My responsibilities as a Senior World Designer on Star Wars : The Old Republic included
Designing and scripting quests.
Placing quest-specific NPCs and Interactive Objects.
Collaborating with Spawn Team on placement of mobs.
Collaborating with Writers on story consistency and player rewards.
Collaborating with Environment Artists on world layout and asset design.
Incorporating multiplayer cooperative and competitive concerns into quest design.
Bugfixing and stress testing the game as well as providing subjective reviews of gameplay and story.
Updating documentation, tracking files and wikis.
Communicating constantly to stay abreast of changes to standards and to meet milestones.
My responsibility was to bring together the various elements of the quest by supporting all departments and incorporating feedback, both internal and external, into the final design of the quest. This includes taking into account how the individual quest fits into the overall story arc and game structure.
Developing in the HeroEngine
Was able to come up to speed rapidly, with limited tutoring.
Worked in a live, server-driven, shared development environment.
Parallel development in realtime across departments.
Designed VFX, setup Dynamic Objects, created complex Abilities, designed Appearances, created and placed mission-specific NPCs and Placeables.
Creating Personalized Stories
Learned to create player choices with real implications for character development.
Scripted complex conversation trees with mutiple branches and merges dependent on player choice.
Worked closely with Writing team to implement customizable stories in the Star Wars universe.
Analyzed quests and provided feedback for consistency, player customization, and variety of choice.
Scripting included a morality system based on player choice.
Companion Characters (NPC AIs) were scripted into quests, with player affection tracked.
Designing for Multiplayer Envirionments
Considerations for both Cooperative and Competitive environments.
A Faction System with multiple classes within each was integrated into quest design and scripting.
Had to account for public spaces, shared instances/phases, and solo instances/phases.
Set up shared rewards for cooperative multiplayer.
Analyzed game balance for steady progression, regular metering out of rewards.
Tracking Complex Development
The complexities of designing a massively multiplayer RPG require extensive tracking.
Worked within a 60+ person design team, 300+ people on the project total.
Tracked development using Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, Outlook email/calendar.
Referred to and updated in-house wiki.
Worked with Perforce Version Management Tool.
Bugs and interdepartmental requests in ExtraView.
A Project with Pedigree
EA and Bioware's first MMORPG.
Integrated feedback from LucasArts, Electronic Arts, Internal and External Playtesters.
Star Wars : The Old Republic Developer Walkthrough
Conclusions
Working on SW:TOR was an opportunity to develop an incredible IP with a team of season RPG veterans who have a consistent record for quality. Working on an MMO incorporated my experience in open world mission design on The Saboteur with many new considerations for cooperative and competitive multiplayer environments. The challenges of creating experiences in massive persistent worlds are great, but so are the rewards.
