Mark Darrah, a pivotal figure in the development of the Dragon Age series and co-director of Dragon Age: Origins, offered a glimpse into his personal gaming habits, revealing a surprising fondness for complex simulation titles and a thoughtful approach to game design that spans decades.
Darrah's early exposure to game design was shaped by titles like Command & Conquer, which he cites as a formative experience due to its pioneering cinematic storytelling and branching narratives. "The thing that probably affected me for the longest, the most deeply, was that you could do storytelling for real," Darrah stated. His career at BioWare, spanning 23 years, saw him contribute to foundational RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights before leading the Dragon Age franchise.
Now running a game design consultancy and active on YouTube, Darrah's insights extend beyond his development history.
Current Playtime and Programmer Archetypes
Darrah is currently spending considerable time with Factorio, particularly its new expansion, Space Age, playing alongside his son. He observes that the complex factory-building game serves as an unexpected diagnostic tool for programming styles. "If you want to know what kind of programmer someone would be, have them play Factorio for 25 hours and look at what their base looks like," he remarked. Darrah describes his own Factorio bases as "amoeba monstrosities," reflecting a pragmatic but less organized approach compared to his son's more structured designs.
He has played Factorio for over 12 years, noting its evolution into distinct gameplay phases. Darrah finds the initial phase of running around "excruciating," but appreciates the mid-game automation and the newer, more expansive late-game scenarios involving interplanetary construction.
Reflections on Past and Present Games
The most recent game Darrah played before this interview was Eternal Strands, a title he approached with a degree of personal connection due to his relationships with developers at Yellow Brick Games. He described its combat as reminiscent of Magicka, praising it as a strong debut for the studio.
When asked about the oldest game currently installed on his PC, Darrah identified Riven. Despite installing it with the intent to study its puzzle design, he admitted to having played only three minutes of the classic adventure game. Darrah noted that the puzzle-heavy nature of Riven stands in contrast to BioWare's long-standing philosophy of ensuring accessibility in puzzles, often providing in-game solutions.
Dragon Age: Origins, excluding remasters, is another game he keeps installed. Darrah explained that while he generally avoids playing games he's worked on after release, he does revisit them for his YouTube channel to capture footage and recall development memories. He highlighted a peculiar disconnect where he remembers significant portions of Dragon Age: Origins but has played a much smaller percentage of its content, recalling versions of levels that never made it into the final product.
Time Investment and Essential Software
Factorio boasts the highest number of hours on Darrah's Steam profile, with 832 hours logged. Other significant time sinks include two installations of Fantasy Grounds, a virtual tabletop simulator, and Civilization 6. Darrah explained his tendency to play games until he understands their core mechanics and design philosophy, often preferring shorter experiences like Unpacking that offer a clear learning opportunity in a few hours.
Despite his extensive gaming background, Darrah finds himself drawn to the strategic depth of Civilization, a series he has followed since its early installments.
While he uninstalls games infrequently, preferring to migrate them to new PCs, he stated that Factorio would be the first game he reinstalls on a new system. He also singled out PowerPoint as a crucial piece of non-gaming software. Darrah uses it extensively for creating documents and note-taking, influenced by EA's communication style and finding its forced brevity beneficial for conveying information concisely.
His desktop, surprisingly, remains relatively tidy due to a lack of direct use, though it currently hosts 54 icons, including several dead file links.