Felicia Day

Felicia Day has a new role to play: that of a character in the Dragon Age world.

She gave Game Hunters the exclusive on the new Web series Dragon Age: Redemption, which she has written, starred in and is co-producing, in our story here. Due online later this year, the six-episode series takes place about the same time as the events at the outset of Dragon Age II. That game hits stores March 8; a demo launches Feb. 22.

Filming Dragon Age: Redemption was a change from producing The Guild, her own Web series with its fifth season in the works. She has also appeared in the Joss Whedon-directed Web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, as well as TV shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse and the recent Syfy TV movie Red: Werewolf Hunter.

"It was definitely a different experience in that we have the Dragon Age world to bring to life," Day says. "We had to build our sets. We had to hand-make our weapons and costumes. Everything is a period object. It’s a different world. It was very intensive on the production design and costuming side. It was definitely a lot to take on."

In crafting the story, Day worked with Dragon Age publisher BioWare to make the series "feel as real as possible," she says. "I’m very, very excited to take my experience acting in Dr. Horrible and The Guild and take Web video to a new place. We’re collaborating with a video game in a way that hasn’t been done before."

And Day knows games. The Guild involves a group of friends who play a role-playing game.

How old were you when you started playing video games?

I was a child of a tech family. My grandfather was a nuclear physicist and was always a gadget guy. Even when I was, like, 5 years old, I remember having a "laptop" that was as big as my desk with a 6-inch green and black screen. I’ve been (raised) on video games. I played text-based adventures, and I had an Amiga after that, you know Marble Madness and FairyTale Adventure. And then I got a PC, and I moved up to the Ultima games. I feel like maybe I’m part of that generation that became more of a gamer than a video consumer. It’s always been something I’ve done with my spare time. If I had three hours on a Friday night, I’m not out partying. I’m probably playing video games. Even to this point I play more games than I watch TV, which is bad as a writer.

Favorite games growing up?

The Ultima series was hugely influential on me as far as my love of role-playing games, also Planescape: Torment and Baldur’s Gate. All those amazing role-playing games (had) an immersive quality that you put yourself into the game and that bled over to Diablo and World of Warcraft.

Current favorites?

Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Those two, bar none, are my favorites now. The storytelling in games has gotten so sophisticated. I’m a huge fantasy novel geek, too. Dragon Age really is like living a novel.

Game style: Twitch or think?

I’m definitely more of a "think game" kind of girl. I’ll read every single dialogue and codex entry and lore entry. I really do love projecting myself and creating my character. I played a little bit of Dragon Age II the other day and spent 35 minutes of my two hours just creating my character. I said, "OK, you’re cut off. Just because your nose is not perfect." That is really something that I love and why playing MMOs was very important to me and addictive to me, in a sense, because I really did project myself into those games in a way that was immersive, to say the least.

A certain achievement you are proud of?

When I was raiding really hard-core, I was really proud of my armor on my World of Warcraft character. There are so many great games that have come out lately that sometimes you don’t finish them. But finishing games has been something I’m really proud of, seeing something through to the end. And the two that stand out that I am really proud of finishing are Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2, which I have played through a couple times. That’s been a challenge with The Guild the last couple years. My schedule has been so busy that the thing that has led to my success and then to my career is taking away from my hobby that created my career. It’s irony on irony.

Last night I played …?

Solipskier, which is an extremely addictive iPhone/iPad app. I just blogged about it. It’s very simple. That’s what I love about gaming: You can be as complex as 200 hours in Dragon Age or you can just play for 15 minutes something that you pick up and just put down, and it’s satisfying.

I’m looking forward to playing…

Oh, boy, there’s so many. Dragon Age II and Diablo 3. Those are going to be seminal time sinks for me.