More info about my work
In the last year before Early Access release, I reworked the sewers dungeon called
The Black Trench which was already quite advanced but was way too frustrating.
My main goals were to
reduce the lack of direction so that people better understood what they needed to do, and
make the critical path shorter so that it was not as tiresome to go through the whole level.
This was done by changing the flow of the level in many places and making some parts optional, better highlighting and visually connecting the interactive/puzzle-ish elements and streamlining the geometry to improve the navigation and combat, making it more intuitive.
The rest was mostly about enemy encounters, loot placement, following up on the set dressing done by the art team and of course iteration on all this reacting to playtests feedback.
Here is a player going through the sewers:
https://youtu.be/N4Jd0G9bcZQ?t=1245
I also reworked quite a lot the area called
Nameless Pass which was also quite advanced but partly obsolete with the recent work on the main quests and also had quite a lot of design issues or very rough parts.
In this case, my intentions were to
make the critical path more engaging and involve the player more,
rework the flow to improve the interconnectivity between areas, allow more freedom for optional areas and
flesh out some very rough areas.
This meant completely changing some obscure optional puzzles into something more streamlined and requiring players to figure out some of these to progress, like the quarry cranes or the prison cells mechanism. I also reworked from scratch a few smaller areas which became fully optional but became a lot more distinct.
Here is a player going through the Nameless Pass:
https://youtu.be/_nxDJhhnp5E?t=67
In the last months before Early Access release, I started working on the
Cerim Crucible.
Many designers worked on blockouts for replayable arenas or challenges, but it was only possible to ship a few of these and this recently became the intended end game challenge for Early Access.
I reworked entirely the
enemy encounters in these rooms, followed up on art set dressing work and
adjusted the layouts and mechanics used in these to streamline the player experience and get rid of things we could not afford to do for Early Access.
Here is a player doing a full run of the Cerim Crucible:
https://youtu.be/qa-Xnzl3M8g?t=329
Other than that, I did more minor layout work in all the other areas included in the Early Access, also setting up enemy encounters and the various gameplay elements in these.
Before this, I worked on levels which are currently not playable in Early Access, doing some blockout from scratch for 3 regions, reworking heavily another area similar to what I did for the Black Trench and Nameless Pass and designing the first big puzzle challenges we wanted for the game.