An Interview with our Level Design Department

Great info, and interesting to get a peek into the world of game creation.

Also, huuuuge Pirates of the Burning Sea shout out; loved that game.

Nice, i find it interesting and i enjoyed the read

thanks for the insights, very interesting read.

Interesting interview and it mentioned that talk about the level generation I didn't know about before, just googled and found super interesting. I'm stupid when it comes to numbers and code, but I enjoy the logic/thought behind such things (and getting more ideas for how to conceptualise modular environments is always welcome since my only experience with that is a student project in fifth semester three years ago that did not use anything random).
Also, I love the labyrinth visually. The lighting on the parts where the interiors and exteriors meet always gets me (almost killed because I'm going "so nice!"). And the ground textures of the mansion thing (say hi to your texture artists, please, I think they did an amazing job).

Anyway, I really like those "talk about the process" posts, as I enjoy game development and learning about more of it. I like making games probably even more than playing them (dammit me, why all those time-consuming hobbies?!), so thanks for taking those devs aside to ask them questions. :D
I'd love to read an interview with the art team as well. The concept designers especially. Design process for art assets, thought process, everything (sorry, I'm just curious and hope to learn a few things <3). Pipeline would be interesting as well – from first idea/briefing to finished in-game asset. Preferrably for environment pieces. Please? *makes Belly of the Beast puppy eyes*

(speaking of which, did anyone else from GGG give talks or presentations at conventions or conferences which have been recorded and are accessible somewhere on the internet?)

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Bex_GGG wrote:

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IchiMorghulis wrote:

Thanks Bex, interesting read, could you do one with the arts team?

I can look into it. Are there any specific topics or job roles you'd be interested in hearing about?

Concept Art

it's not super important for me to know this to be able to enjoy the game...ALTHOUGH!
this is exactly what makes people people stick around!

few years and a few office upgrades later, and you still act like the friendly neighbors you are :)

Please god no more stuff like the labrynth.

thx for the interviews!
the leveldesign is very nice in path of exile i think
now that ive been doing labyrinth for a while, i usually get a reaction "there must be a hidden switch there" when im playing normal maps also
kinda funny

great job guys ! keep it up

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The Ascendancy expansion introduced The Trials of Ascendancy and The Lord's Labyrinth. How does the level design for these areas differ from the rest of the game?

Josiah D: Well, we added traps, which is thematically really cool, but mechanically pretty tricky to keep fun in Path of Exile. Wherever traps are involved, we're doing a lot of classic level design, making a very specific thing for a player to interact with in a set of specific ways. This is the first time we've done dangerous terrain in the game, and we needed to add some new tech and do a lot of tuning to get it to play well. We're not done yet actually, as extended playtesting and feedback from the community continues to expose things we can improve and iterate on.

feedback: add some light sources to trap areas, light radius is too OP atm, especially if you aren't WB user(=you can't just ignore traps).