Designing KOTOR and Mass Effect Trilogy | John Winski

John Winski joined BioWare in 1995 and helped bring some of its most beloved worlds to life, working on Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and the Mass Effect trilogy. John joins me for a conversation about building KOTOR’s Tatooine and Kashyyyk, creating encounters across Mass Effect, and the technical challenges behind moments players still remember. We also discuss early BioWare culture, the personal cost of crunch, and his perspective on EA’s acquisition and the studio’s changing direction. Along the way, we get into SWTOR, our experiences playing these games, tabletop gaming, and John’s transition from making games to teaching the next generation of developers. A conversation about the games, the people who built them, and what that work meant on both sides of the screen.