Mass Effect - Story Interview @ IGN.AU

IGN.AU has interviewed BioWare's Drew Karpyshyn, the writer on Mass Effect who also wrote the novelisation Mass Effect: Revelation.  Here's an early question:

IGN: How much of the writing comes from one person, and how much is a collaborative effort?

Drew Karpyshyn: At BioWare the process is a combination of collaborative feedback and individual effort. The writers (and other key people, such as the Project Director and the Lead Designer) constantly discuss the overall story line. But each individual writer is assigned sections of the game to write. For Mass Effect, each planet has one primary writer who is responsible for the majority of writing on that world. However, all the writers review each other's work to offer suggestions and criticism, and as Lead Writer I also have to make sure there is a consistency of style across all the various levels. So on the one hand it's very individual - you write what you think works for your own areas - but on the other hand it's a very collaborative process, as everything you do has to fit in with the rest of the team and the larger overall story.