World of Darkness
World Gameplay & Level Design Director - CCP Atlanta
April 2013 - November 2013
This project was an MMORPG called World of Darkness. It was a game that took place in the White Wolf classic pen and paper RPG world. I was the director in charge of the level design and the PvE side of the game's content.
Duties
Lead an experienced team of writers, level and systems designers, engineers, and 3D artists in integrating the World of Darkness IP into a new MMO.
Provided training, mentoring, and direction to the designers in the World Gameplay group.
Managed design teams (level, systems, and writers) as well as the animation team.
Hiring/interview duties.
Ensured cross-discipline communication between teams.
The world geometry was a procedurally generated city with climbable/scale-able walls for the vampire player characters to scramble upon. The team’s job was to determine all of the metrics for clambering, jumping, and climbing on buildings of all heights so that the procedurally generated buildings had all of the correct climbing hand holds, steps, ladders, grab ledges, etc.
That was to be Phase 1 which was actually completed and playable! Phase 2 would have been about procedurally generating content on top of the city, in which hooks were embedded into the environment for the enemy spawns as well as dynamically changing faction decals. We were on the verge of implementing Phase 2 when the game was abruptly cancelled.
World of Darkness was a deliciously dark place to create a game in, rich in lore with many White Wolf texts and background fiction to draw upon. We were going to have dynamically adapting environments based on territory control. If your faction takes over a certain area, that area will start to reflect the colors, patterns, motifs of your group. NPCs, based on your race, characteristics, history, or faction would be spawned to cater to the player or group’s needs. I wish we were able to release this game as it could have been an amazing playground for gamers to romp through. The technology would have actually been groundbreaking!
