BioWare Veteran Says New Sci-Fi RPG Exodus Nearly Killed Him

"“As a creative you care about everything so much, and then as the head of the studio, you have to be cutting the baby in half all the time, and having people attack your vision constantly,” he said in a new wide-ranging interview with PC Gamer. “I definitely wouldn't put myself in that situation again; that's not a healthy place to be.”"

"Exodus is an ambitious RPG shooter where time dilation effects let you see the consequences of your actions play out across different worlds over the course of centuries. It also involves Matthew McConaughey, for some reason. Wizards of the Coast is funding the project, and would seemingly love to use its deep lore and vast world-building as a springboard for new tabletop RPGs, trading card games, and potential movie or TV spin-offs. The game is set to ship in 2027, making it a project that will have spanned a pandemic, three presidential administrations, and potentially multiple console generations."

"Ohlen detailed difficult contract negotiations with Peter Hamilton and challenging bureaucratic hoops at Wizards. It also sounds like heading up an entire new studio alongside being the creative lead on an entire new IP took its toll. “All the people I know that have headed up studios because they love it, and I hate it,” he said, adding that he struggled without a “hotshot executive producer” to help shield the creative side of Exodus ' production from the higher-ups."

"The game industry veteran is now working on a series of RPG adventure books with former BioWare creative dir"

James Ohlen, formerly lead designer at BioWare, left in 2018 to cofound Archetype Entertainment and work on the sci-fi RPG Exodus. He later left the studio before the game shipped under unclear circumstances and said the experience nearly killed him. He described the role of studio head as requiring constant compromise, with people attacking his vision and cutting creative ideas down repeatedly. He said he would not return to that situation because it was unhealthy. Exodus is an ambitious RPG shooter using time dilation to show consequences across centuries and includes major celebrity involvement. Wizards of the Coast funds the project and plans broader franchise expansion. Ohlen also cited difficult contract negotiations and bureaucratic hurdles, and said he struggled without an executive producer to protect the creative side.

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