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Post-Mortems

An index of all of the post-mortems breaking down the lesson I’ve learn from major visible work I did back on my World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Ori and The Will of The Wisps and other other unannounced projects (post-release).

You can get notified here, when I release the next post mortem.

World of Warcraft:

1. Attumen The Huntsman: The Dangers of Neglecting Research in Game Design

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Attumen the Huntsman,  the first boss in Karazhan Raid
Discipline: Content Design

2. Nazan & Vazruden: The Story of The Boss Who Stole The Show in Hellfire Ramparts

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Nazan & Vazruden, Final boss of Hellfire Ramparts
Discipline: Content Design

3. The Underbog: Technical Limitations and Design Reflections on My First Solo Dungeon

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: The Underbog, a 5-man Dungeon
Discipline: Content Design

3.1. Hungarfen: My Journey to Mastering Complexity and Gradual Tension

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Hungarfen, Dungeon Boss
Discipline: Content Design

3.2. Ghaz’an & Swamplord Musel’ik: Adding Clarity to My Game Design Toolbox

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Elements: Ghaz’an, the second boss of The Underbog, Swamplord Musel’ik, the third boss of The Underbog
Discipline: Content Design

3.3. The Black Stalker: Fun for Designers Doesn’t Guarantee Fun for Players

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: The Black Stalker, the final boss of The Underbog
Discipline: Content Design

4. The Big Bad Wolf: Embracing Simplicity in Designing Boss Fights

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: The Big Bad Wolf, raid boss in Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

5. Nightbane: The Dynamics of Collaboration & Designing for External Stakeholders

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Nightbane, the final boss in Return to Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

5.1. Nightbane: Overcoming Unforeseen Technical Challenges

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Nightbane, the final boss in Return to Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

5.2. Nightbane: When Design Assumptions Collide with Actual Gameplay

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Nightbane, the final boss in Return to Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

6. Shade of Aran: Unveiling the Ingredients of a Well-Crafted Boss Encounter

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Shades of Aran, a boss in Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

6.1. Finding the Golden Nuggets: How to Prioritize Design Ideas for Shades of Aran

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Shades of Aran, a boss in Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

6.2. Shade of Aran: The Power of Playtesting for Iterative Game Design

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Shades of Aran, a boss in Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

7. The Clash of Novelty and Game Difficult

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Netherspite, a boss in Karazhan
Discipline: Content Design

 8. Investing in Novelty: Taking Risks for Extraordinary Rewards and Unique Player Experiences

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: The Chess Event, a special quest in Karazan
Discipline: Content Design

9. Leveling Up Together: The Synergy of Structure and Mentorship in Game Content Creation

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Outdoor Spawning
Discipline: Content Design

10. Finding Harmony: Balancing Fantasy and Gameplay Mechanics for a Memorable Experience

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: The Ring of Blood, 5-man quest chain
Discipline: Content Design

11. Connecting With Your Class: Class Quests and the Art of Personalized Gameplay

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Anzu, heroic only dungeon boss in Sethekk Halls
Discipline: Content Design

31. First WoW Class Overhaul: Redefining the Warlock Class in World of Warcraft

Game: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul
Discipline: Class Design

31.1. Forging a Legacy: The Impact of a Novel Resource System in the Gaming World

Game: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul
Discipline: Class Design

32. Back to the Roots: How Unnecessary Skills Hindered the Warlock Class

Game: World of Warcraft: Classic
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul
Discipline: Class Design

32.1. The Core Fantasy: What Went Wrong in Warlock Talent Trees Along the Way 

Game: World of Warcraft: Classic
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul
Discipline: Class Design

32.2. From Temporary Relief to Long-Term Burden: The Story of Warlocks and Band-Aid Fixes

Game: World of Warcraft: Classic
Game Element: Warlock Class Overaul – Spells
Discipline: Class Design

32.3. Balancing Act: The Relationship Between Streamlining and Gameplay Balance

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul – Spells
Discipline: Class Design

32.4. The Art of Trade-offs: Managing Limited Design Space in Game Development

Game: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul – Spells & Core Fantasy
Discipline: Class Design

32.5. Warlock Overhaul Part 3: Going Wild with Demonology

Game: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Game Element: Warlock Class Overhaul – Demonology
Discipline: Class Design

Remaining unfinished Post-Mortems

12. Helping Out – High Astromancer Solarian

13. Fly Away, Little Birds – Akil’zon

14. The Illidari Council

15. Death Knights, Talents and Timing

16. Northrend – World Events

17. Wintergrasp – Aka, Where Not to Stick It

18. The Amphitheatre of Anguish

19. Northrend Battleground – What was it called again?

20. Vehicle Technology – Unifying Fractured Ideas

21. Flame Leviathan & The Gauntlet

22. XT-002 Deconstructor

23. Lord Marrowgar

24. The Crucible of Carnage

25. Tricks, Traps and Tape – Icecrown Dungeons

25.1. Pit of Saron – Forgemaster Garfrost

25.2. The Icicle Gauntlet

26. Murozond – End Time

27. Mage Legendary Quest – Return to the Nexus

28. Lord Rhyolith

29. Morchok

30. Hagara the Stormbinder

33. Priming Pet Battles

8 Responses

  1. Looking forward to Rhyolith (my most hated heroic boss of all time) and of course the warlock overhaul! Hope you find the time to continue these.

  2. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the Warlock overhaul was the epitome of pure class design in WoW. Three completely differentiated specs that fit a theme, each with a distinct playstyle, novel raid utility, and a bad ass questline. It’s a shame they won’t do the same for the other pures. Excited to read more about it. Also, Murozond would’ve been an amazing raid boss.

  3. Want to thank you again Xelnath. I did so once on MMO-C, but I will again here.

    I started a Warlock in Classic, but by Wrath had replaced it with Priest just because of the issues you outline. I played said Priest in Cata, but your revamp allowed me to return to playing my Warlock in MoP which was something I missed and I always adored. Been Destruction since.

    I still am sad that they kicked you from the team and unless you say otherwise I will chalk it up to Greg Street’s ego, since the son of a b—- tried and failed to ban me in Wrath for “Exploitation of the Economy” even though all I was doing was working on Shadowmourne at my own pace, and beating the AH at it’s own game. This worsened in MoP with how he (as Xanzul) behaved in the many CRZ Feedback threads. I worked for Vivendi once upon a time, so I ‘knew’ who he was (Did a IP Trace with Janefreedland and proved who he was) but as you know, I was and am not allowed to say on the main forums what my past is.

    That all said, thank you for everything. First for restoring enjoyment to one of my two main classes since Classic. I mean it with everything I have. Life has sucked for me, but your additions made my life a little more bearable. Second, for tolerating the shill that is Greg Street. Will never buy ANY product he is tied to, but I would buy any product you were associated with, simply on principle.

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EXPERIENCE & BACKGROUND:

[STUDIO] Blizzard Entertainment: Content, mechanics, and systems designer

(Creator of Apex Legends & former Creative Director at Respawn)

[GAME] World of Warcraft: MMORPG with 8.5 million average monthly players, won Gamer’s Choice Award – Fan Favorite MMORPG, VGX Award for Best PC Game, Best RPG, and Most Addictive Video Game.

  • Classic:
    • Designed Cosmos UI
    • Designed part of Raid Team for Naxxramas
  • Burning Crusade:
    • Designed the raid bosses Karazhan, Black Temple, Zul’Aman
    • Designed the Outlands content
    • Designed The Underbog including bosses:
      • Hungarfen, Ghaz’an, Swamplord Musel’ik, and The Black Stalker
    • Designed the Hellfire Ramparts final bosses Nazan & Vazruden
    • Designed the Return to Karazhan bosses: Attumen the Huntsman, Big Bad Wolf, Shades of Aran, Netherspite, Nightbane
  • Wrath of the Lich King:
    • Designed quest content, events and PvP areas of Wintergrasp
    • Designed Vehicle system
    • Designed the Death Knight talent trees
    • Designed the Lord Marrowgar raid
  • Cataclysm:
    • Designed quest content
    • Designed Deathwing Overworld encounters
    • Designed Morchok and Rhyolith raid fights
  • Mists of Pandaria: 
    • Overhauled the entire Warlock class – Best player rated version through all expansion packs
    • Designed pet battle combat engine and scripted client scene

[GAME] StarCraft 2: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[GAME] Diablo 3: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[GAME] Overwatch: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[GAME] Hearthstone: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[STUDIO] Riot Games: Systems designer, in-studio game design instructor

(Former Global Communications Lead for League of Legends)
(Former Technical Game Designer at Riot Games)

[GAME] League of Legends: Team-based strategy MOBA with 152 million average active monthly players, won The Game Award for Best Esports Game and BAFTA Best Persistent Game Award.

  • Redesigned Xerath Champion by interfacing with community
  • Reworked the support income system for season 4
  • Redesigned the Ward system
  • Assisted in development of new trinket system
  • Heavily expanded internal tools and features for design team
  • Improved UI indicators to improve clarity of allied behaviour

[OTHER GAMES] Under NDA: Developed multiple unreleased projects in R&D

Game Design Instructor: Coached and mentored associate designers on gameplay and mechanics

[STUDIO] Moon Studios: Senior game designer

(Former Lead Game Designer at Moon Studios)

[GAME] Ori & The Will of The Wisps: 2m total players (423k people finished it) with average 92.8/100 ratings by 23 top game rating sites (including Steam and Nintendo Switch).

  • Designed the weapon and Shard systems
  • Worked on combat balance
  • Designed most of the User Interface

[GAME] Unreleased RPG project

  • Designed core combat
  • High-level design content planning
  • Game systems design
  • Game design documentation
  • Gameplay systems engineering
  • Tools design
  • Photon Quantum implementation of gameplay

[VC FUNDED STARTUP] SnackPass: Social food ordering platform with 500k active users $400m+ valuation

[PROJECT] Tochi: Creative director (hybrid of game design, production and leading the product team)

  • Lead artists, engineers, and animators on the release the gamification system to incentivize long-term customers with social bonds and a shared experience through the app

[CONSULTING] Atomech: Founder / Game Design Consultant

[STUDIOS] Studio Pixanoh + 13 other indie game studios (under NDA):

  • Helped build, train and establish the design teams
  • Established unique combat niche and overall design philosophy
  • Tracked quality, consistency and feedback methods
  • Established company meeting structure and culture

Game Design Keynotes:

(Former Global Head of HR for Wargaming and Riot Games)
  • Tencent Studio
  • Wargaming
  • USC (University of Southern California)
  • RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology)
  • US AFCEA (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association)
  • UFIEA (University of Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy)
  • West Gaming Foundation
  • Kyoto Computer Gakuin – Kyoto, Japan