World of Warcraft: The War Within is the next expansion set to release for the decades-long-running MMORPG. Touted as during the BlizzCon 2023 Opening Ceremony part of the culmination of nearly twenty years of Warcraft history, The War Within is the first of three chapters that will see the resolution to narrative threads that have been dangling for years. And like any expansion, it will feature new areas for players to discover, along with more than a handful of dungeons and encounters they can tackle at varying difficulties.
These new biomes included in the depths of Khaz Algar range from The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and Azj-Kahet — each of those locations nestled deep beneath the surface of Azeroth. Assistant Lead Encounter Designer Drew de Sousa and Lead Visual Development Artist Gabe Gonzalez discussed in detail these new areas were created, and how Visual Development and Encounter teams worked hand-in-hand to bring these areas, dungeons included, to life.
“This expansion is very unique in the sense that we are exploring maybe non-traditional archetypes or zones. For World of Warcraft, there’s always been a deep layer or two to the fantasy that we’re trying to hit. We’re trying to go big with the zones and make a unique flavor for your (the player’s) experience.” Gonzales, the Lead Visual Development Artist on World of Warcraft, said when asked about the inspiration for the new zones that will appear in The War Within. “We definitely talked to a lot of experts about underground biomes and underground caves.”
However, the Visual Development team wanted to make a space that wasn’t just claustrophobic or oppressive to players, and be something that can still feel good with dragonriding — a new way of traversal that appeared alongside the release of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Gonzales even dug into the worldbuilding aspect of creating the environments for these new areas, talking about how the team contemplated how the culture of the Earthen would play into these zones.
Most notably, Gonzales referenced a sunflower when discussing inspiration for these areas, which may seem a bit strange to some. Sunflowers grow above ground, after all, but he went on to elaborate that caves in Arizona provided some direction about how light would fall in these new areas — and that these real-world places were pivotal to the design of these fantastical caverns.
“We think about plants growing in a specific direction towards crystals, in that sense, harkening back to sunflowers.”
But what does that have to do with encounter designs in World of Warcraft: The War Within? Well, de Sousa, World of Warcraft’s Assistant Lead Encounter Designer, elaborated that more dungeons than the player might think are actually designed with these environments in mind; saying: “We sit in a room and really feel the energy of it, and if there’s something there then we keep chasing it, and everyone is building on those ideas.”
Even something as inconsequential as a floating platform made as a set piece can be incorporated for a dungeon design and factored into how players will use it for an encounter.
“For 11.0, I think a cool example could be with our Kobold dungeon, playing with light and playing with that earthen aesthetic and how we can do different gameplay mechanics.” Upon de Sousa mentioning the Kobold dungeon, Gonzales also shared a bit of insight into what the team was aspiring to make for The War Within.
“It was extremely early on and we knew that we were going to see Kobolds in the underground. The Visual Development team just took it and were getting extremely experimental with the culture there. It was a lot of throwing things at the wall. And it was really cool to see the Encounter team just pick the really good kernels from that and turn it into a cohesive experience.” Gonzales shared.
“I think what we thought a lot about going in (to The War Within) was having an interesting variety, that you’re just not going through caves and finding holes the entire way through.” de Sousa said when asked about challenges when creating dungeons and encounters in the underground areas of the expansion. “I’d say Hollowfall being one where it’s a wider concern. It’s well lit and it’s built around flying and finding an opportunity to do something more dynamic with mountains. You know, navigating how we’re going to handle the Earthen and how they’re going to be represented. Are they going to be hostile? Or are they going to be not? And how we come to those decisions and how we want to represent our allies throughout the story.”
Both Gonzales and de Sousa agreed that everything is a deeply collaborative process. “It starts on day One.” said de Sousa, with Gonzales going on to mention that the size of the World of WarCraft team allows for everyone to bounce ideas off of one another. “We have a really big team. That means that there are loads of people to be creative with. And there’s a great atmosphere on campus.”
But with three new expansions looming on the horizon, both teams have prepared for the serious undertaking that will include wrapping up twenty years worth of Warcraft storylines. “This is the single most ambitious narrative undertaking for World of Warcraft. That requires thinking ahead, like better planning, scoping, those kinds of things.” Gonzales said.
de Sousa followed up saying that the Encounters team works on two pillars, and elaborated on how the team plans on keeping a healthy work environment while working on The War Within, and subsequent expansions.
“In general when we’re planning for expansions, we’re taking a lot of extra care and planning as to how we’re going to tell this story, build this culture. Because building this, the game is at the forefront of our minds. As we schedule our work that comes with making smart decisions on design that is worth visiting. These are the two pillars that we’re working on to make sure that we can deliver this in a healthy way.”
