BioWare - Engines

Engines

BioWare created the Infinity Engine, which was used as a core component for development of 2D role-playing video games based on Dungeons & Dragons, such as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. For their game Neverwinter Nights, launched in 2002, BioWare developed the Aurora Engine, the basis for a number of successful 3D RPGs thereafter.

Neverwinter Nights shipped with a number of tools allowing users to create their own role-playing adventures for single and multiplayer online. The tools, using the Aurora Engine, have been adapted to many forms of gameplay and storytelling, with thousands of amateur and professional modules available on various web sites; some released for sale as premium content. Neverwinter Nights was a pioneering example of user-created game content commercially supported and distributed over the internet.

The Odyssey Engine was developed for the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was based on the Aurora Engine. BioWare has recently developed the Eclipse Engine (a next generation RPG engine) for the game Dragon Age: Origins.

After years of working with licensed content, particularly from the D&D world, BioWare began efforts to develop their own original, independent universes and franchises. Jade Empire was a step in this direction, as are their current projects: the RPG series Mass Effect for Xbox 360 and PC, which utilizes the third version of the Unreal Engine.

BioWare maintained a limited oversight on Obsidian Entertainment's development of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords.