wowcrendor Interview: Zone Design and Exploration in World of Warcraft

wowhead.com:

wowcrendor interviewed Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton and Lead Prop Artist Jordan Powers where they discussed zone design and exploration in World of Warcraft!

wowcrendor Interview

Check out the full video for the full context:

Zone Design Framework

• Many different divisions and teams compare ideas/concepts to one another.
• There are many different aspects that can be used to help build a zone (mentions of biomes, story quests, zone «cultures» etc.). Once ideas are established, the teams mentioned the creation of these zones feels much more fluid and complete.
• It's all about tying things together. Developers like to consider how things like quests interact and use the zones that they are in! This helps build characters or scenarios that are memorable to the playerbase!

How Zones «Tell the Story»

• Besides quests, there are certain aspects of the game that can be used to tell a story to the player.
• These teams are always looking to build certain scene that allow the player to decide what is happening. This brings joy to the exploration of a zone.
• When building secrets or puzzles for a zone, there is always a storytelling aspect that is considered in the design process. Players should feel immersed in the zones that they are in.

Old Zones and Their Impacts on the Future

• There aren't many plans to «revamp» older zones at this time, however, there were mentions of how old zones serve an essential part in the creative process!
• Feedback from previous zones have helped these teams build new approaches to the future zones they want to create! There were specific mentions to how a zone like Grizzly Hills was used to shape the zone we know as The Azure Span in Dragonflight!
• For The War Within specifically, there were mentions of how they wanted the underground zones to not feel «too oppressive or claustrophobic». It was largely thanks to previous zones like Zaralek Caverns for example that helped the developers have these points in mind when building the