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DIOGO GUERREIRO

GAME DESIGNER

Delve Map

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Area 3 Encounters

Area 2 Encounters

Encounter Framework

Area 1 Encounters

Final Boss: Void Corrupted Construct

When designing the final boss of the delve, our goal was to create a final challenge for the player in which the structure of the fight is well-defined, repeatable, and trackable, as the boss's remaining health triggers each phase.

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Alternative Elite Encounter: Drunken Void Zealot

For the alternative Elite encounter, the goal was to create an engaging yet challenging encounter that utilized the unique delve features and the theme of the delve to creatively use the drunk mechanic in WoW. The complexity of this fight comes from the chaos created by a slowed player who has to reposition themselves due to cone attacks, and corrupted wine pools while drunk.

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Elite Encounter: Gnoll Void Lord 

When designing the Elite monster, the goal was to challenge the player’s mastery of the skills tested throughout the Delve (timing, targeting, positioning, and prioritizing), while setting it apart from other non-elite enemies by introducing its Enrage mechanic, which grants crowd control immunity at low health and provides a unique challenge in the context of the Delve.

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Non-Elite Enemies

Enemy Framework

Delve Features

The goal for the Delve's unique features was to not only tie the gameplay to the theme/narrative, but also create opportunities for them to be used in engaging ways in combat.

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Delve Objectives

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Destroy 12 corrupted wine barrels

Primary Objective

Kill Void-Infused creatures

Secondary Objective

Defeat the Void Corrupted Construct

Boss Objective

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Narrative

Xalatath’s forces tried to undermine Silvermoon’s defenses by smuggling void-corrupted wine barrels into the city, but in the process, something went wrong, and the smuggler's den was overrun by wild creatures. These creatures have consumed the void-infused wine,  becoming corrupted and more vicious. This must be dealt with before they leave the caves and attack the city.

Rules

These rules were determined by examining different delves from the current expansion (War Within) and how the enemies, encounters, objectives, and abilities behaved. The intention with these rules is to create a design space that embodies current WoW delve design principles. 

Regarding Enemy Design

Tiny enemies have 1 ability

Non-elite enemies have 2 abilities on average

Elite enemies have 3 abilities

Non-elite enemies' abilities are basic

Elite enemies' abilities are impactful and more threatening

Regarding Delve Objectives and Features

3 objectives: 

- Primary

- Secondary 

- Boss

Delve Layout:

- 1 starting area

- 1 rest area

- 3 main areas

- 1 Boss room

- 1 Treasure room

Include thematically appropriate environmental hazards

Tie Narrative and Gameplay with a unique Delve ability

Research

We investigated existing World of Warcraft Delves to understand their framework and rules. We played multiple delves to analyze the number of rooms, objectives, encounter composition and enemies' abilities.

Delve Rooms

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We used existing delves as references to determine how many rooms each delve had. We reached the conclusion that most delves have a total of 4 combat rooms, including the final boss area.​

Delve Objectives

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Objectives on existing delves revolve around grabbing an item for a delve mechanic, interacting with the environment, and eliminating certain enemies or collecting resources. We used these references to create our own objectives, interactable, and goals.

Encounter & Ability Composition

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We observed that most encounters had between 2 and 5 enemies. Afterwards, we looked into their respective abilities and difficulty level to determine a set of design rules to follow.

Guidelines

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  • Each enemy type should synergize with at least one other

  • Encounters should feel distinct and varied

  • There should be a straightforward solution to each enemy group other than “dps them down.”

  • Some encounters should not be required to complete the main objectives

Goals & Anti-Goals

Delve Goals

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  1. Craft a delve that fits World of Warcraft's design philosophy

  2. Create interactive objectives that feel novel  while maintaining familiarity 

  3. Have dynamic, interesting encounters that can challenge the player in higher difficulties

Framework Goals

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  1. Communicate designs clearly and efficiently

  2. Identify creatures' archetypes to create  familiarity before getting further details

  3. Each action/attribute has additional unique identifiers to explain how the creature promotes interactions with other core game mechanics

Anti-Goals

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  1. Create a delve that is too complex with too many mechanics

  2. Create mechanics that frustrate players

  3. Encounters feel repetitive 

  4. Encounters are too difficult

  5. Encounters are too simplistic

UNAVOIDABLE CALAMITY

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Team Size: 3
Role: Game Designer

Summary

This portfolio piece goes through the pre-production and design framework to create a delve that reflects modern World of Warcraft design philosophy. It will go through the goals, rules, guidelines, references, research, enemies, encounters, and map layout to pitch a complete delve. The art displayed on this page was not created by the team and is owned by Blizzard Entertainment. 

Breakdown

For this project, we developed a set of frameworks based on research of existing World of Warcraft delves, from which we created:

  • Goals and Anti-Goals

  • Design Guidelines

  • Enemy Design Framework

  • Encounter Design Framework

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