds to discover, great characters, and intense action. At the same time, we clearly wanted to expand the definition of what you should expect from a Mass Effect game”.

Best and largest Mass Effect to date

　　Last week Bioware's Development Director Chris Wynn, sent out a tweet about the looks of the latest Andromeda build. According to Wynn the build is looking even better than the E3 teaser that Bioware showed off.

　　Mass Effect - Andromeda is scheduled for a release in the 4th quarter of 2016 . The game will be releasing for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.