Drew Karpyshyn

"I doubt I’ll ever win any prestigious literary awards for my work, but I’m okay with that."

- Drew Karpyshyn

Drew Karpyshyn is a Canadian author and game designer. After working at a credit union for some time, he eventually became a game developer. He joined BioWare towards the end of the Baldur's Gate series, and wrote the tie-in novel for Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. He stayed with BioWare, where he worked on Neverwinter Nights, and became the Senior Writer on the critically acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

This Star Wars connection gave him the opportunity to write Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Darth Bane: Rule of Two, and Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil, his first hardcovers. Karpyshyn still works for BioWare; he was the lead writer for both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.

He is currently working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and an Old Republic novel.

Early life
Drew Karpyshyn was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on July 28, 1971. He grew up in the Northern suburb of St. Albert. As a child, he was a big fan of Star Wars. Between the ages of 8 and 12, Karpyshyn dressed up as a Jawa for Halloween. When his friend told him Darth Vader was Luke's father, he was wholly unconvinced.

As an adult, Karpyshyn worked in a variety of jobs, eventually finding work as a loan officer for his local credit union. During this time, he received emotional and financial support from his wife Jennifer. On one fateful day, a car accident cost him his means of transportation. With no vehicle with which to commute, he decided to leave the financial industry and return to college, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine arts. On March 7, 2000, he was a contestant on the popular game show Jeopardy! Despite a strong early lead and a correct answer in Final Jeopardy, he lost.

Career
In the Spring of 2000, Karpyshyn joined BioWare Corp., an Edmonton-based video game developer. He was able to make minor contributions to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, before it was released later that year. He was one of several designers for the 2001 expansion pack, Throne of Bhaal. He also wrote the novelization of the game, published in September 2001. Karpyshyn acknowledges that the novel did not live up to its potential; he attributes this to problems in editing and the inherent difficulties of writing a direct adaptation of an open-ended video game. September also saw the release of Temple Hill, another Forgotten Realms novel that he had written earlier.

Karpyshyn was a designer for the critically acclaimed Neverwinter Nights computer game, released in June 2002. He also worked on the expansion pack, Hordes of the Underdark, which was released the following year. Also in 2003, Karpyshyn published his first short story in Paradox magazine. "Paradise Lost" is a new take on the Biblical story of Adam and Eve.

On July 15 2003, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released on the Xbox. Karpyshyn was the lead writer and one of seven members of the core design team. Development of the game began around December of 2000, and it was first unveiled at the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Knights of the Old Republic received a great deal of praise and awards. According to Karpyshyn, the game "let me get my foot in the door with LucasArts," eventually leading to his career as a Star Wars novelist.

In 2003 or 2004, his short story "Feast of the Gods" was included in Open Space: New Canadian Fantastic Fiction, edited by Claude Lalumière. "Feast of the Gods" is a humorous tale about Quetzalcoatl and the other Aztec gods.

BioWare's next project, Jade Empire, was published on April 12, 2005, a year and a half after it was announced. Karpyshyn was one of 5 writers, but he was not one of the 3 lead writers. The year after that, he published "It’s a Living," another short story. More significantly, he published his first Star Wars novel, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction. It was also his first hardcover book. In 2007, he quickly wrote a sequel, Darth Bane: Rule of Two, and recently published the third book in the series, Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil. He also saw the release of the acclaimed Mass Effect game.