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Polygon Interview - Caves and Storytelling in The War Within
The War Within
Publié
19/07/2024 à 13:04
par
Archimtiros
In an interview with Polygon, Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton and Lead Prop Artist Jordan Powers discuss the first chapter of the World Soul Saga, revealing that the War Within is about more than just its initial focus on the Alliance may suggest - it also focuses on caves and intimate storytelling!
Story and Lore Interview with Polygon
A Character Driven Story
One of the main talking points is how much the story centers on Alliance stories rather than Horde ones, especially following the more neutral state between the two factions following Battle for Azeroth. A big focus of which is Anduin Wrynn, recently returned to the spotlight after his sojourn in the Shadowlands.
Maria Hamilton, via Polygon
I think we wanted to move away, except where it made a lot of sense, from having different stories being told. Sometimes we want you to understand a slightly different nuance, and then we might have a separate Horde-only or Alliance-only story. But in general, for our main story, we really wanted to make sure everyone understood that same story.
We did think a lot about where we have Horde representation and Alliance representation. And, of course, we know what we’re doing in the future, as well. And so we’re just trying to make sure that nobody’s feeling like their particular interest isn’t being represented as much as possible, because it’s a saga. Right? We have room to spread things out over a longer period of time. And it may be that that people are reacting to. They’re seeing this first chapter — not even the full chapter, really. But they’re seeing this first installment and saying, ‘Wow, that seems like a lot of Alliance characters.’ But there are Horde characters that are there. And there will be more later.
We wanted to do justice to Anduin’s story here. We wanted to make sure that he didn’t just suddenly feel better and be chipper. That would have really cheated everyone of the story. We wanted the depths of his self-doubt and sort of anguish at times to be more clear. And we wanted to contrast him with Faerin who doesn’t have those doubts and does wield the Light. ’s doubting himself and his worthiness. And so putting him in a situation, like what we have happening in Hallowfall, where he’s seeing these people that are just constantly beleaguered by endless waves of Nerubians that are attacking all the time, and then giving him time with Faerin, and giving him time in their city to reflect and to talk through some of the things that he’s experienced — very intentional setting for that. The choices that he makes later are based a lot on those conversations that he had in .
Regarding the newfound focus on a longer story that spans multiple expansions, the broad strokes are planned out, so the developers know which direction its heading and who they'll be running into, allowing them to setup story beats and familiarity with these cultures ahead of times.
Jordan Powers, via Polygon
To borrow an art analogy, we have the broad strokes sort of planned out. We can see where we’re going, what cultures and races and characters that we’re going to be interacting with throughout the course of this whole saga. And like Maria said, it allows us to make adjustments — you know, make sure we’re hitting all the right flavor notes along the way.
Developing a World Within
The majority of The War Within taking place underground introduces a new world view for players and designers alike, leveraging lessons learned form Zaralek Cavern to stack The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and Azj-Kahet atop one another rather than the traditional spread of outdoor world zones.
Maria Hamilton, via Polygon
Well, as far as the story side of things, having things within a pocket, as you’re saying, it’s a little tighter, it’s a little closer. But at the same time, we can tell more sort of personal stories about that place, and about some of those people. Sometimes you’ll come across a place that doesn’t look like it’s been used much, there’s not much happening there. And sometimes that’s really intentional, because we want that environmental storytelling to do the work for us. You come across the place and you wonder, ‘Well, what happened here?’ So sometimes you don’t have to build things in those tighter spaces to tell the story. Sometimes you just have to step back from it and say, ‘all right, they’ll imagine what happened here, this is cool.’
Jordan Powers, via Polygon
I think, you know, artistically, there were some challenges when creating just four unique zones, three of which were underground. One of the big things that we were mindful of, from an art perspective, was trying to make sure that all these spaces that we’re crafting are not too claustrophobic, too dark, too oppressive, because nobody really wants to spend, you know, an extended period of time in an environment like that. So what we did was we tried to strike a delicate balance between still nailing the fantasy of venturing deeper underground, but also providing players with some new, unexpected things that they’ll encounter along the way. And I think a great example of that is when you come out of The Ringing Deeps into Hallowfall, you see, you know, the shot of the giant crystal coming out of the cavern ceiling, you see the endless ocean. It’s not something players would really expect to see in an underground area.
Ending on a final cryptic note, it also sounds like there's still a lot of room for exploration, as already evidenced by the shockingly diverse biomes of Hallowfall, The Ringing Deeps, and Azj-Kahet.
Maria Hamilton, via Polygon
Yes, a hole goes down, or to the sides. But sometimes it also gets blocked, and then you have to try different ways to do things, and that’s not always a hole. There’s more to it than going down.
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