Behind the Scenes: Expedition Mutators

newworld.com:

Greetings, Adventurers!

Mutators push players to experiment with different builds, but these augmented Expeditions challenged the New World Development Team well before the community received their first Mutated Expedition Tuning Orb. Like many gameplay mechanics, Mutators were created through a combination of fan feedback, internal tests, and a desire to create something difficult, yet fun. We recently had the chance to chat with New World Level Designer Darren McKinsey and World Experience Lead Michael Willette in anticipation of their upcoming Mutators for more insight into that desire. Explore their inspiration, philosophy, and ambition behind Mutators in the interview below.

The idea for Mutators was born from a mix of internal brainstorms and passion for another genre — roguelike games. Michael said the design team wanted to challenge the community in new ways through tougher Expeditions, similar to how roguelikes often feature powerful enemies that can easily overcome underprepared players. These challenges in New World ultimately took on the form of Mutators.

Darren walked us through the creation of Explosive, one of New World’s first Mutators, to help us understand the team's design process. This Mutator pits players against mob enemies that explode on death.

“We liked playing around Explosive almost immediately since it created an incentive for our internal testing teams to communicate, letting other players know there was about to be an explosion,” Darren said. “It’s tuned just tight enough that knowing when the enemy will die is way more effective than dodging after the effect is in motion.” The team also called this design choice effective because players are forced to face familiar enemies with different