Mark Darrah on Games

I'm Mark Darrah. Let's Talk Games. I worked at BioWare from 1997 to 2021
Working in the game industry?
Looking to start?
Just curious about how things work?
Listen to someone with over 20 years of experience.

I worked at BioWare for 23 years. All of that directly in game development.
Turns out you can apply a lot of the lessons I learned to your everyday
From 1997 until 2008 I worked as a programmer, focused mostly on gameplay systems
From 2007 until 2021 I was an Executive Producer, leading projects

Games I worked on (That were released):
Baldur's Gate (1998)
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)
Baldur's Gate II (2000)
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001)
Neverwinter Nights (2002)
Jade Empire (2005)
Mass Effect (2007)
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (2008)
Dragon Age: Origins (2009)
Dragon Age II (2011)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)
Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
Anthem (2019)
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024)
... And some other things ...


Mark Darrah on Games

My internet is eating itself again… hopefully it is something outside of the house for once.

3 days ago | [YT] | 41

Mark Darrah on Games

Not a great month…

1 week ago | [YT] | 157

Mark Darrah on Games

Operation make 2 videos this week is going terribly…
But I’m at the airport at 3 am so that’ll help, right?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 36

Mark Darrah on Games

I DO NOT know what is going on with my internet.
I have good upload and download speeds but just randomly SUPER high pings.
I suspect I am getting packet loss but it isn't happening where I thought it was.
So live streaming remains problematic right now.
We shall climb higher up the network architecture and see if its there...

1 month ago | [YT] | 55

Mark Darrah on Games

Someone at the mall today was convinced I was ‪@Dantible‬
I guess now I have no choice but to take over the tri-state area!
...
Do I need a work visa for that?

1 month ago | [YT] | 66

Mark Darrah on Games

Not sure when I will be able to do a live stream next.
My internet is fast but has been REALLY spotty recently.
And I'm not sure why.

2 months ago | [YT] | 45

Mark Darrah on Games

One consequence of the “jobs” I have these days is that my days get really chopped up.
It has made ramping back up to be a real dev again very tricky.

2 months ago | [YT] | 95

Mark Darrah on Games

My copyright warning is gone but now the stream is " blocked in some territories due to one or more copyright claims" But it doesn't say which territories.
I don't REALLY care at this point, but this is FAR from an ideal process

2 months ago | [YT] | 100

Mark Darrah on Games

YouTube rejected my copyright warning appeal.
Again, I was streaming All Quiet on the Western Front
A movie from 1930 in the PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Given the text of the rejection it seems pretty clear that a human did NOT look at the appeal.
This shouldn’t be a big deal but it is really irritating me..

2 months ago | [YT] | 260