Some of you have been asking me what sort of things I have been responsible for as a designer, and I think answering this will give you more insight in what sort of direction I will guide us in.
The most memorable enemies I made were the aliens in Arid Rift.
Since I enjoy very fast-paced and actiony combat, I decided to give them less hit points and more dangerous tricks than any other enemies had at the time.
I think this worked out well, it was challenging to attempt to solo, and one was always kept your ones toes.
I am however not a fan of the snare towers mechanic, just because I think it punishes people who do not deserve to be punished. They do serve their purpose, but I will use my thinking hat twice in the future to avoid this mechanic.
The most memorable boss fight I made was area X in Neretva Canyons.
Me and Flap (artist) initiated the design on a Sunday afternoon at a cafe in Oslo, and the first concepts for it was drawn on a napkin.
When this area hit Live it dawned on me that the formula for spawning adds was flawed, and I think Live ended up with something like 278 adds. I learned a lot about all night debugging and why to avoid it that night.
I think the revised version fits well in my portfolio as being a very intense fight where your toolset matters. You can debuff, snare, root and taunt with appropriate results. And you need to keep awake in order to succeed.
The most memorable dialogue I wrote was in Arid Rift (LOX). As a player I was very curious about the alien story, and it was mindblowing to learn this story from the development team and writing it myself. I especially enjoyed working with the Awakened Xan.
The most memorable bugs and annoyances that I fixed was those quest lines with previously bad reputations. Bazzit quest, scheol sanctuary and garden quests and nascence garden quests spring to mind. These all used to contain kinks which prevented you from progressing if you did something in the wrong order, and the right order wasn't very well communicated.
The thing I'm most proud of is the Daily Mission system. I feel like all the effort and love that went into designing and implementing over a hundred missions payed off, people have been enjoying having new and varied things to do to level up.
Although, my colleagues think it's important for us to direct more of our focus on team gameplay right now, and I agree with them.
To be honest with you I did not consider the fact that some people are leveling up a LOT of characters at the same time when I made these missions - but I realize now that it makes it difficult for you to have time for anything else but daily missions, and this is something I that consider to be a drawback of this system.
The thing I am least proud of is all the times when I broke the game.
Means did a really good job both catching these mistakes and shielding me from the fire, but I am absolutely responsible for breaking the game on multiple occasions and I think at least every time I learned a lesson.
The first official newsletter will be released on Tuesday 31st of January (: