Guild Chat - Episode 58

Guild Chat - Episode 58

Title

The Hall of Chains

Host

Rubi Bayer

Guests

Jason Reynolds
Jessica Teddy Croft
Byron Miller
Kriss Watt
Samantha Rogers
Franco Galletta

Date

December 15, 2017

Official video

YouTube

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The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.

The 58th episode of Guild Chat aired on December 15, 2017. Host Rubi Bayer interviews some of the developers involved in the Hall of Chains raid release.

Transcription

Jason, Jessica and Byron [7:45]

hi everybody and welcome back to our
latest episode of guild chat I hope you
guys are all enjoying winter's day we're
talking about the newest raid wing today
so we're gonna jump right in I'll let
our dev guests introduce themselves
Jason hey I'm Jason Reynolds I'm a game
designer and team lead for raids i'm
jessica croft formerly a designer I'm
Byron formerly and currently array to
think you were a raid designer but you
still are but I still let you guys tell
us a little bit about what you each
worked on for this raid so let's see so
team lead so I kind of like oversaw
everything but what I actually made was
the broken King and the eater of souls
you have you have made the broken thing
I have made the broken game we should
definitely get into that I mean you also
steered the whole release he's like
you're the reason this happened I mean I
worked on specifically does Mina but
also a lot of the earlier parts of the
raid so the the ghost fortification that
you're in in the beginning you also did
the pre-event the pre route oh yeah
about that yeah all the stuff that came
out prior to the actual release so the
dead bodies and the spirits and the
journals and all that stuff that's me
and I was the designer for Doom and I
did most of if not all of the rewards
work so the bench of the and the
precursor and all that stuff was me I
mean to Hugh may I'm sorry that's right
everyone's been pronouncing de Hugh M
wrong
it's and this is totally for real and
legit but is I feel like that's a lie
but go ahead
I mean wooden potatoes gonna back me up
on this one its day hewn it's an old
pronunciation from some forgotten
languages yeah that was dumb
alright chat which one is it let us know
okay so why Byron only
why you only have made the broken King
seems like a good place to start you
just get tired yeah I fell asleep hat so
as with game development quite
developing things sometimes you make
adjustments or the story changes or
something doesn't fit or it's out of
scope or you know pick a reason game
development happens game development
happens and so there was a boss the duet
of mortality if we want to call it that
which had a really interesting mechanic
that we wanted to keep but we didn't
have room or the ability to do what we
wanted to do with it and so it became
the broken King would it be amazing if
we just had unlimited time and resources
to do everything we wanted to yeah
I'll just give you guys a second to
think about that magical world by
everything we wanted to I'm skeptical
this is an imaginary world I just roll
with it that's fair
I really wish we had kept the name duet
of mortality because that's totally like
a JRPG and boss name yeah boss is not a
JRPG which we're fun to do like a
throwback to the stuff I think
well you're the team lead so now that's
what everybody thinks that true I do
what I want but Byron often goes rogue
and that's when the really fun stuff
happens but you mentioned Guild Wars 1
the whole thing is like a huge Guild
Wars 1 throwback and how much fun was
that to make it was really fun I mean I
I played a lot of Guild Wars 1 I don't
know that I actually went to underworld
I definitely didn't fight doom and
gilworth 1 when it was you know the high
no I mean I did like and I would get run
through like a Fisher whoa and
everything but yeah it was really great
being able to do the research on it and
just learn about all the lore and the
little bits and the fun cool things that
have generated over the last you know
over a decade and then working with
Lindsay who actually made the original
doom encounter and getting her input on
it and sort of watching her just and I
enjoy seeing her her sort of legacy move
on and grow so it was it was
really cool experience I should have
assumed but I didn't realize that
Lindsay had a hand in this but oh yeah
yeah she probably kind of loved that
okay Jason you worked on statue of ice
and statue of death yeah okay yeah yeah
so statue of ice is a broken king event
that we just talked about creature but
this the statue of ice is where the
encounter takes place and then the the
statue of death is where the eater of
souls sort of resides and and what we
wanted there was I mean we wanted
players to learn a mechanic that happens
during the doom encounter but we also
wanted to make it sort of fun and have
its own feel and I wanted there to be a
lot of splitting the players up into
teams so that somebody has to do one
mechanic while the other players are
doing another mechanic and they just
kind of support each other and I think
it turned out pretty well it wasn't
designed to be you know a proper boss
fight yeah so it's not incredibly
challenging but it does require that
players work together and communicate
and have a strategy going in which turns
out Byron and I talked about this way
back when we started doing raids in
Guild Wars 2 how important it is to have
encounters where the players need to
communicate and cooperate and work
together and it's neat to see that you
guys continue continue with that I think
it's a pretty core fundamental like we
were talking about a jillion years ago
with raiding is that I think that like
coming from as an active Raider in other
games and in our game I most of my
memories are about the times I spent
with that group of people I mean I I
know Jessica and crystal like from 10
years ago because we we met each other
rating and to like 13 I don't know but
but that have told me those stories I
love them right and I think like yeah
like we I remember you know being up for
28 straight hours doing things like
rating and and I remember I with
rose-colored glasses of course how our
that was and how like terrible I felt at
times but those are the rose-colored
glasses dude wait no
yeah actually probably true because
probably worse than I remember but I
came out of that with really lasting
friendships and really lasting
relationships with those people and I
think that's like one of the things that
people tend to overlook with rating is
is what that can do for you I mean like
with any MMO it's all about community
right and rating is yeah kind of like
one of the pinnacle pinnacle events you
can do in relation to community cuz like
you you're you are a hundred percent
rely on everyone else in your raid
performing and knowing what the plan is
and communicating cannot be okay I mean
it's it's all it's all about like a
hundred percent what did you do Jason
just always sitting around waiting
I remember your nickname from when we
raided there's only gonna be a thimble
full of salt when you say this okay
coming yeah cubby can help we'll get
into that in another time like a cupcake
a lot of that really gross picture of
Myron cupcake Miller did every to get
that do your words is a wiki I will I
will change the subject and ask Jessica
that doesn't mean oh god I love Harold
you pulled this out of a single line of
lore in Guild Wars yeah doesn't mean it
was a blast to work on so sometimes we
have storylines that have carried
through from like ages ago
like from the beginning of the war as
one and we've had a plan for a character
all along does Amina definitely wasn't
one of those doesn't mean I was an
instance we needed we needed a boss and
we needed a powerful figure that you
could kind of learn from and work with
and I went back I looked through Guild
Wars 1 lore for the underworld and I
found this passage about rents first
follower who's does Nina and the passage
which I believe him find the wiki is
like the only reference to does Nina in
the in all of go where's one and I
believe there's a there is a point in
Chris called this Mina's Hollow so like
there's not a lot of stuff behind des
muna and it was a rule it was a pleasure
for me to be able work with Lindsay and
just the whole narrative team to try and
flesh out this story for des Mena and
make a full-fledged character out of her
and I I'm really satisfied with how she
how she came out just seeing like seeing
the voice actresses put the voice actors
put voiced her was like watching like
life being breathed in a play right some
but yeah sometimes our emergence
characters are most interesting ones so
did it make it easier I'm actually one
I've been wondering about this did it
make it easier to have this clean slate
to work with or was it harder not having
much to work not much to go on
I mean it's a different sub challenges a
clean slate you have more flexibility
sure but you also have you have less
structure right you could potentially do
something stupid the on the flip side
like working of a character that's been
in lore for a long long time you've got
you you really want to honor that
character and honor the intent of the
people who created the character and
take the characters story in a direction
that makes sense for them but also
continue to grow the character so it's
it's a completely different challenge
but they're they're both tough and the
under roll is full of callbacks as which
I'm sure everybody's noticed and because
of that it required a lot of research
and a lot of talking to people who
actually worked on the original content
just make sure we were honoring those
memories what I got a lot I got a lot of
PM's
about why doom doesn't yell in all caps
just remark you not all of the callbacks
made it but that one was well the chest
of doom still didn't have that one line
that was all caps oh yeah I think it's
rather than editing people here on our
party yeah I don't think what was it I
think they I think one of them is still
in all caps I think it's the transition
line for Phase three but like I think
it's like something like you
cannot contain the power of death or
something like that that seems like an
all cap statement right I think so yeah
grammar I was on Team all caps like I
won of all caps but for that particular
statement I will join team all caps I uh
I appreciate that that doom in the last
250 plus years has taken some time to
chill out and to brutal Korra lounging
yeah you see him in that chair and
you're like that guy that guy knows how
to get his chill on me so let's talk
about the doom fight a little bit and
I'm saying doom you guys can tell me
about the fight where the whole thing
first you cut your left foot in front of
your right foot
so that's gripped in the fight so doom
was it was real interesting and I think
we have some like like you say I'm
saying like you go through a process of
what works and what doesn't and we went
through a lot of changes with doom
regarding both the mechanics of what we
were trying to convey and whether or not
we were doing like the aesthetic and
what we were whether or not we were
actually accomplishing that and I think
that what we really focused on mostly
with this was the sort of ritual aspect
of what is happening in the fight the
reapers again as is been happening for
thousands of years have come to reseal
doom maybe it goes a little wrong this
time
maybe someone meant for that to happen
maybe someone didn't you know it sort of
remains to be seen but both both the the
the narrative aspect of the ritual and
the the fight mechanics sort of length
like are designed to be one in the same
you know you have very patterned
behaviors that you that you do expecting
the same outcome and those things are
fulfilled you you you send a person to
take the place of a reaper so that the
reaper doesn't get killed and that
person then goes up and performs a thing
by eating these little energy orbs you
know as you as you are - as you were
want to do and these
that process of repeated and repeated
and repeated one of the big parts of
ritual in in an anthropological sense in
a cultural sense is the repetition of
behavior towards a sort of agreed-upon
symbolic or spiritual and endgame right
and so a lot of what happens in the doom
fight is based around that concept the
concept of doing the same thing the
right way is is your path for success
and I think there's a moment where we
turn that on on its head for an
important narrative beat but in large
part I think that's what the goal was
with the design of the thing very pretty
happy with how came out I'm thrilled
with how it came out are you kidding
it's great oh my gosh everything about
it is like I look at it so I came out of
out of the Bastion right out of the best
of the penitent and and that was sort of
the first time that I had designed boss
fights for Guild Wars 2 and and then
also implemented them and and I learned
that I learned so much from that
experience that looking at how this was
received how players played it how the
goals that I set forth for players were
being actualized is just all it's really
incredible to watch I think one of the
great successes with Doom is the actual
narrative of what's going on there is
actually the mechanics you're playing
through a lot of boss fights have this
thing where the boss fight is kind of
divorced from what happens next
whereas doom it's the thing that happens
next is all tied in with the actual
actions you take during the fight yeah
yeah that's something that we're trying
to do more of with raids like they're
having encounters that make mechanical
sense is great but what I feel like
makes it really interesting encounters
when it's also telling a story or
supporting a story through mechanics and
so that's we started pushing on that
more with with doom first year yeah
having the combat and the narrative
having all of that meld together seems
like such an accomplishment so I'm glad
you're pushing on that and it takes a
smart
a lot of it is really hard yeah but you
guys just work in a vacuum and do it all
by yourselves and whatever you want
right I think we're back in that
imaginary exactly Byron you implemented
the rewards on this yes there anything
in particular you're extra happy about
Go Go well I I'm really so man I had
this crazy idea to put sitting in the
game and we got mount tags and we got
and and so like from the beginning I was
like man you know it'd be really cool if
doom was just like watching you for a
good part of the fight and just sort of
like evaluating whether or not he's even
worthy to come down off of his threat
and then I was like what players could
do that what if players could sit in
judgment of others on the bench right
and I and I feel like yeah and so we
worked I worked with cot and Bryan cots
our animator and Bryan's is one of our
environment and prop artists to to build
out a series of special poses for this
chair reward that you can get as a as a
drop in the thing and and and someone I
think it's dropped a couple times now
and the first person who got it I it was
really funny actually I went in game
because I saw the post I was like and I
went to like find the person to whisper
then we'd be like hey Congrats I'm so
excited for you I'm so thrilled and they
were perfect that's exactly what people
are gonna do with this like I called it
a while ago they're just going to sit
and look amazing while they do it and go
and leave their computer everybody can
take those screenshots and that they
don't have to like you know they have to
pay attention to it it's just like it's
a way of saying like hey I look like I
got a I got a message like 30 minutes
later being like oh hey you know thanks
see how I like the prediction was
perfect do we don't have any of those
have dropped so far I know of two I
don't I don't know if there are more and
they the the container that it drops in
is tradable but I don't think anyone's
put it on the trading post
right like I wouldn't I would I would
double-click that thing in a second and
it puts like the thing is like it puts
you in this cool like that
Asura are like I like the Norn females
got this really regal like judgment ban
the poses are really cool oh my gosh we
need we need a gallery if this somebody
just go through every character you have
make sure you have something in every
race because I need to see them all in
some of them are similar I think the the
rig's that share similar animation
machines or rigging share some poses I
think um human male sylvari female and
male and noren male sure at the same
poses there's some that got special ones
they just obviously can't do the like
real far back lean and the char sit
there and like tap their claws on it's
so good the Asura could do the real far
back lean it's just their feet stick
straight I don't know what happens act I
wanted them to be lying backwards on it
like like leaning back but like I just
know how to sit I think what's really
cool about it yes exactly right they
just like what this has come before
always but one of the things that's cool
about it is we built this item alongside
a bank of animations that it can be
extended right and so like if we when we
do more stuff like this we have the
option to extend it to other parts of
the game I know there was some concern
about like you've added sitting behind
the hardest possible boss in the game
behind like you know like behind a
random drop like we built it in mines
that we could extend it to other places
so you can look for those things I'm
waiting for this Looney tune came to
like just drag my office I don't know
man if they needed a Looney tune cave
King me I had some things like I'm so
glad you brought that up and I'm so glad
you went there because I've been
thinking like all week how do I ask this
without sounding completely combative
and like you know why Byron so thank you
for letting us know that that's a thing
that can be extended because that's
awesome news I mean that's good news for
everybody who like me probably will not
have that reward anytime soon not that
attitude
you're right I'm not that's believing
okay I believe that I probably cuz it's
Friday and Christmas is coming in up in
I'm busy all right so we know that's
like that was one of your highlights we
have this reward um why don't you guys
tell me about some more things that you
especially loved about creating this
content but please don't all fight over
going first I mean I really I I still
really did latched on to being able to
throw in sort of like hidden Guild Wars
one references and like little Easter
eggs I don't know the players have found
all of them but there's there's some
cool stuff hidden around there and and
yeah do you wanna do you wanna just wait
I think you can give hints if you want
but I'm not gonna make you know I mean
they're they're fun and they're they're
just sort of references and you know
Jessica worked really hard to have
references between the early release
content and like stuff that's in the
raid and even if you don't want to or
aren't able to like you know kill
everything in the raid right now you can
still sort of hop around and find some
ledges and whatnot and so threatening
but yeah like there's stuff to go find
and explore in there and it's fun little
lower bombs
yeah there's especially if you're a long
time player it just feels good to go in
there and see what all you guys have put
in there so Thank You Lindsay yeah the
more T Surrey content the the stuff that
came in the release prior to the actual
rate release was really satisfying for
me to work on just because I I wanted
raids to have more of a place in the
actual world I think some of the earlier
raids suffered a bit from the fact that
they kind of exists largely in this
vacuum there they're a place you go to
you and the story doesn't tie into the
meaning as much as it could whereas with
the underworld you find clues that that
lead to the conclusion that you're going
to underworld before the actual release
and also
there's this kind of this call that
doesn't mean it's sending out that you
actually see the ramifications of on
NPC's in the world and you see people
trying to answer to a call and dying and
that gives us the rate of much a much
more tangible link to the actual court
area experience and I thought that was
really that's really satisfying to do
it's also super satisfying to watch
everybody speculate about what does this
mean who read that kind of like one
person got it on the thread by though in
the reddit thread one person was like
you know it could be this one in like
call that des Mina and then like there
was like radio silence after that post
for that person I was like oh man like
one person one person gets it right and
then like five people call him an idiot
yeah I mean because that's reddit you're
not and one of the really fun things for
me has always been when speculation
threads start all over the place someone
always will stumble on it just by law of
how many people are speculating
someone's gonna accidentally hit that
bullseye and it's so much fun for me
finding that person and then just
waiting and I always want to do like a
little remind me but I've never your
personal account there was one guy who I
don't remember what the content was but
they were like oh my gosh if Guild Wars
2 does such-and-such I will give my
firstborn and it was a Monday and they
had hit it on the head so I came back
after that content released and just
said hi you may call me Ren that feels
good come to collect all right so before
we take a moment and swap out with a
couple more dev guests I would love to
hear you guys talk about some of these
stuff that happened in development that
maybe needed to be fixed and please
explain this note that I have about
little do Me In The Great Escape so will
do me so our internal name for the
challenge moat
Kreacher the enders echo that spawned
some challenge mode he's basically or a
Dumba right he's like a Roomba right he
chooses a direction he runs in that
direction till he hits a wall and then
he chooses another direction he's not
particularly efficient at it but we
called him little team and we were
having a play test and the collision on
the door hadn't been set up yet or
properly but the implementation for the
challenge mode was working and so we
went in to test it we you know we
activated the challenge boat and like he
spawns in stress running it was like
okay the way watch out like and then and
then we start fighting the boss would
get really into it and someone at some
point was like hey dooms
dooms left he's running down the door
kept on going and just knit we never saw
him again
and it was just sort of this moment we
were like well yeah I guess that was
gonna happen
you found the portal to tyria no not
quite I have to say that I'm completely
throwing in my vote for calling him
Doomba Doomba that was you just missed
the boat not leaving that there that was
so good
I liked it
you could put a cat on top of him with a
knife taped to the side and then it's a
dude then it's actually a doom but you
see that yeah I know I'm just giving you
that look like right I totally forgot
about that but good job remembering um
Jessica you had an attack mechanic on
des Nina that seems super infuriating
and I didn't I didn't want to know until
right now if that was deliberate and you
just decided it was cruel so it was
deliberate hey the original version with
DES Mina all her attacks knocked back
and a lot of the gameplay around her was
trying to manage her your positioning on
the platform so you didn't go flying off
the edge like just thinking about which
like I still like that mechanic but in
retrospect maybe a little infuriating we
did a lot of play tests and like and
festal got a little bit bad at me I read
speak
face like he did not get out of the way
enough I did not and I hate getting
knocked back there are some benefits to
it in that it bypasses some of the
mitigation that players tend to rely on
a lot in our game so it challenges you
in different ways but the simple fact
that you lose control your character
often there's also like a thematic
reasoning which is the necromancers
don't really have a lot of knock backs
that's true and they tend to be more
like you fear things or you poison
things there were you having your minion
I do that that's a necromancer warrior
dude laughs this is a hammer
it's a scythe hammer where's the hook so
two eight point I mean I hate losing
control of my character that's sure
that's the thing that is super
infuriating to eight point if I get
knocked down or if I get knocked back
it's because I was being bad and did not
get out of the way I was not paying
attention so to a point those mechanics
are great because they're willing on
something but every attack I would be so
angry
don't get hit you fire that bad down is
your fault fine
to a point whoever made her calm down
with this thank you there's like if you
ever seen the early versions of most
fights they're usually there's usually
something in them that will make you
throw your keyboard this is why we
played that's great well yeah that's
that's hilarious and great for leaving
it in there to a point thank you guys
very very much we're going to take a
quick break and introduce some more deaf
guests so thank you guys I will let you
get back to work

Kriss [36:06]

all right I am here with one of our web
programmers here to Reno net to talk to
you guys about a feature we recently
added to the game that you were very
happy with so Chris I'll let you
introduce yourself talk a little bit
about what you do here to reading it
sure thanks
my name is Chris what some people might
know me on Twitter is black line chess
I've been here in net for two years
moves over to this
from the UK a year ago and it's been
been fantastic here yeah I work as a
programmer on the web team and so we do
various things kind of around the game
so all of the game websites there's
projects inside the game so I think it's
like the Trading Post in the gem store I
specifically have kind of worked on the
path of fire launcher which was a big
rebuild and yet recently these kind of
books interface which we just shipped
with episode 1 yeah the path of fire
launcher was a really good project that
turned out beautifully and everybody was
super happy with it but more recently
the books in her face we added into game
and got a hugely fun response everybody
seems very very happy with it how do you
and I know this is something that's been
in the background for a while and we've
been trying to get this off the ground
how did you come to be the one that
brought this to completion sure it's
life so it was probably about a year ago
somebody else on the web team started
off kind of kicked it off as a side
project kind of quality of life feature
they wanted to see in the game and
there's a lot of people around here and
they're players who've wanted to see it
for a long time
yeah so they kind of got it to a kind of
proof of concept and then I picked it up
from them built it out kind of what
there is now and as you say we've been
trying to get it kind of launched into
the game for a while there was kind of
talk about getting it into a couple of
previous releases there was talk of
getting it into a path afire itself yeah
and then we finally managed to get it in
it found his home in episode 1 awesome
thank you so much were you were you
watching play reactions when it went in
there
yeah well it's um it was funny it ended
up we kind of got in on the second day
that was it was a hotfix that actually
enabled it in the end you said kind of
various complications and so it was sort
of a stealth launch really we kind of
soft launched it and so yeah when we
finally kind of saw things start popping
up on social media that was really
excited to see players yeah that
probably was really really gratifying as
much work has going on behind the scenes
yes definitely it's definitely one of
those projects that kind of has kind of
died and then been brought back to life
a couple of times well thank you for
making at the Phoenix event not sure all
right so you've got hopes I mean we're
not just gonna throw this down and walk
away you've got some hopes for this in
the future yeah that's definitely the
case so we've had some fantastic
feedback from players one of the biggest
crises for kind of some kind of
bookshelf a library system which is
something there have been kind of
questions about but we have nothing kind
of like solidly plans yet the thinking
was that we would get this out with
Episode one see what the feedback was
like and then hopefully kind of look at
doing some more things to it at some
point in the future
Ida would definitely I'd definitely like
to working on these kind of quality of
life features is probably my favorite
part of kind of working here as someone
who played the game for kind of three
years before I joined her Internet it's
still very much my favorite thing today
yeah it's really gratifying to get that
in the game and know that you made this
difference yeah absolutely so well and
like we've talked about the keychain and
we talked about the additions to
material storage for a long time it's
not just like a one-and-done okay it's
been a week we've got this thing out
this is kind of an ongoing thing yeah
absolutely that was that was the plan we
wanted to get this kind of first
iteration on it first base system in
which is you know a fantastic kind of
addition to the game I think and then
yeah take it from there and see where we
can make improvements and kind of add
new features yeah it'll be fun to watch
over time where this goes official
alright well thank you very much Chris I
appreciate your time and thank you guys
also for all of the feedback on this
thanks for helping us make Guild Wars 2
better

Jason, Samantha and Franco [39:47]

all right we are back with a
couple more of our developers for the
latest raid wing I'll let you two
introduce yourselves and talk about what
you worked on for this raid I'm Samantha
Rogers I'm a creature artists and I
worked on doom and that's about the
world Hayden I'm Frank of leather the
effects lead for ego wars too and I
worked on the raid for the effects
standpoint okay so I want to talk about
redesigning do because we've got like
this guy that's been around for ages and
bringing him into this game seems like a
big job so how did she get started on
that it wasn't like all by yourself I
had help from like everyone where did
you start I mean actually you gave us
some really awesome concept art that
kind of helped me see where you were
going with this but you choose where did
you start bringing
from Guild Wars 1 in Cold War's - I
think either our concept artists or our
animator was the first one to get
started on it
Thank You Sveta yeah so if you want to
bring up the yeah that feta did like the
first official concept for it and I
think at the time the story for him was
different so there were some things in
it that I decided to take out and our
animator cut also did some paintings for
him for of his idea he jumps in a lot
first thing to throw in his ideas for
the raid bosses I've noticed
I keep hearing his name it seems like he
was super helpful yeah he's uh he's
really in turrets I'd say yeah a concept
caught one of our animators and he's
done animations for I think all the
raids since three maybe two I think you
worked on two actually which is okay
well if you can't remember we're all in
trouble yeah I think he actually did the
white mantle boss which is Mathias oh
yeah I still call everything by his
internal names
fortunately doom is doom internally
depending on unless you wanna have a
fight about how to pronounce it yeah
generally it's that guy how should I
explain that the weird pronunciation
things you can't if you like theirs so
internally when we don't have voice
acting done we use Robo voice oh there's
rubber voice and so every time dooms
name is said he would go to human that's
how I call him the whole way through
[Laughter]
yeah
Robo boys we've talked about Robo voice
on the show before and I've gotten such
a kick out of how it has trouble
pronouncing some things and I was saying
on a previous show the highlight of my
career as far as that goes was hearing
Robo voice try to say which was amazing
just like a perfect it was like it was
just like a little buzzing noise it was
fantastic I remember it used to say
Balthazar
Balthasar yeah sir I'm so sad that I've
never got to hear her voice see do it
was enchanting
alright so Franco do you want to talk a
little bit about your work on this
rating oh well is definitely a
collaborative effort from everyone just
coming together and trying to figure out
what works best like the designers doing
they're working on instance they're
trying to get the player through the
instance and Pat them through when the
effect standpoint we want to make sure
that we're helping communicate some of
the skills a design and it actually
communicates what they're trying to
achieve so messaging it's a big part of
it so I also come out with a color
palette that works well with the
environment and also you could tell that
it's coming from that particular boss
yes because there's so many skills being
thrown down and so many different other
colors I feel like greens and blues will
feature very very heavily and what
you're working with when you're setting
this up yeah yeah what we did is early
on we ended up just getting what the map
looked like the base and just doing a
seeing what local color is in the
environment and then from there we could
get our color palette ranges and from
the effect standpoint know what works
well doesn't get too lost especially
where it's important with the
communication yeah I'm messaging so
where did you start with communicating
as far as like the final encounter since
Samantha work to undo manned by or
unscripted that fight where did you
start on how do we want to communicate
everything how many different teams are
you working with here well it's a a lot
of design you know with the with Byron I
worked closely Byron Jason and also to
is you know this is someone that's very
powerful so you also want to convey his
power through his skills that he's
putting down so like a little windy
effects
yeah no no little cloud puffs and yeah
yeah none of that but also too is like
you know he's he's also kind of the
design was that he's contained within
this armor right so there's a there's an
essence that you know it's a lot more
powerful but he's just kind of contained
and holding it back it's it still
reigned in a little bit yeah still
reigned in yeah
yeah so I was a can't you have an
example of like a one of his big skills
that you had to Telegraph well one of
the things that we've heard that really
early was the growing on decal that was
the but so the one that basically the
decal grew out and then there was a
larger I think it was uh that was which
one was that that was the one with the
wind yeah yeah was that then also the
harvest - that was another one where
basically a portal opens up and dooms
hand and arm comes pulling you yeah and
that was actually something that was
pulled in from Guild Wars one where you
know when someone's banished someone's
banding guild was one doom comes out and
you know sites him down or whatever it
and that's kind of what inspired
okay so banned which I had also
forgotten about but I was thinking when
you said vanished there was the UM is
that the Shiro fight where somebody was
somebody was banished it was like always
me in every group which is why I was
like oh that yeah the doom banning in
Guild Wars one was and it was such a hit
like everybody okay probably not
everybody enjoyed it but the spectators
quite enjoyed it so a callback got
banned on purpose just that just that
just feels like a first-person it's
probably true though well what were some
of the best parts of working on this for
you guys I don't I mean for me like it
was getting everything organized
then sort of like telling the story of
doom and like working with you know Sam
and cot and and Byron to tell the story
of doom and what's going on in that
encounter but then also trying to give
our little section of the underworld
some life yeah
you know it's not the entire underworld
it's only a section it's just the ice
waste on if you're familiar with Guild
Wars one there's some like seven areas
and we just that's a huge map and we
didn't have really the story to tell we
wanted to tell dooms story which is only
in the ice waste and so that's why
you're there but it was really
interesting for us to take you know what
what was the map like in Guild Wars 1
and how can we retool it and there's
some interesting Laura that we ended up
running with which is you know the the
underworld is part of the mist and the
mist is sort of ever-changing and and so
it allowed us to insinuate that the
underworld is sort of fluctuating and
morphing and altering depending on like
what the needs are so that allowed us a
lot of bandwidth I guess you could say
to do whatever we wanted with the ice
waste and so we chose to make it a lot
more like like ravines and and just deep
drops and really high cliffs and
precarious sort of nature of just like
spiky ice environment but yeah like just
coming up with all that stuff and
finding ways to make it seem purposeful
because it's not natural right was was
kind of fun and interesting and then
getting the the flow and and also you
know experimenting with like the statue
of ents and how that works inside of a
raid and kind of breaking from our
traditional or like deviating I guess
from our traditional very linear path of
like you know boss event boss event I
guess it's sort of still is that but at
least in this set up you can choose
three different mini events and do them
in any order and in the configuration
having a little more choice about how
you do that is
yeah and they're all very different and
so you have to I think there's just a
little bit of something in there for
everyone which was really fun to explore
yeah okay so Sam I feel like you had so
much fun with the concept art of doing
if we can take another peek at that when
you sent me that we I like there were
people crowded around my computer and we
were all looking at that um I do that to
all my concept
[Laughter]
yeah I had an idea for one of his
attacks being like a soul bursts that
came from his chest and it was just like
beamed down at the players and destroy
them and this chest could like open up
like a bunch of like fingers or ribs its
opening up like that that's horrifying
and fantastic thoughts and he would say
those lines that I put there in the
concept yeah and also I kind of like
concept and how the players would react
to that I really do like that so that is
it was this like your template for
effects on it okay big green thing with
actually it was pretty fun if we if we
couldn't do it if we wanted to do it we
could do it but there's obviously based
on the mechanics based on the attacks
you know we didn't go that route yeah
you actually yeah it floats up yeah so
yeah he's still kind of set those lines
though yeah I was hoping for if it
wasn't for your pesky kids
yeah well thank you guys very very much
for your time and especially for the
concept art cuz that was kind of a thing
Beauty all right and thank you guys for
spending some time with us this
afternoon I will let you guys get back
to work as always and thank you guys
we'll see you on the next Gil jet

External links

• Guild Chat Episode 58 - The Hall of Chains on ArenaNet's official channel on YouTube

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