from concept to release: designing guild wars...

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From Concept to Release: Designing Guild Wars 2 Isaiah Cartwright GW2 Lead Designer, ArenaNet Chris Whiteside Design Director, ArenaNet

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Page 1: From Concept to Release: Designing Guild Wars 2twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vault/gdc2013/slides/824128Whiteside... · From Concept to Release: Designing Guild Wars 2 ... The Art of War

From Concept to Release:

Designing Guild Wars 2 Isaiah Cartwright GW2 Lead Designer, ArenaNet Chris Whiteside Design Director, ArenaNet

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Special thanks to:

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"A presentation in six short stories"

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Introduction:

Your Storytellers

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Chapter 1:

Campaign 4

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Our Goal

"To create a dynamic world and bring new life to Guild Wars with branching missions, new professions, and mounted combat"

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Our Challenges

● How to accomplish this goal?

● Technology

● Old and new player

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Problem-Solving and Execution How to accomplish this goal?

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Problem-Solving and Execution Technology

New? Or

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Problem-Solving and Execution Old and new player

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Chapter 2:

Reinventing the Wheel

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Our Challenges

● Events

● Player interaction

● Loot/player density

● Everything is different

● End game

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Problem-Solving and Execution Events

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Problem-Solving and Execution Player interaction

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Problem-Solving and Execution Loot/player density

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Problem-Solving and Execution Everything is different

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Problem-Solving and Execution End game

PvP

WvW

Dungeons

Story

Exploration

Player

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Chapter 3:

The Art of War

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Our Goal

"To create a truly dynamic combat system"

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Our Challenges

● Camera

● Sense of hitting

● UI

● Potions and combat attrition

● Role definition

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Problem-Solving and Execution Camera

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Problem-Solving and Execution Sense of hitting

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Problem-Solving and Execution UI

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Problem-Solving and Execution Potions and combat attrition

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Problem-Solving and Execution Role definition

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Chapter 4:

MTX: A Virtual Minefield

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Our Goal

"To create an accessible, fun, and compelling store where there is no concept of 'pay to win'"

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Our Challenges

● Public perception

● Something monetizable and elastic

● Core categories created before launch

● An accessible system that isn't offensive to our players

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Competitive analysis and community mindshare

● Analysis of every feature against existing core game

mechanics and the community

● Carefully considered external communication

Public perception

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Compelling, reusable, and not necessary to enjoy the game

● Fun items/services that complement the world and the play experience rather than define it

Monetizable and elastic

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Share the character of our community

● Based on metrics from events, research, and focus testing

● Complete prior to launch

Core categories

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Minimal barrier to entry

● Coupled with useful info and resources

Accessible and inoffensive

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Black Lion Trading Post

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Nothing should feel unfair to anyone

● Time vs. money is a paradigm we respect

Accessible and inoffensive

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Chapter 5:

Countdown to Launch!

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Our Goal

"To create an open-beta framework where community feedback and launch readiness were of the highest priority"

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Our Challenges

● Quality and timing

● Feedback and iteration

● Communication, organization, and production

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● The "go, no go" criteria

● Precise schedule for remaining core work

● Large iteration time built into workflows

● Beta weekends focused on "core game" content

Quality and timing

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● ArenaNet played in every BWE

● Feedback came from Arena, community,

and company

● Analyzed by the lead groups and their teams

● Prioritized against core pillars of GW2

Feedback and iteration

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Strike teams were essential

● The team was key to strategic and

planning decisions

● NCSoft was extremely collaborative

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Chapter 6:

A Brave New World

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Our Goal

"To create the first true 'Living World'"

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Our Challenges

● "Been there, done that…"

● A brand-new structure

● Community synergy

● Live production

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Evolving storyline

● Evolving content

● Real-time world "evolution" cadence

● Truly persistent!

"Been there, done that…"

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Our old structure needed to change to meet our goals

● Creativity in the hands of

the teams

● Communication overhaul

New structure

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The Design Point-of-Contact System

Time pressure PvP

WvW

R&D

Living World Leader

boards

Live Response

PoC

Ship Date A

Ship Date B

Ship Date D Ship Date A

Ship Date B

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● Under-promise, over-deliver

● Realistic scoping is essential

● Review and iteration time is a

valuable commodity

● Balanced development is essential

Live production

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Problem-Solving and Execution

● We use multiple community channels as well as alphas

● We contact members of the community directly to understand issues

● The importance of clear and

honest communication

● We can do more!

Community synergy

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Our Best Working Practices

● Problems are a good thing

● Creativity in the whole team's hands

● The importance of consistency

● Risk-mitigation matrixes.

● Golden Rules

● The point-of-contact system

● Realistic iteration time through scoping

effectively

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Our Best Working Practices

"Ultimately, our Design group is a service provider to the team."

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Appendix

Questions?