Bioware, the developer of Mass Effect: Andromeda and an Electronic Arts subsidiary, released a trailer showing the new alien race for the first time. In a video interview, Art Director Joel MacMillan, discussed in-depth, the new race, the Kett. MacMillan said that Bioware wanted a different approach from the previous games in creating a new alien race. They wanted aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy differentiated from Milky Way Galaxy aliens.

In Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3, aliens were geared up in armor and functioned like humans. Milky Way aliens had clean, sleek, and hard surfaces whereas Bioware had an organic approach to the Kett. According to gaming websites IGN, PC Gamer, and Eurogamer, their armor and architecture all had an organic look.

MacMillan said that their team initially decided to make the Kett as far from humanoid as possible. Bioware did not want the same treatment for the new aliens as they did with previous aliens who were more familiar and comfortable to players. The team argued over just how alien did they really want to make the Kett. They discussed if the Kett were so alien that humans could not understand their appearance.

If being as alien as possible, the Kett could probably would have no use for clothes. The new aliens of Mass Effect: Andromeda would view clothing as a vanity and would probably be more carnal than the aliens from the previous games. Bioware started with the idea of a very different, very alien race. This idea was shaped into a more familiar, comfortable, and safer concept meant for a wider audience.

The team settled on an alien race that was clothed and bipedal. They had to put clothes on the Kett so players could still associate with them since they thought it was hard for players to connect to a naked alien. Bioware wanted the new aliens to be foreboding but not ugly. It was important to the team that they designed an empathic race. The team wanted players to still want to empathise with the Kett.

Players may have conflict with some Kett but could still associate with other Ketts. Not every Kett will be antagonistic which could mean that there may be a Kett who will join the crew. Nothing about the history of the Kett was discussed. Bioware did discuss in detail the new aliens of Mass Effect: Andromeda as the main adversary that players could still relate to.

Bioware is the developer of the video game Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic as well as the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. The Mass Effect: Andromeda release date is tentatively March 2017. The game will be published as an Electronic Arts video game.