As the middle game in a planned trilogy, Mass Effect 2 not only has to follow up the first game, but must set up the finale as well.

In determining what needed to be improved from the first Mass Effect, BioWare gathered input from the best source available: the fans. Executive producer Casey Hudson said he read reviews and visited message boards and made a list of the things people who had played Mass Effect wanted changed. “That became our blueprint for what we wanted to do with Mass Effect 2,” he explained at BioWare’s offices in Edmonton.

While the gameplay in Mass Effect was improved based on feedback from fans, the plan for the overall story hasn’t changed. “There’s a grand story arc, and there was the first act,” said Ray Muzyka, cofounder of BioWare and now a senior vice president for parent company Electronic Arts. “This is the dark second act, which is Mass Effect 2, and then a third act, which we have plans for we haven’t announced.”

BioWare’s other cofounder, Greg Zeschuk, an EA vice president, said the plot points that have been revealed in trailers and publicity materials aren’t spoilers. “We’re chuckling away because these are teases. They are by no means big reveals.”

While BioWare may not have announced Mass Effect 3, its development is all but assured. Hudson is looking forward to working on it, in part because he won’t have to worry so much about making it work with a prequel and a sequel. “Things can blow up and people can die, and that’s that,” he said. “We can put the exclamation point on a lot more stuff.”