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BlizzCon 2019 Liveblog Designers at Work: World of Warcraft World Creation

posted 2019/11/02 at 4:29 PM by Serrinne

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Liveblog 2019What happens in the very beginning when building a zone?
What happens after that in iteration?
How does polishing a zone happen?How do you get started on a zone? Kristy Moret

Using WoWEdit - in house software.

Chat with visual development and 3d environment team - they produce assets and textures which you can play around with.

Start with a 2D map for a zone that evolves really quickly into mapping from the 3D model.

This second map includes POIs, roads, etc. Done with quest designers who work together to communicate quest pathing with level design.

Simple 3D map created - you can play around with both real items, textures, and assets as well as simple notes and arrows, etc.

You can get down to player level for better information on how a zone works.

At this time it's easy to move things around and work on stuff without too much other stuff being affected.

How do you get started on a zone? Victor Cortis

Gets to work with key art - gets the mood of a zone.

We want to keep players interested so we add break up into the zones.

Needed to make subzones - doing big picture macro work. Using items and assets from old zones to just get ideas for placement of items in a new zone.

Have to keep in mind that players can get burned out just looking at the same thing over and over again. Looking for break up and variety.

But at the start, just using, for example, old Gilneas items in a new gothic zone until they get new assets.

Also does Terrain work - raise and lower terrain, etc.

They start by noticing where players will actually be moving and change the terrain accordingly before settling on final art assets for the zone.

How do you get started on a raid zone? Kyle Aronson

Making a raid is different than a zone, much more linear and more control over what player sees.

Theme and feel of Nyalotha was done with image from Chronicles book.

Uses untextured blockout pieces to build areas between assets, etc. Making sure the spaces are okay for pace of play in a raid zone.

What's the next step? Kristy Moret

Filling up the smaller spaces with details like Spider Webs - iteration with the quest design team.

Quests ended up being influenced by the level designer.

Using assets and items to move players into the spaces.

Using level design to indicate if a path is safe or not.

Using buildings, etc as center pieces of quests.

This mid level detail step is where they spend the most time.

What's the next step? Victor Cortis

Looking for context where we can place assets.

Making sure a zone isn't too busy but that context fits.

Down to moving around details like trees and bushes. Players are good at noticing when something feels off.

Every detail like this is done by hand.

Textures are limited to 4 per smaller area, to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to textures.

What's the next step? Kyle Aronson

Nyalotha - running through it with encounter team and feedback from all departments

He got feedback that it felt weird being on the platforms all the time

Pulled terrain from a mountain and added it to the paths and areas to break up the platform walking - using the Ramp Tool

Have to make sure places where players can go is actually runable i.e. not too steep.

How do you polish a zone? Kristy Moret

Polish is very fun - at the players level and finding all the neat things you show them.

Game view mode adds lighting, weather, shadows, etc.

Starts with road polish first - wants to make sure guidance is set.

Depth is added with color painted over terrain textures.

Work with quest design to make sure the function of a quest is actually supported by the zone development i.e. holes in the ground where a player would be walking for a quest.

A zone developer might see one way to walk to a building but the quest designer might play it another way.

How do you polish a zone? Victor Cortis

Making sure all the nooks and crannies look right

Light and shadow are very important.

Example of inserting a point of light, makes it feel alive

How do you polish a zone? Kyle Aronson

All ramps, etc are textured.

So much to do once you have a zone set in terms of polish - you put the pieces together and then make it look more detailed and alive.

Nyalotha used rocks from AB and gross items from Underrot, painted it purple.

Polish is things like making a lava fall way more detailed and alive looking.

Q&A

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Comment by Runefrontier123Nice!Comment by Iboksounds good.Comment by jjanchanI’m sure when you go behind the scenes, the efforts to create a whole zone are absolutely massive!Comment by RyuFlameheartSweeet!Comment by Idreadnaughtthe art team never dissapointComment by KondeyA big thanks to everyone in the art department. No matter what, the art of Blizzard never fails to amaze meComment by warriachlove from pakistanComment by TraitorbaneNo matter the expansion the art team has never failed us, so kudos. Ty for these amazing worlds.Comment by WowFreakxThe art team at WoW is amazing!Comment by ItacolomiDream job is to work at Blizzard as a animatorComment by alxx0rzSo do quest designers describe the caves/buildings they want for certain quests?Comment by BarlowTheSeekerI missed this panel but I'm waiting for the Q&A now. I'll check this out later. :)Comment by Thagkeep up the good workComment by BubblepieAmazing artwork, they are really good at their job!Comment by BattreI like it that they show us how a World we love and live is built. Great work and thank you all :DComment by 13randonjamesSeeing all these people work to create the environments is amazing. Most players just play the game and don't even think about all the work that goes into creating the world, the environments, textures, spell effects, voices for the character. It all comes together to make this game what it is. So many different people and teams and it works well.

Hell, the other week I was doing a m+ and was dead on the floor and was looking at the spell animation for the explosive affix. I never actually looked at it and saw how detailed it was and appreciated the work that went into it. I always just hated it because it would inconvenience me and make me move whenever I was casting or healing. There are all these little details we don't pay attention to and appreciate.Comment by AcccattoneSounds good, would love to get my hands on their in-house tools.Comment by BathroomBuddhaart team always on pointComment by SzimsonI want that bear !Comment by XupusLove seeing the effort that goes in to bring our world to life.

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BlizzCon 2019 Liveblog Designers at Work: World of Warcraft World Creation

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