Brent Knowles is a writer, programmer, and game designer currently working at Beamdog. He worked at the role-playing game studio BioWare (Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Dragon Age) for ten years, during most of which he was a Lead Designer/Creative Director. As a designer, he feels that party control and tactical combats should be huge factors in a role playing game. Dragon Age II's departure from that made him realize that he would not be satisfied with what it would be.