Game news World of Warcraft The War Within faced a major development challenge: player claustrophobia
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The developers of the next World of Warcraft expansion speak out. On this occasion, they reveal the main aspect on which they wish to work: the feeling of claustrophobia which could disturb the players.
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When Blizzard wanted to design the expansion World of Warcraft: The War Withina problem emerged: how to ensure that the new zones are consistent with the story while preventing claustrophobic players from being uncomfortable? The new extension of Word of Warcraft seems to be a significant challenge for the company, which has already paid the price for an area that has displeased in the past. That said, the development team intends to catch up.
The internal war
The new content will allow players to travel directly inside Azeroth. It is in an interview with PC Gamer that director Ion Hazzikostas confides. For him, it's not just the cramped interior spaces that worries developers: it's the darkness. Players have historically reacted poorly to monochrome, dark, and ominous areas. “The lair”, in the extension Shadowlands on the theme of life after death, for example, was hated by players because it met all three criteria.
The challenge is to get an area that doesn't make players feel these feelings. These underground spaces must resonate with the universe that is World of Warcraft.
Notable difficulties
To stay on the development of the extension The War Within, it is Gabriel Gonzalez who informs us of the technical difficulties. The artist and director of visual development, raised a question during a group discussion on the ideas and back to zero of the creation of said zone.
The underground theme can be quite dark. So how do we navigate this feeling of oppression? What we did was look at various elements of the story to find ways to bring in interesting lighting, beautiful settings, and captivating atmospheric effects that fuel this fantasy of being underground of discovering a wonderful world beneath. our feet.
Although we are underground, the final zones did not give the impression of being underground. Sometimes too colorful, sometimes too fantasized, the settings resembled neither the world of WoW nor caves. Still according to Gonzalez, it's not at all what you'd expect from a typical cave. World of Warcraft: The War Within is expected this year and the press feedback after the alpha is encouraging.