David Gaider has been working on Owlcat’s Expanse RPG: ‘The Expanse has long been one of my favourite series, and so obviously I jumped at the opportunity to be involved’

David Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age’s Thedas and co-founder of Summerfall Studios, has been moonlighting on The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, lending Owlcat Games his expertise.

Gaider revealed that he’s been working with Owlcat on Bluesky today, saying, “Alongside my work at Summerfall, I’ve also been collaborating with the Owlcat Games team on The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, focusing on certain aspects of the game’s narrative. The Expanse has long been one of my favourite series, and so obviously I jumped at the opportunity to be involved.”

The Expanse is a bit of a departure for Owlcat, which is known for its elaborate isometric CRPGs like Wrath of the Righteous and Rogue Trader. The Expanse, meanwhile, is more of a cinematic RPG and third-person shooter in the vein of Mass Effect. That said, it’s still full of skill checks and roleplaying, and when I played it at Gamescom Owlcat’s CRPG legacy was still very much present.

While Gaider worked on Dragon Age rather than Mass Effect, he’s got plenty of experience working on both classic CRPGs (he was a writer on Baldur’s Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights) and their more cinematic successors (he was lead writer on Dragon Age: Origins and Inquisition). I really enjoy Gaider’s writing, so this sounds like great news.

Along with Gaider’s announcement, Owlcat has also shown off the new voice for the game’s male protagonist and their twin. The studio decided to recast the role after getting feedback from beta players, and settled on voice actor Blythe Melin. You can see him in action in the video below.

“Voicing both the Captain and J has been an incredible joy and a unique challenge compared to the rest of my work voicing in videogames over the years,” said Melin. Two biologically related characters! It presented a difficult task in itself, because I find it very important to make sure neither character felt one-note-ey or too similar to the other. The more a character talks, especially in a multi-path dialogue route like for this game, the harder the task of making characters feel fleshed out while still having their own flavors and mannerisms.”

Melin’s previous work includes Wolverine, Aether & Iron, Painkiller and various Hoyoverse games.

As a fan of Owlcat, The Expanse and Gaider, I’m keen to get my hands on the game again, and thankfully it’s not too far off. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is due in spring 2027.