Guild Chat - Episode 97

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.
The 97th episode of Guild Chat aired on January 31, 2020.
Transcription[edit]

Warning, the following text is a raw transcript from the youtube video, this has to be structured.
'''[[Wolf (Spirit of the Wild)|Wolf Spirit]]''': You are all wondering why I've called for you. The [[kodan]] ignore our voices. They cannot speak to [[Corrupted Ox Spirit|Ox]], [[Corrupted Eagle Spirit|Eagle]] or [[Corrupted Wolverine Spirit|Wolverine]]. But [[Braham Eirsson|Braham]] can.
'''[[Braham Eirsson]]:''' Why me?
'''Wolf Spirit:''' You are a [[norn]] of [[prophecy]], but you are not yet true norn. Take the lost [[Spirits of the Wild|Spirits]]' power. Use it against [[Drakkar]]. Only then will you find a place for my spirit within your own.
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
'''[[Rubi Bayer]]:''' Hi [[Tyria]], happy Friday and welcome to [[Guild Chat]].
I'm your host, Rubi, and we're going to spend some time today talking about [[Shadow in the Ice|episode two]]. Quick spoiler warning as always. The episode is out, it's been a few days we're going to be talking about everything today, so the spoiler gates are open. You guys get to talk about everything. If you haven't played through everything yet and you don't want spoilers, watch it later after you've played. We get to— Oh soso is that just so that I don't yell
spoiler alert and then the big alarm
blares oh you can say spoiler alert if
you want to okay
spoiler alert the moment has passed so
we're gonna talk about episode two maybe
talk about a few things that we have
coming up give a few hints show a few
thinks if you guys have questions for
any of our deaf guests today put them in
chat we will take as many as we have
time for at the end of each segment so
let's jump right in with our first two
dev guests why don't you guys introduce
yourselves talk about what you do here
at ArenaNet for our newcomers and what
you worked on for episode 2 uh cool I'm
Alex Kane I'm a senior writer and
narrative designer here at ArenaNet I
wrote all the words in episode 2 if you
make it sound like such a small thing
that's no big deal
yes literally you know how many words
that we ended up being I need a number
they they asked us I got the problem is
that I have two numbers I have the vo
count and I have the four we wrote four
there are four words for four words
there only four words the good one a lot
of reuse yeah what he means is bored
languages and you wrote the words in all
those languages I think it's more than
four languages I know that's that was
fun
that was fun we're done hi hi
rich I'm a game designer and for this
episode I kind of helped out around the
place and then worked primarily on
Drakkar whoa boss all right well why
don't we jump right on in and talk about
so you wrote all the words and then you
put them in an order uh-huh that made
some sense yeah that's the tricky part
it's easy to just throw a bunch of stuff
down but yeah you got to rearrange him
all right so where does that start with
story breaking yes so we you know we we
table viously had a pretty high level
view for what we wanted to do for you
know these these episodes for you know
the iceberg saga where we wanted things
to go we worked in tandem pretty closely
with the episode 1 team because as folks
know now the maps were sort of designed
in tandem so that the map for episode 2
could expand the episode 1 map so when
we were talking about the story we
wanted it to feel like an extension of
the episode 1 story so that the two kind
of felt like a cohesive whole so that
meant that the story beats in episode 1
in episode 2 were sort of hashed out at
the same time but because of the way our
schedules work episode 1 came together
and crystallized a lot sooner than
episode 2 and so we had time to sort of
look and see what worked and you know
what we felt we could improve on a
little bit for episode 2 things like
spooky encounters where we could drop
those in things like the focus of the
story what interested us the most we
knew that we were going to go to juke-r
lake because that was you know that was
the that was the area that we had picked
and we knew that that meant that the
story had to focus on her car to some
degree you know obviously folding the
world boss into the into the golden path
the main story was was a pretty early
goal for us too so yeah we you know we
we do it the same way we do any episode
is that you know we all sat down in a
room and we hashed out what the story
beats were and where we wanted the
player to go and how many chapters do
were and who the characters were going
to be that we focused on and I think we
got like a screenshot look at the
picture from the story breaking session
yeah so it all starts with
on a whiteboard that is in fact this
whiteboard and you know where we're
asking ourselves questions like you know
okay you know we're sort of teasing
throughout the story
hey is Braham under the influence of the
whispers is Braham going to turn to Jormag's side and that's a―that's a thread that we played with―with [[Rytlock Brimstone|Rytlock]] and [[Crecia Stoneglow]] as well you know over the course
of development you know the events that
you focus on change the characters that
you focus on change Rytlock and Crecia
originally had a role in the main story
that you did that wasn't off camera but
as different events sort of coalesced we
realized that we wanted the focus to be
more on Braham and his story we tried to
flesh out luck increases sort of
off-screen adventure tracking down
Bangar and Bangar's army and
ultimately everyone sort of comes
together for this big finale moment
where you have to take on Drakkar. Brahm
needs to you know he needs to become the
norn and he was always meant to be and
finally take down Drakkar and then
there's a little twist at the end too
we're in spoiler territory so go nuts
yeah
Bangar just shoots you he just he just
shoots you he just ganks you that was
that obviously was a thing that I had
not I hadn't played through ahead of
time so I got the experience of having
that on live and just had this moment of
yeah I mean I kind of knew you're a jerk
but man I'm not okay with this
yeah it was it was a good twist yeah it
was um you know we knew that we wanted
to and this is one of those things that
just sort of happens over the course of
development the Eye of the North was
something that we'd been wanting to you
know find a way to get it into the
episode somehow and we weren't quite
sure how to do it we weren't sure if it
was going to be an episode one thing if
it was going to be between episodes 1 &
2 or 4 it was going to be episode 2 or
if we were going to save it for future
content but ultimately we had just sort
of broken the story and then I can't
remember who it was came―he was like hey
we need to go to the Eye of the North at the
end of this episode okay well we will
figure that out we need to do that we
need
figure out a good way to get the player
to the Eye of the North and so that sort
of coalesced into this idea that you
know okay we know that Bangar is gonna
turn on the player we know that Bangar
is going to play his hand right now
Bangar is going to steal the credit
for killing Drakkar and use that to
unite the charr how can we sort of remove
the Commander from the equation a little
bit and so things just sort of came
together where he's got Braham's bow it's
incredibly powerful it's incredibly you
know it's got this magic imbued in it
that can actually take out Jormag yeah
can kill Elder Dragons yeah so it could
definitely down the commander and and so
that became the impetus to have the
player then get spirited away to or eeen
in the eye of the north and that was a
big sort of reveal moment for us
showing off Aurene in her Elder Dragon
form being able to talk to her having
conversation having conversations with
her learning a little bit more about her
is actually this is like kind of a
spoiler but not really there was a
dialogue option that should have been in
her dialogue tree that wasn't turned on
so I highly recommend that when we
update I think in a couple of weeks two
weeks I can't remember a little bit a
little bit less now there's gonna be a
new dialogue option in there it's like
two lines but it was a nice little piece
of Aurene dialogue sort of her talking
about her relationship with the Mist
Mists and just the one mist
there are many Mists the Mists yeah
that's canon now but yeah like it was it
was just one of those like fun little
little gifts that you get you know we're
like hey by the way you get to end the
episode by showing off are we and going
to the Eye of the North which is you know a
huge opportunity and I was really happy
that we were able to sort of make good
on that yeah so I have a question you
had mentioned I have the north and we've
got Orion
this who we've just raised from an egg
at this point literally several years we
have Drakkar we have Drakkar Lake
this whole thing is goes back especially
for longtime players those of you that
have been playing since way back in
Guild Wars 1 this whole thing is like a
giant nostalgia bomb how much how much
fun was that
and was there a certain amount of okay
we really need to make sure we get this
right there there was a lot of that um a
lot of pressure for sure yes thing
things in how we handle your car for
example is is a good example
you know Guild Wars one players know
what Drakkar looked like in Guild Wars
1 and we have to look at that and if we
say ok well we want Drakkar to be a
world boss what does that mean what what
should heat what should you what should
your car be able to do and so we have
those discussions and you know we're
we're looking at the design of your car
and we're thinking about ok well in the
intervening you know 250 plus years
after Guild Wars 1 after absorbing all
of this dark―this dark Jormag magic
what does that do to a creature how does
that change a creature you know this
mechanic of Drakkar being of this went
through the ice and stuff like that you
know it's not it's not cool if your cars
just locked in ice and you're just
fighting you're fighting this thing
that's stuck in solid ice and so you
know we did that the design discussions
sort of crystallized no pun intended
around the idea that your car could move
through solid ice like it was water and
re-emerge in different parts of the
arena so you'll definitely want to talk
a little bit more about like the genesis
of that but I will say the the the way I
sort of described to the team Drakkar's
physical appearance shifting due to this
influx of Jormag magic over the last
you know couple of centuries is the
Drakkar that you saw in Guild Wars 1
was like the original form like and then
and then it evolves into a new form your
car your car Guild Wars 2 it's gonna
come up with like a pokemon-esque name
for the evolved version of Drakkar
honestly I I can't see chat but I don't
know how many of you have said final
form yeah I would love to know
well it's waiting for you to say it so
it's fun to see like what happens to a
creature that big whenever they have so
much Jormag magic because we've kind of
shown like some pretty grotesque
transformations from the ice brood I
think there's this you know the Icebrood Colossus that looks like he's
big and hulking and if you look inside
of the the skull of that creature you
can see or the face of that creature you
can see the skull of a spawner and so
that was once a person right so we've
seen before that like Jormag's magic
really does do crazy corruption to the
things that take it in
so is it's fun to be able to play with
that and also it kind of solved ended up
solving a couple of problems that we ran
into in early development sure yeah you
can just kind of bounce around because
we have a lot to talk about so yeah yeah
yeah so okay so I guess early on we knew
that we wanted Drakkar we'd like you
said we kind of came up with the idea
like hey what if he shifted through ice
wouldn't that be really cool and then
the art teams were like yeah that would
be really cool what―what if―what if he
didn't and but we ended up doing it and
the team really pulled that together we
can show off some of some of the like
transformation as we get through
development a little bit later on but
specifically for his form we had this
asset that was you know back from Guild
Wars one where if you turned your
graphic settings to a very particular
state or if you data mined the files or
if you looked very very carefully
underneath Drakkar lake you could see
this dragon right and we never really
explicitly said that it was Drakkar in
Guild Wars 1 it was just kind of hinted
at right and it was this you know big
Dragonoid creature that was underneath
the lake and so yeah you know it's
probably―it's Drakkar but that dragon if
you look at it has some really strange
appendages and so our first conversation
was like how does this thing move
because its arms are like he's like
stabbing weird and sort of a like a like
a loch ness monster vibe going on like
they're like flippers it totally looked
like messy like corrupted Nessie yeah
and so we we knew like very very early
on we're like ok we would love to be
able to take this model and make an
entirely
new rig for it and figure out how to how
to animate that and make it look really
good but we're on a budget we need to
you know keep scope as inline as
possible yeah and we were working on
Aurene at the same time yeah so that
became sort of a blessing in disguise
yeah definitely and so we had we had
that idea of like hey we're working on
Aurene
she's got this new rig and what if we
put Drakkar on that same rig
how would that transform him and that
ultimately ended up leading into some
fun shenanigans which will show off in a
little bit the best kind of shenanigans
yes but it you know it was fun seeing
him evolve over time definitely like the
art team in particular did a lot of
research and development on how they
were going to get him to look the way
that he does he came out super creepy I
I hadn't thought too much about what
what do those flippers what exactly are
those for swimming pretty great I would
have I would imagine yeah I would
imagine but you know now that the whole
lake is frozen and it's solid ice you
know hang out like well yeah so yeah it
became sort of a cool the the design
obviously led to a lot of the cool sort
of you know envisioning what the attacks
might be like and how that affects the
course of the fight yeah we definitely
knew that we wanted to have a world boss
that felt like it was more of a creature
and less of like a set dressing that you
fought its toe which I know that you
still slap its hand with your sword like
that's how you primarily do damage but
we really wanted to make sure that it
felt like he was moving around the arena
a lot which a lot of our world bosses
feel very static and that that shifting
through ice really allowed us to like
play with how we were able to make that
work mechanically also shout-out to
Kimberley Brooks who voiced Jhavi in this
episode she did phenomenal work you know
when when I get four
pass script from from you know Cameron
for Drakkar and it's just like hey these
are all the things that we're going to
have you know a character react to or
need to tell the player and it's you
know for a world boss in particular this
one it was a massive list of all these
different states that the boss could be
in and all these all the different
phases and everything and Kimberly had
to really sell it all the time and you
know we were giving her you know all
this tour all this fun direction which
is like you've created a shield bubble
and your cars like you know like it's
like you're benching 10,000 pounds you
know you know tell us now you have to
tell us to go for the claws go for the
claws yeah and she nailed it she was
great so Kimberly is Kimberly's
fantastic she is really really good
but that she's not our only amazing
voice actor and you oversaw the voice
acting with Tom Armand and yes we all
went down for a recording session as we
do for all every episode down in Burbank
and it was phenomenal we had you know
our actors for guild wars like it's it's
crazy when you really think about it
it's like we're like how many games do
you have you know Nolan North Sam Riegel
Matt Mercer Kimberley Brooks Jennifer
Hale Tommy or old Jenkins yeah like all
these amazing actors Tommy row Lincoln's
by the way die Hartman himself voiced
Cloudseeker and the Wolverine spirit a
phenomenal performance from both of
those and then Deborah as well Deborah
Wilson yeah
Jormag you know gave a wonderful
dramatic performance actually there is a
really cool I'm going to segue a little
bit into the topic of spooks I got to
say it so yeah one of the things in
Episode one that we really really liked
was this idea of sort of systemic spooky
spooky times where there would be
periodic whispers and you would hear
things and it was sort of simulating the
idea that Jormag was really in control
of this region and nobody could really
be trusted and nobody was thinking for
themselves
I had I have been meaning to tell you
this and forgot until you just said that
but I was playing with one of my guild
mates I was running him through thee I
was running him through the story and he
got to a whisper and stopped and we were
on Discord and he was like and of course
because I'm a complete jerk I was like
what yeah well its player specific which
is a brilliant part of the design - I
think yeah cuz like in an MMO space
where you have tons and tons of people
around how do you make someone feel on
edge or like uneasy right yeah how do
you make someone feel isolated in a
space where they've got you know a group
of people around them a space where you
know bunch of people are running and
hopping around but then you've got this
little voice in the back of your head
that's whispering very strange things to
you so the audio team did a fantastic
bit of work with so Debra Wilson who is
the voice of Jormag in this episode
and in all previous episodes did this
monologue for me and I wrote it's like a
two-page monologue that is actually on
kind of a loop and you only hear it at
certain parts of the map at certain
times in certain situations and it's
very very quiet and it's very strange
it's a very fun little thing to just be
sort of be running around the map and
then you hear what definitely sounds
like a voice speaking to you but you're
not quite sure what it is and you're not
quite sure why it's getting softer or
louder and he gets it logged to chat it
does not log to chat yep so yeah maybe
it's a problem with your headset I don't
know but yeah Deborah Wilson did a
fantastic job in this episode really
everyone did a fantastic job in this
episode you know sam riegel obviously as
Braham had a pretty big role in this
episode as well he's so much fun yes and
Ike Amadi did a wonderful term as the
wolf spirit which was a lot of fun and
we love working with all these with all
these folks and you know of course
Graham McTavish as Bangar
at the very end very small role but
still just steals the show choose the
scenery and Nika as Aurion Nika Futterman is fantastic
she is so good and I'm so glad we have
her she did work with her is great so
one of the one of the things that
happens when we bring you know people in
is we have we asked them to play a
couple of different roles because we
have all these open-world roles as well
yeah and we asked him to sort of switch
up the character a little bit maybe play
a different race and for Nika she came
in and she did arena and it was
phenomenal and we were like okay so now
we need you to change it up a little bit
we need you to do an asura for this trio
of vigil soldiers that wander around the
map and have all this fun little banter
between themselves and she's like oh
I've never done in a survivor like
that's not that's and there's no way
that's possible she must have done an
asura at some point and then we realized
no she never had so she came up with
this voice that sounded like I can't
remember her name of the the secretary
from Ghostbusters you know like it was
it was perfect it was a perfect voice
for the dialogue that she had and yeah I
highly recommend you know if you're
exploring the map and you find this trio
a visit of vigil soldiers with a sylvari
an Oran and an asura wandering around
the map yeah if you stick around them
you'll hear some fun dialogue but yeah
the voice actors yeah the voice actors
in this episode just blew me away
like like being in there they're all
pros I mean every single one of them was
great then trio also affected by Jarrah
at any point no but they talk about jour
mag a lot one of the things so like when
I do sort of open world dialogue the
very first thing I usually think of is
what are some questions that players
might have if they were actually in the
open world and ER player base is very
savvy about the lore like they they know
things that you know some of these
characters might not know or some
characters might know and others won't
and so the idea of this trio was that
you know okay here's a character who's
totally up to speed on the lore here's a
character that's totally new to the lore
and here's a character who's kind of
ambivalent about the lore what happens
when you put all three of them in a
group together and they're talking about
like like oh you know did your car is
like a mouthpiece for forge or mag and
then the Norns like like the mouth of
mordremoth or the mouth of Zhai tans
like no no no it's a completely
different yeah so so those are fun those
are fun conversations too
right yeah the spooky scenes around the
map the the whispers are a huge part of
that and there was actually a line that
I called out to you a week or two ago
yes um after one of our playthroughs
that something and it speaks a lot to
what jour mag is and what jour mag does
and you might have to help me with the
line because now I just remember it I
was just like oh that's it that is scary
I remember this we're playing freaked
out at us to play through yeah I was
during Turk are where we're jour mag
says I have never given something to
someone who didn't know didn't ask for
it
yes that was your line right yes and it
is it's such a good look at the core of
what Jordan does to you yeah it yeah I
mean there are a couple of different
elements to a write like it's what's an
unsettling thing to say to the to the
player at this point and then nailing
the performance and then getting the
audio designer right having it show up
at just the right moment I didn't I
didn't realize that either until you
told me it happens when you press to
that Hill I mean yeah it's uh it's it's
tough because you know that the Elder
Dragons have been a primary threat or go
Bors - since its inception right and so
players know hey we're gonna go take
down all the Elder Dragons or at least
as much as we can and now you've got one
that's like some of its lines actually
make you start to consider like wait
should should I be taking down this is
there may be truth to what she's saying
that's what I mean they're saying that's
absolutely part of the goal for the
episode is that you're mag is supposed
to be good at convincing people to do
things and to believe things and if
that's the reputation that the elder
dragon has how do you know when the
elder dragon is telling the truth and is
actually working in your best interests
so that's obviously an open question
that we plan to explore in greater
detail in future episodes but I would
say that for all the players out there
who feel like maybe jour meg has some
good points or maybe we should be
listening more de jour meg you know
maybe
I'm not gonna tell you what to do really
pretty solid stands to take at this
point yeah no yeah this is terrifying
which is the point but it is it it's
that foundation of the scare around the
map and it's good and I mean really the
that stuff doesn't happen without the
huge support of the design team as well
like being able to find the right places
to put that stuff being able to trigger
it in just the right way and the pacing
is incredibly important yeah
so I know that uh Connor did a
phenomenal job finding just the right
places to put that stuff Jason Reynolds
kicked off that whole process and it was
it was fantastic you know when when
you're designing this stuff very early
on it's very difficult to get a good
idea of how things are going to look at
the end we actually have a video of one
of the sent events I can sort of set
that up a little bit yeah yeah so so
this is an early sort of video showing
the Bhangarh confrontation scene at the
end this is sort of the first pass where
I give the you know the updated script
to the design team and the and the
designers sort of sort of block things
out with the first pass and everything
is timed out using our Robo voice yes
and we talk about the gift that is Robo
voice I love it you guys hate it I do I
hate it for many reasons that I will
elaborate on after everyone has a chance
bad it's good yeah sorry let's uh roll
the tape there it is
you hear that what nothing
absolutely nothing HRM where's the rest
of your army Drucker was a threat to my
soldiers corrupting the weak as you now
know we couldn't take any chances we
need to debrief but what the hell is
that exhales the dragons magic it's gone
good work we did what no Norn could we
drove whore Macbeth and now the Dragons
running scared
hey we've been fighting Drucker all over
this lake
you can't just swing in with my bail
Vanguard you've seen how dangerous whore
McGee is you just said it yourself you
can't risk others being turned the
closer you take your people to harmik
the higher that risk it's a risk I'm
willing to take you are not here to
protect your army you're here to protect
your reputation Drucker's death at my
hand sends them all a message
I am whore mix champion now I alone can
control the dragon Cormac can't be
controlled that's not how this works
convenient coming from you
Ryland don't tell me you believe this my
Imperator gave us an order will you
follow it I can't let you take credit
this needs to stop now I couldn't agree
more
what have you done whore m'g rocker
rocker rocker is like my new favorite
word yes so I guess a couple of things
one is that that's how that's how we get
the scene before any vo goes in before
anything is timed that scene runs about
two minutes and the you know player the
player obviously is sort of just
watching the scene unfold things like
trimming certain lines of dialogue
you'll notice that if you sort of watch
that scene and the final scene
back-to-back there are a couple of
exchanges that are trimmed or cut just
to help with you know the timing and the
flow of the conversation to make sure
the tension sort of builds up there's no
music but in the final game I think that
that scene runs about a minute and 20
seconds and here it's about two minutes
so that just shows you know how much
time you know the final draft of these
things can you know it really makes a
huge difference like when you look at
that you're like man this is terrible
and there's such a difference whenever
you finally get the voice actors and and
you have the real vo going on just like
the cadence that they're actually
speaking the lines the way that they
deliver them it just changes the whole
tone of the content yeah and everything
is automatically spaced out with Robo
voice so an character says a line and
then another character says a line and
then another character says a metronome
yeah and so like we don't have we like
we haven't gone in and timed it and
shifted things around so yeah like the
whole the whole episode comes to us like
that
and you know obviously that's just part
of the process of okay you've written it
now make it good and design obviously
helps a lot with that staging everything
out blocking everything out you know if
characters need to need to look or move
to certain places they help with that
too you'll notice that the staging of
the scene is completely different the
camerawork is completely different in
the final version of that scene it's a
lot tighter it focuses more on the
things you should be focusing on instead
of you know having a sort of bird's eye
view than you normally have so yeah that
that's just part of the you know making
the sausage of you know you know it
would be the episode
implementation to final product to
here's what we take out the door yep
yeah I mean you know in all video games
they look they look they don't look
great
up until they start they're looking
great yeah yeah it's almost always at
the very end yes so speaking of your car
yeah and also speaking about things
looking great until yes I think we have
some behind-the-scenes stuff probably
use your cars development yes your car
oh okay cool so that looks very much
like Hungry Hungry Hippos oh my god it's
so much this one is we so we knew that
we wanted to have your car coming out of
the ice and swimming through the ice and
we had some inspiration from like Final
Fantasy it's like demon wall where
there's this creature that's looming out
of like a solid surface and so we put
together this very early just kind of
like here's kind of showing what we're
thinking about just very very high level
and then I think the next one actually
is what we ended up with I built that
the the first one out of just like five
minutes of like blocking stuff in it
really shows you this here is when the
artist gets in is like alright I see
your idea and I'm gonna make it
beautiful there's such a vast difference
and it really it really does come
together the whole swimming through the
ice thing was actually one of the
inspirations I think when we were first
talking about what the look of it should
be was a New England Aquarium they have
this giant tank through the center of
the whole aquarium and if the lightning
hits it just right you can see the
silhouettes of the big sort of fish swim
swimming around it and so that was yeah
that's extremely cool just go aquariums
it's in Boston okay yeah yeah we have a
we have other we the Hungry Hungry
Hippos video yes yes so this is an
animation that we were given by the way
I mentioned that we used arena as kind
of the rig and the prototype so a lot of
what you're gonna see that's why it's so
shiny beorin do
these crazy things yeah so so I had this
idea of like Drakkar coming out of the
ice and chopping at you and then
slithering back in and our animator
Trevor he was like okay yeah I'll put
something with Quicken for you so that
you can stub it into the game see how it
feels so he gave me this which was just
hilarious and caused the entire room to
break out into raucous marbles like okay
well let's see what we can do with this
animation and so we have all sorts of
different places where okay Cameron
we're sorry you're trying to take in the
beauty right I just I had put this
animation in multiple different spots
that we could see what your car might
look like coming out of walls can I get
a ceiling if we had that coming out of
the floor and it just it became
ridiculous and well a lot of us
definitely saw this and was like this is
gonna look super silly yeah but if you
fought him in game it's a lot scarier
and a lot more tense it's true just like
a sprinter car and ceiling ceiling and
then I think I think we have a couple of
other ones yeah so here is a reorient
yeah this was the the stop-attack that
we knew who we wanted to have and so we
put together a very quick here's what it
might look like from a timing
perspective and it really just she's
she's dance and she's doing some crazy
things you know this is what happens
when you turn into an elder dragon you
got to celebrate yeah right and I think
it also goes to show I mean like if you
look at the the final Laurine in I of
the north as well you know you can see
what kind of what kind of just polish
goes into that two after the fact I mean
this is this is sort of this like you
know first first pass of a lot of things
yeah yeah and and speaking of first pass
to final here is what it looks like when
your car is actually this is dressing me
up
so yeah so you can definitely see
there's a there's a lot of kind of
transformation that happens over the
process from just getting something very
quick and dirty into the game to see how
it looks and see how it might feel from
timing and then having an animator go in
and just spend days like really
polishing it up and making it look scary
and menacing and not you know crazy
dance I do like in the previous one that
the player character is just standing
there stoic Lee like yes you you look
great I imagine that they are giving her
tips and then she is practicing okay and
then here's here's animation from an
attack that was ultimately cut from the
final product because of we we just we
couldn't find a way to just make it
really look great I want to use this as
I was like I'm done with this world I
don't want to be here anymore I don't
want to live on this planet anymore yeah
we we have a lot of fun we'd ended up
just calling this the Shamu attack I was
gonna ask you to talk about your file
naming convention I'm very serious about
my file naming conventions I try to be
as descriptive while also getting as
many laughs so we go from dance dance to
dance dance dance yeah it's a stompy
stompy to Shamu you know it's a it's a
and the first year we had Chomp Chomp 2
Chomp Chomp Chomp yes I was so happy
when you send me all these files I was
like this is great
yeah the script for all the scary things
that can happen in the episode was
spoopy x dot f DX yeah yeah we have we
have fun I love it so that was a little
bit of a look at the Dakar fight but
we're going to oh yeah I'm offering you
a chance to give some spoilers on
upcoming things yeah so provided nobody
like comes running in here and stops me
yeah well so we announced that there
were some rewards that didn't quite make
in time for the patch for the initial
launch of shadow in the ice that we're
going to be released
thing very soon and when Connor comes on
a little bit later he'll give you guys a
little bit more of a sneak peek at what
you can expect but in addition to the
rewards coming out we've actually been
really looking at the feedback of the
Dakar encounter on live it's been a
really long time since we did a world
boss and so we wanted to make sure that
when we shipped it it wasn't like super
uber hard and no one could beat it but
we wanted to make sure it was something
that definitely gave a challenge and
lots of tweaking and tuning men into
that and continues to go into that and
so when these rewards ship you'll
definitely be getting a tuned up version
of the Derk our encounter with some
changes to a couple of things that I
don't want to give too many spoilers
because when it does come out you guys
can go in and see it for yourselves but
we're we're taking a lot of your
feedback to heart and definitely trying
to make it the best encounter it can be
all right so if you guys have any
questions go ahead and throw them in
chat while we wrap up and talk about a
couple of extra things and then we'll
answer a couple of your questions before
we get our next round of deaf guests on
so is there anything else that you all
want to touch on before we move on to
Nick and Connor you look terrified I'm
focusing on the ok screen over there or
if you want to start grabbing questions
you can do that - yeah no I think so I
guess just the top one okay go ahead so
you can see these questions viewers
cannot so yeah yeah you know the item
that let you revisit the tahrir egg
chamber and play with baby or een could
we have another one of those to visit
the final instance of shadow in the ice
that is a wonderful idea
and obviously a lot of work went into
this updated version of the eye of the
north and or een and we do want to make
sure that players have the opportunity
to go back there and so it's something
that we are definitely considering
trying to figure out a way to make that
work yeah definitely this next question
for Jack are given your cars green and
ghastly look has it become aberrant via
Wolverine magic or and or is it death
touched via Zeit and magic it's a really
good question kind of a little bit of
both if you
played through the Drakkar encounter you
know that he siphons magic from the
corrupted spirits of the wild so he
definitely does have some Wolverine
magic in him and also Jorma got some of
that sight and magic whenever he died
and went you know that magic went to
mordremoth and went to zai tan and went
to pry mortis we saw the death touch
destroyers and so there's there's a
little bit of that kind of like all
wrapped together but in fact if you
haven't seen it yet in the encounter you
can actually see the effects that
Drakkar use for casting the the magic
spells in the second room they will
change color depending on which of the
spirits of the wild he's channeling at
the time let me see I'm not sure about
so this is this question about given how
the frontier fell on Episode one does
this return and the strike mission mean
it was raised as death touched ice
brooder is that just time manipulation
I'm going to I'm going to chalk that up
to time manipulation which is something
that we you know rely upon for a lot of
these encounters that are epic but don't
make a whole lot of sense if you keep
doing them over and over and over again
so yeah that's that's more the latter
than the former I like to think that as
you're going through these encounters
you're kind of succumbing a little bit
to the influence of jor mag and maybe
seeing a couple of things that may not
be there you know you still used to get
xp for the fight so we have the episodic
goes on is the little hint from cracking
the ice episode returning where we saw
jor mags minion with plant ice and death
magic infused into one creature is there
any hints in this episode of it well we
just kind of touched on a little bit of
trocar and how he shows that yeah the
the idea that the elder dragon does the
remaining Elder Dragons have elements of
the slain Elder Dragons is definitely an
element that we consider mmm when we
come up with what their minions look
like or how they operate
so yeah something that that's a little
different with jor mag though is that
you'll notice that not all of its
minions have the the whole death touch
thing and Jeremiah is very
intelligence so it seems that jour mag
is specifically channeling the magic
that it got into its most difficult or
sorry most powerful champions so these
next two I can really quick answer the
first one inspiration for this episode
thriller movies where we inspired by any
books or authors work for the episode I
know that we talked a lot about the
thing John Carpenter's The Thing it was
actually ended up watching that as a
team yes that there was this notion of
you know you you don't know who you can
trust you don't know who's under the
influence of jour mag the code in
society is built around to this idea
that you know you don't know if your
voice is your own or your voice is
broken
and taken over by by jour mags whispers
so yeah that that was a chief
inspiration I know for me and early on
in this episode we get together and the
second question is is pretty cool
because we don't really show in progress
scenes where you know we have some lines
that have been cut or trimmed so a very
good question is why did we decide to
cut most of these lines in the final
version of the scene I wouldn't
necessarily say it's most you'll notice
that like a couple of a couple of beats
are streamlined you know there there's
writ Locke's line you know you're not
here to protect yourself you're here to
protect your reputation you know
Bhangarh says that's convenient coming
from you a lot of these lines are good I
think at setting up what the characters
are thinking at that specific time but
when we're playing it and we're looking
at you know we're in we're sort of
reading through the scene and figuring
out how the pacing works that's
definitely one of those things where you
know you have to kill your darlings
sometimes the scene was running pretty
long and we thought that we sort of got
these points across in other ways so
bangers motives read I think pretty well
without writ Locke having that line
there I think that Bhangarh saying
that's convenient coming from you was
basically him sort of dunking on your
relationship with Orion you know how
come you can have this relationship with
Irene and be orange champion I can't be
dramatics champion what's up with that
yeah I'm used to special yeah I think
that that sort of commander yeah and
it's basically that hims him saying that
spells out something that should
hopefully be evident through his act
through the other lines that he says so
when the when the win
I start getting feedback that's like hey
the scene feels like it's going on a
little too long how can we change that
the first thing I look at is okay what
are things were saying twice how can we
trim that and you know we do that a lot
in in the script we try to find ways to
make the play experience better and that
that is just that's just part of making
many of these episodes the question of
duster car have a full-body rendered
model we only see the front half and the
shadow well I would say that that's kind
of a mystery but we've definitely seen
some players see the back half of the
model through some crazy walking
manipulation so yes he does have a fully
rendered model but we we didn't end up
animating the back half because of how
we wanted him to come through the ice
and really look like he was kind of
floating and sticking out of it that
picture that question made me picture
like a big stick like when CGI when you
see it before it's rendered just
somebody's out there just it's a normal
pair of human legs behind the ice and
then the the next question of what did
you guys draw inspiration from while
making this work for us I'd love to
answer that but I think later on a
little bit more in the future we'll be
talking a bit more in depth about the
world bus so stay tuned Folger car all
the time yeah I I get a breath of the
wild feel from it is what they said and
I'm currently playing breath of the wild
and it doesn't scare me nearly as much
so you haven't run out of arrows and
some of those fights you're not wrong
like the first thing like I finished the
fight and I'm like running around
scraping up every arrow I possibly can't
we use any piece I'm frightened so yeah
there is that there's a lot of
definitely like big scary creatures when
you're finding a vinyl for the first
time you are not prepared for it yes
okay so the fear is still coming yes
okay it looks like that is everything is
there anything else that you guys wanted
to add just is Geor mega actively using
other
magic like st. Anne's for example yeah I
think we answered that yeah so yeah I
think that's yeah I mean this this was a
fun episode to work on I think everyone
had a really good time putting
everything in we're really excited to
see people experience some of the rare
events you know these spooky times in
the episode and you know talk about the
story and talk about the events and
we're always looking for feedback so
please don't stop sending it we do read
it all and yeah we're we're excited to
share more in future gilt chats and I
will just say that I've been getting in
game and trying to play with you guys as
much as possible and seeing you guys
experience this stuff firsthand
completely blind has been just a real
treat
I remember going through and doing some
events with some players and we headed
back to Stillwater speaking and one
player was like everybody's dead what's
going on you found it great by the way
if you don't know what I'm talking about
you will eventually all right thank you
guys both and I will let you all get
back to work well if Bram had become the
wolf while he was shaving his head
what would the wolf have been completely
bald well see that's why we waited that
is an exceptional question and I'll
leave it to the community to decide the
answer which one of you to put that
question in chat Connor Connor it would
be very funny if yeah he'd become he
becomes the wolf and there's just like a
ya know as you can clearly see Connor
there there is a there's no correlation
between Rams the you know truck be no
tron okay and they're just having fun
with us now there's me not at all
surprised yeah yeah ah yeah okay well I
think that if you slowed down that scene
you might be able to see the hair
growing out of his body
as he's transforming hate this I'm
quitting show business here all right
can I get a ride yeah thank you thank
you everyone and yeah we're not done yet
there's more to come and stick around
for a reading yes that question at the
very least I'm done we love you right
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all right welcome back we are here with
our well god that's terrifying
with our very serious developer guest so
everybody put on my serious face the
most serious are you never made a joke
in our lives well let's start now can't
now you put me on the spot and I have to
come up with the joke Lenny in this milk
all right why don't you guys introduce
yourselves talk about what you do here
at ArenaNet and what you worked on for
episode two why you have the Conner hey
I didn't tell you where to sit that was
all mark so blame him but you were
closest to me so you go first I do care
about you
hi I'm Nick uh to whichever these
cameras is looking at me this is you
guys that's us hi I'm Nick and look at
all of you I am a game designer that
worked on Episode two and part of my
responsibilities here are to make fun
content for everybody to play and then
what specific fun content did you make
Nick ah thank you for asking
I worked on the light puzzles for
episode two I worked on all of the
Charles of coda I worked on the catalyst
mastery stuff more specifically the
reward chests and some like map complete
stuff like this does and some of the
spooky scenes and/or spoopy as Alex
would like to say I did that stuff just
Connor
yes hello it is me Connor I was the
teeth you're not me I was the team lead
for this episode I and as far as content
they own which meant you know I was
helping everybody with everything a
little bit but I have my content that I
was fully in charge love was I did the
three shrines
so Wolverine ox and eagle the final
instance where you face down your car
and then eventually me terrine and I
also made a bunch of the spooky scenes
which I'd like to talk about in in depth
yes are we asking the quagga or we just
what do you do here quaggan what do we
pay you for
literally that what you can actually get
the bargain
yeah it's okay the quaggans an intern
yeah we have we have a we have a third
there's a quadrant where the headset
Nick Nick said it's precious he voiced
by car all right
but yeah so actually to quickly touch on
what Connor was talking about basically
the team leads role is to just you know
piracy was actually carrying her on a
fire hydrant a lot of us yeah yeah yeah
it didn't help much like when I spray it
on people when they're trying to like
solve problems they're like they're just
like covered in fire detergent but you
know I like to think emotionally it was
helpful right they knew that if they
ever actually caught on fire I would be
there yeah it was actually like
surprisingly better with episodes 1 & 2
since like the math was just all ice
yeah it's harder to make fire in the ice
regions but Gotham art was pretty hard
so I got this oh yeah
don't even ask like when we were working
on the islands no no not the concert oh
yeah that had a lot of fire time I don't
work on the metal Legion concert like
just my my keyboard were just sometimes
bursting I don't remember like what the
fire hydrant company is that makes those
but they were making Bank that time I
think it's the inquests firing okay
maybe you're lifting but whatever okay
so let's talk about the trials of coda
because we gave a little spoiler about
that last week yes we did and now we can
talk about it more yeah okay that was
awesome
so I guess like what I'm trying to
figure out like what parts should i
touch first
so now that people have gotten to play
them have they played out like you were
hoping they would more so than than not
thankfully the trials are definitely
something that uh were like a we want to
try something you want to see how this
works out and a lot of the feedback has
actually been really positive you know
there are definitely some some critiques
that we've gotten that are definitely
valid that we want to kind of think of
if we move forward with these things how
we want to kind of address that feedback
address these concerns but I think
overall the trials are something that
are really really unique and fun
well I really enjoyed is that like my
main goal is like I want to see people
being like there's a trial up over here
quick everybody come over here and help
out with this thing and we were actually
seeing a lot of that like I I just can't
doubt on maps a lot and I just sit there
and I'm like and like watch sometimes
makers watching you guys yeah yeah my
in-game character's name is pretty by
the way
when I just you ever see him you're like
well yeah I see people running around
doing the trials and I think they've
they've been really they've been well
well-received and I'm really happy about
it
I've been playing and come across some
where people are calling them out so
yeah it's it's been super fun to watch
which trial is your favorite trial my
favorite trial specifically yeah god it
depends because like mechanically I
think the trial is what the tornado is
definitely the coolest one in my opinion
but like the the funniest one is the one
based completely around the cotan ice
fishing stuff is like this bait fish at
you they just like yes I don't know if
anybody ever noticed but when you look
at the worms that come out sometimes
they're projectiles that they want mad
at you I don't have actually talked
about this or in the preview maybe not
okay that's great so in reality if you
look really closely at those projectiles
they're actually vomiting fish so it's
like they eat the fish inside the lake
that ones that we don't get to fish up
and then they just kind of give them to
you to you they're just trying to help
they're just trying to help yeah like
that's that's my hot tank is that like
this and then you murdered them yeah
they're like thanks for the snacks
here's some damn snacks back at you
right and then we're all like you're
mean to me that hit me in the face he
had to cut the second face of the fight
where they were like thanks with the
swords now we're gonna vomit
swords that you gave us all of them in
there
that's just like a mystic Forge but
backwards yeah basically then all of our
inspiration comes from the mystic Forge
not like the itself but like we throw
everything in and whatever comes out
that's what we had end up going with
side of our development the mystic port
is real yes ah morose is a paid employee
of ArenaNet
I mean we're he's really kind of
difficult to work with half beyond
it's like or the snacks in the kitchen
come from like the elbows snacks yes
yeah we're just making things up now no
you're talking about this all cannons
real life cannon real life fanfic
catalyst chess the catalyst more about
the that's pretty much it like there's
there's a lot to for us to cover so yeah
do you want to get into some of the
behind the scenes images now or do you
want to cover which I mean latest I
think that like everything that had to
be said with the couch as I said during
the preview okay I mean I think that
like we've also gotten some some good
reception on the hell as T three chests
as well and I'm really happy about that
also once again some some good feedback
that we can definitely take into
consideration moving forward and I think
basically would you like your visual
aids an hour later I would I mean if we
want to go into them so disclaimer
there's no clicky thing for all of my
visual aids there's thistles a lot of
images so I'm gonna like just kind of
allow mark to go through them you do
pointy finger will be up that's there's
a lot of pointy fingers finger guiding
the entire time but they won't see they
just saw its do it but they just saw us
too much of it I like the cameras okay
anyway um so yeah we can totally go into
V okay yeah let's okay events hi events
yes we're talking about these so this is
actually one of our initial kind of
layouts for the a beside Episode two
side of the map where we were thinking
like here are the main of kind of event
structures and more so than one space
around the story that we kind of want to
touch on how do we want these things to
flow through the map so as you can see
like the ritual events where the kodan
run around and they cleanse the funeral
pyres or the flame pyres actually had a
lot more originally than we actually
ended up shipping with where'd your car
was ending up ended up pretty much the
same same with the Ox Ryan Eagle try and
remover enshrines and we had ended up
adding a lot more code in fishing events
the lake fishing events were great
yeah well yeah but also shout out to
Alina and Taylor Sutherland
until I said wouldn't you also
definitely toss in the initial concepts
and did a lot of the groundwork that
helped make those kota fishing events
really shine i think you both yeah yeah
so that but that's just kind of like a
sneak peek into like here's how we kind
of lay out our stuff next up is the
fishing bundle the fish bundle that you
actually interact with when the trials
are active we actually had to use some
weird workarounds with that on the code
side and also just like where their art
assets because this is very wrong with
that fish yes
so the mutant fish it is a mutant fish
that's what happens when you get exposed
to Germans magic but this was the first
time I don't know if anybody noticed but
if you don't mind being attacked by
birds for too long
when while you're holding the fish
scraps
if you jump up and down that fish has
physics it will flop it is a very floppy
fish so while we were trying to figure
that out and how that bundle works we're
running into some some weird issues and
this is one of them where it's like all
of the animation states for the fish
we're actually playing at the same time
so it's like the fish is both whole and
not whole but if you jumped like they
would all flop around I don't have a gif
of that unfortunately but here's a nice
little visuals shorting or sloppy fishin
yeah just you mentioning being attacked
by Birds you being attacked by Birds
it's one of my favorite things and
lead-up to the trial like when you're
trying to turn in the scraps these birds
start attacking you acting out your eyes
like the one unfortunate thing that that
didn't actually make it in that I wanted
really wanted to was like I quoted a
conversation with the kodan where it's
like why are these birds attacking me
and it's like dead fish will you expect
you're hungry for that was pretty much
dead so if we move on to the next one
once again we were trying to figure out
how to make this bundle work and a
another kind of behind-the-scenes thing
is that the way our bundle is actually
working game is that it's we're just
calling on it properly and then maybe
like an animation variant for that prop
but it's we have to talk to the artists
and be like we need to rotate it at this
specific angle at this specific scale
and what happens when we don't do that
or like when
that isn't when we did when we all said
it correctly is like the scale of the
thing can be really big and rotated
incorrectly so if you actually move on
to the next picture I think that fish is
a lot bigger than you think and it's not
the wrong way and like that is a
normal-sized person so that is a very
very large fish it's a koala that
couldn't get through that one not okay
yeah it's nicer in a bucket it's amusing
yeah it's an assertive Bukit so when uh
when we add it when we got new assets
for the Chum buckets that you're using
in the in the actual fishing events I
was trying to figure out a good way to
determine how big they actually needed
to because it's like you know they're
you're putting a bunch of fish in these
buckets I want to make it seem like you
can actually fit some a lot of fish in
the bucket it's tension detail so
basically it's just like hey I'm putting
a sewer in this bucket because I'm kind
of measured by a surah and if this or if
if you're gonna fit in the bucket it's
good to know so what's kala sir is that
though that's a max skill of mince
killer sir that's like that's like a
medium scale sir okay yeah so it's half
of a medium scale Asura yes that's how
we measure all things I feel forced it's
like we're doing our attacks for like we
need this to be like forests or along
yes units of measurement yes no that was
the imperial system yeah and we've
sponsored switched over to the carriers
were the imperial system yes okay yes so
this
that's why she's lady kasmeer mean she's
an imperial the thing is you can't
measure by half a Kasmir cuz like where
you what is the cutoff point right the
cereals are small enough that you can do
a whole surah you can dissect them in
all sorts of different ways period math
yeah yeah nip isn't my desk and work
like going through all of these and I
was like okay I really want to keep you
sir in the bucket I need some kind of
context that will let me we should just
brought it up and it was gone and not
explained that's an image next or just
saw like stared at like the quaggan
that's on the desk just like yeah and
then moved on yes and then when people
say things later act like it never
happened
yeah what are you doing store Meg yes
it's the whispers but and I think that's
all it's all of them for the events yeah
I'm sorry I'm distracted by one Evo for
a sir in a bucket
yeah but light puzzles and that kind of
thing there's something else that you
worked on yeah so I'm gonna be talking a
little bit about kind of like how they
work and also how we took some steps to
make sure that like we can take what
also shoutout to Kevin Freeman who was
the person who built the initial system
and all of the light puzzles with an
episode one side like I actually had to
work with him a little bit on trying to
have like changes made between branches
so that way episode two slight puzzles
can function somewhat similar because
like there are things that my puzzles
needed that like their puzzles like
didn't so having that kind of like cross
team communication and implementation
was really something that like I it was
difficult but it was fun to do and Kevin
did an amazing job
go Kevin yeah Kevin Freeman is amazing
but the way that he actually built these
mirrors is that they I'm gonna go into
like some designer eat please never talk
they actually like query their initial
position and then they create some
offset points off of the prop itself
which is the mirror and then they create
these spells that show up and what
you're looking at right now is four
different spells that are all like
rectangles on top of each other and when
the light actually comes at the mirror
it hits that spell and then the spell is
like what rotation is my mirror at if my
mirror is not at that right rotation I'm
destroying this missile because all of
the lights are just missiles and then
when it is at the right rotation allowed
that missile to reflect and continue
moving on and that's pretty much how
they works but I thought it'd be cool to
show everybody like look at this it's a
purple box I love purple purple box
secret yeah some functionality that's
unfortunate makes notice yeah
give yourself the best and then I think
it's oh yeah we're gonna like
I'll go back into kind of like the
episode one to two sad stuff later on
also please let me know when I start
talking too much because I brought you
here to talk I know but I promise a lot
of the episode two side ones had to do a
lot more when to subscibe to side light
puzzles thank you had a lot to do with
making sure that the environment and the
actual puzzle like design system worked
well together is killed chamber yeah
there's really many dungeons which is
something that you know I was basically
told make six puzzles and I'm like great
okay so no problem I wanted to think
about how to make each of them unique
but also kind of leading into like a
further progression if you will so I had
to work a lot with our map artist Justin
Fossett it would shout out to him he did
an absolutely amazing job and really the
only reason if I just touched all the
puzzles is cuz like look at this like at
some point you're gonna see my drawings
and I'm like look at this bad look at
this bad and then look at his good he
made good so the first one which is I
think is also the most complex one is
the elevation puzzle which is what
you're looking at right now and so like
as you can see it here is this beautiful
artwork that you can totally screenshot
make your background and Mark if you
just want to keep going through them
these are all different rooms and kind
of like the visualizations of all the
rooms that were gonna be that we had
within the elevation puzzle and kind of
how they worked and some of these
pictures are gonna have earlier
iterations of what it looked like like
in this one right here
as you can see one of the shrines is
actually below the initial platform we
found that that was hard to visually
communicate that you had completed
everything so Justin actually pulled it
up which also he did an amazing job just
like rolling with all the feedback on
all this but if we keep on going on yet
as you can see it's just like all of
these rooms look absolutely amazing and
large-scale and just visually stunning
and then
once we once we kind of get to the end
of this that you see things like this
but it's just like hey the initial
concept was was this we were like in a
room we were talking and we made some
doodles and we're like hey here are the
kind of the elements that we need how do
we break this up in a way that's going
to allow for this to feel fun and
functional and create something that is
you know puzzling but not like X like
too difficult because we wanted this to
be a lot more like exploratory than it
was challenging so like yeah i think
he's puzzled add a lot to the map yeah
just a really nice reward for people who
want to explore and link and and it's
like you you go through one of the Raven
gates and then you're like oh wow like
there's a whole chamber hidden here and
they all have beautiful as you were
saying they all beautiful views I should
prefer to look at some of the other ones
but yeah and that was that was it pretty
much for the elevation puzzle it's just
like that one we really wanted play with
verticality and see like how can we make
it so that way if I'm down here I can
see where my lights are going up and
below me and how does that all kind of
interact together so you have that guide
yes you have you have that guide of like
this light source goes down there and
then it goes to that thing and like
you're just having to follow where it
goes within these areas but also
understanding I'm in the bottom room
it's going up there how do I get up to
there or how do I get down to that area
yeah so then if we're moving we'll be
moving on to the jump puzzle next which
is the one that is actually under
Drakkar so our initial yeah the initial
concept was like hey what if because
this kind of had to conform somewhat to
the actual
pace around your car it kind of had to
be like a circular dome thing so we
played with the idea of like kind of an
spiral ramp it up so it's like the
middle area is pretty much empty but
you're going you're scaling up the sides
of this like ice tunnel and once again
Justin just grabbed it and let it roll
and did an amazing job and like if we
move on to the next slide this one looks
like it changed quite a bit from the
initial drawing somewhat like I think we
should go on to the next slide
yeah like I think conceptually it's like
this is actually kind of what it started
out with like this was just him proto
being the area and he's like what props
you know would would work in this area
what what can I utilize to make this
make this function and if we move on to
to the rest of the stuff it's a lot of
like okay
how like he was also testing out a lot
of the shape around the area because you
know and also like how do we have that
like that that catch-all for when people
fall and then if we keep going it's just
like you start seeing spaces start
becoming a lot more filled in and
designed around kind of what's going on
and like you know there was a lot of
back-and-forth between there was a lot
of back-and-forth kind of required
around during the development of this
where it's like you know we would be
like we we need this to be a little bit
different and we kind of need like this
thing moved over here and it it was it
is
time consuming process but at the same
time it's definitely worth it and yeah I
mean I think we can just kind of go
through all the rest of the uh-oh that
was it to be fair we did yeah now a
question on that though as you do the
whiteboard drawings there they're not
bad you can't actually draw a screenshot
on a whiteboard so they are good and
they are functional and they do what
they're supposed to yes first of all
that they're fine
how much do you do could be nice to
yourself good how much do they fit into
the constraints of the map when they're
coming onto the whiteboard or are you
just like hey here's the thing that I
have in mind now I'll go to the map
artists and now make them fit into the
constraints of the map it's it's a mix
of both like I think if I remember
correctly we actually we actually had a
few other designs as well that I had
just forgotten to put in the slides but
yeah there were so basically it was like
there was a proposal of like we need
this many and we were like okay I will
make this money right and from that many
we kind of picked out the ones for like
the actual mini dungeon stuff that would
work in this in the space and where we'd
be able to put them because there were
some that like I had just gone kind of
crazy overboard with where there was one
where it's like the room is completely
dark and there are these like ice kind
of it's like an ice caverns that are
super dark and the way that you would
actually move through it is that you
would have to follow the light source at
all times and you would have to be
cognizant of where you're standing
because like it's like that one Pokemon
gym and I think the johto region where
like everything is dark and you have to
follow specific paths and if you fall
down you get back like beginning bunch
of areas in Pokemon they played that a
lot in the earlier games but like but
like that that initial concept kind of
played out in our map so there was one
like that and there was another one
where you'd be kind of taken through
like across the map and would play a lot
more with Raven puzzle or Raven gate
mastery where would actually bring you
into like these nook and cranny areas
within the map
that would allow for you to kind of see
like a teleported me to over here okay I
can see the light over there I need to
like run through this mini like corridor
real quick solve this micro puzzle and
then get kicked back out to another area
that would then like loop into other
things okay so yeah it wasn't it's not
like it's not like here's kind of the
map space that we have how can we use it
it's more like here all like here all
the designs which designs are going to
best fit the thing and then if there
aren't enough of these designs that fit
there like fro for this it was the micro
puzzle kind of aesthetic how can we fill
the the rest of the requirements which
is why we have the open world across map
one and also the what would I call the
open air one which is just like it's on
the episode two-sided and then there's
the cross map side one which I'll talk
about a little bit later I really
enjoyed it never mind we'll talk about
that meant we met up when we get to that
across from Apple okay you can
compliment any whenever you want I just
really enjoyed what a potatoes but this
response description of the one that
goes across the entire map is like it's
so long then they got annoyed with it
and then I fell in love with it again
and I really loved it I'll touch on a
little bit of like the reasoning behind
that
but um maze puzzle was actually a really
really fun one and what you're gonna see
is once again some of the initial
contests we actually had to play we
played around with different props for a
little bit before we actually market
actually can go back to the last one
real quick before we put in the Raven
wools we actually let's to round and try
it out using pork allas let's hope
that's how you pronounce that oh jason
has pronounced it correctly shouts Jason
but it's basically like the pork callers
will go down and the light can pass
through but you can't so it's like how
do I get to this next area how do i
cause these gates to open up and through
that like if you see they're also two
pressure plates on the ground we
actually had played a lot with mechanics
around pressure plates kind of like in
rather the wild where you would have to
like find giant boulders or like find a
way to break break parts of the of the
puzzle to like bring down the boulders
and then but then when the pressure
plates too
open up these pork all is fine the
fresher place but you know as we kind of
had to iterate and then we also want to
make sure that like when you're in these
areas you never feel briefed other
players so we had to we had to make a
lot of adjustments and then what we
ended up coming up with was being able
to reutilize the episode one mastery
with the Raven waltz which I thought was
really cool and worked out really well
thankfully so then if we just want to
keep on a move yeah
just more more pretty art of kind of
like the development process and like
what talking a little bit of kind of
like what what Justin does is like I
think it's like bi-weekly or weekly like
they will take some screenshots of their
progress of how things are going and
then they'll post it on our shared
confluence images to kind of show like
here's where these things are here's
like some visual aesthetic work that
we're doing so like it's also a really
nice way to stay and like keep it in
touch with all the stuff that other
teams are doing because you'll see you
like occasion you'll see really cool art
coming in and you'll be cool I want to
see that I can't wait to see that yeah
my inbox are some of the most fun emails
again I've never seen these oh yeah all
your emails are absolutely amazing but
like I basically sorry I'm gonna just
take it shout out to all of the map
artists but yes yes are all of the map
artists are I just like absolutely
amazing and as you're seeing like here
we're just kind of rolling through all
of the different like versions of what
the maze puzzle looked like but what I
really liked about making this one and I
kind of like kicking myself because I
forgot to include the secondary drawing
that I had made for it which actually so
like this is the first drawing so once
again look at this I was just like hey I
want it so that way like you have a
first room that kind of teaches the
initial mechanic of like you need to
make you me need to make wall move right
remove wall and then you go into the
next area and it's like every like all
of the reward stuff is right here but
all of the mechanical stuff is outside
so how do we get that going and there
was a lot of conversation with Justin
around like what would it be possible to
make the light actually travel above
this maze that's below it so that way
players could like as the ring through
the maze look up and be like okay let's
going that way so I need to go that way
but then the
is like a maze so it's trying to figure
out how we go through that area to get
to that next point and then once that's
done we don't want to make you go back
through that maze because you've already
understood it so it's like what is the
next logical path
let's have both of these things in the
middle and then find a way to like open
up some some more doors to then just go
back into the reward room which as you
can see is there so like it's it I just
once again shout out to him because he
did such an amazing job just taking this
lake
very very simple concept and making
something so beautiful and like insanely
and perfectly functional around it and
what I really liked about the maze
puzzle is that we I wanted to experiment
a lot with traps and there were they
were initially a lot a lot more traps in
that one but I kind of had to pull back
more and more and more as we got as we
you know we're getting feedback around a
lot of it and what we ended up with was
just kind of one see you see on the
ground which before that there were ones
that like you would have to walk through
a corridor and there was like some
visual tells on the actual lake arch on
like if there was going to be spikes
coming out of them or not and if there
were like you'd have to dodge through it
sometimes there would be just like
boulders coming down from the ceiling
kind of like in the one from season 3
episode 4 and other things like that
excuse me but um what we ended up with
was that one where the different tiles
pulsate this electrical a kind of like a
magical essence on a rotation pattern
timer timer all those things I'll be
above and just quick once again shout
out to uh Eric F faker strim who
actually helped me out with that because
like I had made this initial script of
like bit like if you're this one wait
this long and then that one fires and
then you do this thing and over here and
then it wasn't working and I was like
why you no work so then he was a the
content program for episode 1 I like
asked him to come help me out and then
we like talked it out and he just like
programmer like he wizard it
he was it it was it did it yeah that's
just lazy
there it is got it it's like tell each
one what what it is and then the
rotation just happens so like I would
have this like 3x3 grid and that'd be
like 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 or like 1 1
1 2 2 2 3 3 and then like just by
figuring that out I could see what the
patterns would what would become and
that's kind of how you can see all these
different pulsating patterns going
through the oh yeah also those things
hurt you know what else do we have
yeah so on this one what you're actually
seeing right here is when I figured out
that I would need to do some that
actually weren't in these mini dungeons
I wanted to take a look at all of the
puzzles that we already had and then see
how I could utilize the mirrors over
there because I didn't want to add more
props to that side because I didn't want
to create confusion around the lake wall
is this one for that one so what like
for that first off for the one on our
side if you ended up doing that one
first which you know professionally will
hopefully that made sense you would see
that like that puzzle like oh one or two
of the mirrors that puzzle are also
utilized by the cross map puzzle and
then what the across map puzzle does is
it serves two purposes it serves the
purpose of getting you from the episode
two side of the map to the episode one
side of the map and just kind of like
giving you a tour of like hopefully
where all the events are happening reefa
millie rising you with the episode one
side of the map um they don't feel
connected yeah making it all feel
connected and also kind of giving you
that good feeling of like if you've done
these before you understand how to get
to all these mirrors so you know that
it's going to that mirror and then it's
like wait it's going to that mirror and
then you get that quick understanding of
like it's gonna reflect off that one I
know how to get to that one and then
like you go up so it's pressure yeah you
get that refresher and all those and
this picture right here is basically me
being like where are all of the
different mirrors how can I create a
path to all of those mirrors how can I
utilize mirrors from each individual
puzzle on the episode suicide while also
you know figuring out where to place
one's on maybe set one side and
the cross map one well you're talking on
earlier were like WP site it was long
it used to be way longer yes I got
feedback that was like we need to bring
this one down so I was like removing
like I think one-third of the mirrors
just gone are you alright I've been
doing this well the problem is so we
people started we put testers on the
puzzle right and then we'd never hear
from them again because they were just
doing the puzzle like they're still
doing the puzzle Oh do these days you
can I mean we got to know if the old
puzzle works yeah it's important which
thing there's a lot of things I want
that sucks
oh no just the the the partner on this
the you were talk that's what you just
said it about how like it was it's just
it's just really cool no no it's just
that what and potatoes like talked about
the length and how it like it it has a
nice arc of like where you realize the
twist that is going back and be old
stuff yeah you're going to see one of
the testers do we need to go get him I
mean you know maybe we cloned him maybe
we didn't if so I'm pretty sure most of
the bugs he would give would be law
related he'd be like this contradicts
something in life so I like I'm gonna
talk a lot faster now because we're
about halfway done and I want to give
Connor some - yeah say some words I have
I have a list of things that I want
Connor talk about so yeah okay so yeah
we're gonna have questions yeah yeah so
this is open-world kind of what Dallaire
it is cool if you want a pilot check it
out go for it but that's that's for the
smaller one you're still okay yeah I
mean like yeah okay yeah poor tenant
portal puzzle this one's my favorite
yeah this one also is like I read like
well we'll get to this screenshot I'll
talk more about it but like I showed in
the trailer yeah well yeah and just did
an amazing job I just kind of taken it
like it's it's interesting because you
never really understand when you're
drawing these things out what the actual
like sense of scale will end up being
until you see it and like you know
there's a there's a character right
there that that Justin kinda just
popping the world the show like this is
how big it's gonna be and if you get a
player character in there and a lot of
these you're just like
yeah and as you can see like once again
if you look we're like the red light is
there is like that little circle with
the plate on it those were the pressure
place that we were utilizing before and
in this one actually before we did the
pork allas actually had solid walls that
would go down so it's like you would
actually have to kind of figure out that
there was a way forward really yeah so
we went from like solid walls to port
collars to then you imagine him said one
wolf magic you walls yeah and it's not
this one yeah this one has like a really
like kind of we're not we weren't we
weren't finished yet like a vegetable
salad yeah which I really appreciate so
beautiful yeah well it's all really nice
and then this this picture right here so
the portal puzzle is like visually one
of my like probably my top one because
you go through these rooms right it
feels very kind of tight and slightly
claustrophobic while you're running
through you're trying to figure out how
to get to the next area and then you get
to what is actually the second part of
the of the puzzle and it's just open
space and like walking out of that
hallway and then turning around for the
first time and like me having seen that
just that Vista right in front of me I
was like I think I remember like
instantly just like a messaging just and
I was like also of course when did you
took my breath away oh wow yeah and
actually this is a part of the maze
puzzle I think they might have put that
in the wrong folder sorry okay beautiful
yeah and then like yeah look at that
like look at that beautiful cow Earnest
Vista so good
and that is the initial drawing that I
had had made for it where it's just like
so actually with a lot of drawing yeah
shout out to Taylor Sutherland
he actually had kind of like prototyped
an early version of this where it was
more of once again kind of like Pokemon
Sabrina's done Sabrina I think is her
feel like you have a dominant reference
point here I mean like I just love
Pokemon personally but like we all play
games yeah you would step on these
handles and the panel's will teleport
you around but you know we wanted to
integrate the mastery more and kind of
like extend this as a whole so then
instead of using the tiles what we ended
up doing is we were like we'll use that
we utilize the Raven gates to be able to
take you from area to area and then you
have to figure out like which like where
how do I get to that mirror how do I
turn that mirror and then how do I get
to the other portal which is the right
portal and then how do I move forward
into the next lake and progressing
forward towards the end and portals I
just remember having a discussion about
the title that you'd get from doing this
and I really we really want the title to
be luminiferous and Alex is like that
that's not eventually was like okay fine
[Laughter]
remember either I think I just kind of
like I think he's secretly liked it all
along and but he needed to pretend that
like he was like no yeah and then he was
like okay yeah so that's not why he's
moving he's a desk right now okay it's
like I can't stand it all right so I
know there were a lot of images but they
were kind of fantastic so thank you it's
really nice to be able to show how all
that stuff at all yeah I you know hope
everybody out there liked it yeah I did
so can we talk about some of the spooky
scenes sure let's talk about the spooky
scenes so they're in an episode zero
sorry in prologue bound bound by blood I
had done some experiments with player
specific characters where like I had
Bram you could pick him prison he walked
up the Upstate
go visit the ward and it was really
simple really simple scene but they were
already Episode one teaming but started
me to do stuff with like you know you've
got whispers that are player specific
and I'm like what's a good escalation of
this so basically what I did is I really
lean we started leaning into all of
those every tool that we've ever had to
make things that are unique for players
and we have a bunch of scenes around the
map that are there's a low probability
that when you enter an area like things
might go wrong or things might go
different and I don't think we've made
the I'm pretty sure people haven't found
them all there's quite a few of them
they're all pretty damn creepy Alex is
writing like I remember when I was
reading the scripts Alex's script for
those that uh was I'm just reading them
and I'm like these are fantastic and
these are creepy and I need to implement
them right now so like when I know that
people have seen is uh there's a there's
the code in whose shows up who's carving
in the wall and if you approach him too
early he knocks you back and he says not
yet right don't look at my stuff then he
eventually is like it is done take a
look at my work he's a true artist yeah
and then you take a look at this work
and it's is s like I wait well this is
something very creepy I don't want to
spoil the actual words then you can look
at him and he's like do you like it like
there's there's a lot like that there's
one which I won't describe but I will
say I my internal name for it is Barry
the chopper that is be e AR ry contra
feeling this puns everybody yeah but
yeah there's a there's there's um so I
highly recommend you know so maybe maybe
sometime when you're alone exploring the
marshes marches late at night you might
see some things that are only for you
alone in your house at night with the
lights out yeah I mean it's not it's not
gonna be like jump scares but like it's
it's gonna be like there's their little
scenes that are like they are unsettling
and they're they're different from
anything we've done in the game before
cuz there's a problem that Alex touched
on is like how do you do horror when
there's 80 players running around and
one of the
that I was thinking about is kind of
that eternal darkness I'm gonna use my
own touchstone do it style of my
perceptions or may not be what I'm
seeing you could be like oh my god like
what's going on here and other people
would be like I don't know what you're
talking about right like things like
that so yeah I mean I figured a session
quickie like we mentioned that a little
bit in all right in a preview and we had
done last week I think it was time it's
a concept everybody had I've heard but
you know we touched a little bit like
playing like it was something that if
you're by yourself or with other players
like you will get an experience out of
it and I think what's really cool is
that we have actually heard people tell
stories about those experiences that are
happening where it's like did you hear
that did you see that and everyone's
like what are you talking about are you
okay so one of the pieces of feedback
that I've heard consistently that a lot
of people like that we're leaning into
that horror theme and that we're
sticking with it on this saga and
something that is a really good horror
touchstone is when the game or the
experience or the thing that you're
watching or the thing that you're
experiencing seems to be either unique
to you or somehow aware of you and that
can be it doesn't have to be jump scare
it can be terrifying in its own way I
mean it just to go back to the term
darkness again which everyone go find
that game and play it because I I'm
still dreaming that Nintendo will make a
sequel one day and if it's like I plug
it and anyway moving on probably should
be doing that the they actually had like
one jump scare in that entire game and
it was just the constant like messing
with like your perceptions that made it
interesting and yeah you can get you
could have creepy without like yeah yeah
without having the jump scares although
we do have one jump we do have one jump
yes there's a little jump
yeah and there are like you know there
are smaller tidbit there ones that like
it's not just these scripted scenes it's
also recanting xand retellings of things
that are had that have happened to the
people kind of around the map like you
know if you
spoiler alert hey if you come to the
giant ship in the middle of the I had a
certain time like you're gonna see some
dead some like own ghosts right if you
walk around specific parts of the map
you're gonna see like some deceased
visual soldiers some like deceased codon
and like like animated in the way of
like what was happening to them in the
last moments of their deaths like some
of them like shivering in a corner
because they like froze to death or like
there are other ones that are like you
know like like dying and it's like well
what killed them
it's very happy in that experience thing
you didn't mention is that there's a
really really really really really rare
scene where everyone in the new showed
up in the game ever comes to you and
it's like there was your party yeah yeah
and it's like a one in a billion chance
so if when you see that scene please let
me know yeah yeah yeah it's a lot yeah
like someone's gonna actually be like
ArenaNet spent all their money on a
party scene that no one's going to see
and I loved it and I sort of want to
know yeah now I want to actually I can't
sneak in a little party scene so it was
like it's real and like was crazy that
we actually decided to bring back a lot
of old characters - yeah I mean like how
it turns out the party hats are magic
and bring can bring it we should really
move so you also work to the final
instance yeah that was anything you had
a hand yes we're the party wait no sorry
there's no party so I mean the the
obviously there's several big things in
the final instance there's it's it's the
reveal that your car has always been a
shell or the actual entity that's
causing the whispers which is the
whisper of Dror mag it was really
interesting so strike mission being the
whisper of door mag during our trailer
we had to be like we can't show this
let's just show you like
fighting an echo of yourself but that
there's some nice reveals that obviously
the bit where it lock and Krisha turn on
you
is a is a beat that was like you know we
initially didn't have you attacked RIT
locking Krisha right and it just felt it
felt like this weirdly anti-climatic
thing if after the beat they just like
stop and it's like okay sorry it's yeah
so there was a lot of stuff around that
right I mean then of course there was uh
going to I have the north at the end and
the reveal of the arena Vereen and I
have to say like for me one of the
things that really helps that sequence
work we've given shout outs them you to
the music a lot but MacLean did a great
new rendition of the arena thing it's
kind of like a mix of all the different
or main things we've done over time
there's the very classic one
doo-doo-doo-doo and then like kind of
the more choir one yeah and it's just
it's so it's the first time you're
seeing her as an elder dragon and she's
just there and there's this beautiful
version of this song that you heard the
first time you've met her plays again
and I thought that was um there was a
lot of you know a lot of people had
emotional reactions to that and I and
I'm I was pretty happy with that I mean
I had an emotional reaction to it
yeah I've I don't know I've I've been on
like every piece of content since the
moment she like hatched from her egg and
I was like yeah she's now like twice
your size you know way way more they
have I mean like like she she had a
character's huge yeah she had a she had
a glow up literally yes seriously
actually at one point she was so bright
like you know like when you when you go
into the instance you're like wow she's
shiny she used to be way too shiny so
yes a Joe who's this son I am so I've
not I'm surprised I have not seen the
playerbase make probably because they've
been too obsessed with unicorns his
Irene is super shiny and I really want I
really want a comic of the commander
being like green why are you so shiny
all the time and then it cuts the
commander like wearing like all these
Inhumans and being super bright and
she's like I learned it from you
and I learned it from you or mom but yes
commander unit yes
I'm shiny because this is what you made
me and like what right like when she was
like hey if you're getting annual yes
like you get in a new and yeah Irene
just stacked all her infusions yeah
that's fantastic
guys it's not the shininess is not part
of being an elder dragon no it's just
that she got all the customers yeah yeah
you don't want it I mean she has killed
like two world bosses right like and
she's been with those three like that
she ate joke oh I'm sure that like he
had some loot starts yeah yeah yeah
Jokers joke is sick loot
yeah she got like the key to prom when
he killed sight an and Morgan Moffitt
and what happens you can Connor I on the
same I'm gonna do it again then happen
more we talk to you like okay no I like
it
let's talk about the lost spirit shines
children you have an upcoming thing yes
I did show up absolutely we should but
first the lost spirit yeah no so the
lost spirit shrines were really
interesting because um they're all
unique right and it was an opportunity
to like dive into like what what has
what defines each of these spirits right
the ox is all about perseverance
Wolverine is about valor in the face of
absolutely horrifying creatures that
will murder you if they see you an eagle
shrine is about being clever and finding
a way to overcome your obstacles and and
there was a really nice opportunity to
like hey I want I want to give a
shout-out to Taylor said Taylor
Sutherland who worked on a lot of those
early on but we reiterated on them a ton
and but like the ox one where he's like
there's a lot of things was like here's
this concept I want you to drag salt
blocks down like okay like how do we
make this it's like oxy as possible and
there's the end I don't know there's a
lot of there's a lot of the making the
Ox blah the salt walk actually moved
behind you which I said I've seen
sometimes like it gets detached from
people and then the chain just gets
super long but was a really interesting
things we haven't really done anything
like that before where the
a physical object that's moving behind
you I think we kind of did it with uh
there's a thing in Episode six live last
season where you can fly in near sky
scale and like there's a chain dragging
crystals behind you but this was
different like it's a giant heavy thing
and there was actually initially the the
block didn't turn when you did that was
something I had towards the end it would
it would drag but it would only move if
you would like move forward so what
would happen is like you'd like start
walking this way and go but the flipside
of this was if you walked around it the
ropes would stay attached here and
they'd like go through your butt so like
there's there's quite a bit it's kind of
gonna work required ya to make it so you
know the ropes were coming out of your
sides at all times and then the
Wolverine shrine was really interesting
and apes are weird yeah bugs are bugs
are great The Wolverine shrine was a
really interesting one because it you
know open world people talked about how
they bought the bone scanner to be scary
right and like you know we in the vents
and though all the ones we fight it's
it's a stoppable thing but we did it
because you're closer to your car and
your mags power like we were like we can
amp this up a lot and so really leaning
into the idea that like you can't be
seen like you need to be stealthy and
get through this is a really interesting
thing in the open world that we had to
balance very carefully like at one point
it was way too hard and then it was like
too easy and like what everybody say I'm
not good at it yeah you know it is
difficult but you get credit for trying
right which is I think one of the big
things we did it used to be like at one
point there was no resetting your
darkness counter which was it was way
slower but it like you just couldn't
reset it no matter what and we you know
we changed the flow so like every time
you hide in the light it resets so it's
more about getting from point to point
carefully yeah the mushrooms used to not
have Telegraph's which made a huge
difference because like now you can
definitely see when they're popping up
and get out of there like there's just
all there's a lot of feedback stuff that
needed to be well that's always the
problem that's always
challenged with stealth any stealth
mechanics is like how do you communicate
clearly the parameters to the player
like yeah anyway so I all over enshrined
I will say was probably the event I was
most nervous about really yes I I mean
everyone on the team had done great work
right at your car I was feeling pretty
good about your car was feeling good
about the trials of feeling good about
most the shrines but Wolverine like that
start that without it the way that event
feels changes when it was based on the
number of people who have hit it and
like I knew it it worked pretty well
from like for most scales but still
hitting and hitting live is always like
different right yeah
and if answers people seem to respond to
it pretty well and like it's it was a
neat different event so yeah I feel
pretty good about it in the end to kind
of like touch on what Connor was talking
about earlier with that a lot of this
episode and even the previous episode
were based around how do you make
someone feel like scared or unsettled in
a game where you have the ability to
combat everything right you have the
ability to face that fear with a sword
everything literally cleanse your fear
status ails you can yeah with with
effects in some way that same so the
this this entire Lake your marshes map
we had to play a lot with like how do we
make people feel unsettled and afraid
regardless of what they have equipped in
who they're with and I think that like I
know that shout-out to Connor you did a
great job making the Wolverine shrine
feel very unsettling and nerve-racked
yeah it's also Justin did a great job
with the environment art like circles of
creepy trees and like yeah this is
basically just the justin is an amazing
map artist check all the shrines yeah
and all the shrines are really beautiful
even even the ox Rhine which is like a
mud pit it's a very beautiful mud yeah
it's one of the top ten mud pits I've
listed by Forbes travel magazine I think
it's actually honestly say it's one of
the top ten mud pits on my list too yeah
cuz we usually fight so much but yeah
like the eagle shrine has got this
really cool
like Eagle walls and things like that
one of the other things that was kinda
interesting about the shrine saying if
the bram scenes there's a lot of like I
honestly think those those the
presentation of the scenes worked at
like watching them live worked out very
well because often our open world story
steps have the problem of like eighty
people are standing on top of the
character you need to talk to but having
like giant spirit Bram talking with
giant spirit animal it's just everyone
standing around going look at that and
other people like and vertically being
like what are they staring at all these
people hitting the exact same spot yeah
there was something here you missed it
or it'll come later yeah all right you
guys
everyone on the team did really really
good work so Cameron mentioned in the
last segment yes that there is some more
stuff coming and yeah he promised that
you would show it yeah so we are as part
of the build on February 11th we are
shooting for not only an update to treat
heart mechanically that we should force
you to engage with the mechanics a
little bit more and we're also in a
pairing with this adding some new
rewards so I'd like to show off we these
are called this called the broken voice
set it is essentially a version of I'm
blanking on its name now Oriol weapon
the boreal weapons that like jour mag
has like I think there's a description
which Alex wrote for them which is I
love is like perfection has a price inch
or mag will happily pay it so why don't
we bring these up
that move that have been attached to
each of them which I think really like
brings out the look a lot I took this
footage and cross Mar Valley for some
reason cool Valley is cool and then
we've got the staff I think there's also
footage of you also got the bell right
yes and the bow is the third one so
they're just kind of like a nice oh
they're like it's a different color
scheme so like there's you still have a
reason to get like the crafted ones but
they've also got some really nice
flourish to them yeah I was just showing
off a couple of them there's they all of
them look great I just picked a few of
them to show off so you can see the
other ones when they go live east will
drop from jakar they will they will drop
probably I know people are always
worried that when things drop it's gonna
be like almost impossible to get they
will not be impossible to get but you're
carving histor car itself will be hard
the idea is like the challenge comes
from actually getting to the place where
you can get these things so yeah and
then we're also adding the winters heart
infusion there will be another would
another way to get it will be riding
your car and the etched weapons that are
part of the will upgrading into the
corrupted what handset so we're adding
quite a few things to Jakara Matic
appropriate the winters heart infusion
Ibou is the one where it's it's your
like snowy not the one where it's like
you look super frozen yeah oh yeah yeah
yeah we have we have so many like winter
themed ones I legitimately yeah yeah so
I mean those are all those will all be a
nice incentive for people to basically
like I think the thing I want to remind
people is when the episode immediately
releases it's not really the end of the
story are still coming back yeah yeah we
still go back to work we don't
immediately move on to the next thing
there's a reason the tag teams are
staggered whether do they work on
different content so that we can
continue to tweak the stuff that we've
released and so like a lot of you know a
lot of the stuff that we've been hearing
about your car's difficulty and like and
all the other things are things that
we're paying attention to and seeing
what we can do if we can if we can bring
out that that just
it up a little bit more and I think I'm
really happy with the stuff we're
getting working out with Jakarta feels
like pairing this revision with rewards
is going to feel like a nice secondary a
nice meaty secondary update yeah awesome
I mean I guess a condition a little bit
like like we do read through all the
like as much of the feedback as we can
because there's a lot of it well like we
do take a lot of stuff to heart and
because of like the cadence you know
sometimes you're given opportunities
where we are allowed to like make some
some adjustments and some pivots that
you know kind of cater to that feedback
and hopefully create a better user
experience like I seen a lot of people
talking about like Episode two feels
like like a next level up to episode one
and it's like if so one team did an
amazing job like I wouldn't exactly say
that it's just more so like we had the
chance to be able to see like because
this is one continuous map we're not
changing things like holistically so we
were able to kind of see what a lot of
the feedback was from players and be
able to see in pivot kind of implement
some things that would hopefully address
the things that people actually liked so
you know I think both episodes and both
teams did an amazing job
yeah all right so if you guys have
questions go ahead and throw them in
chat will answer a couple of questions
in the time we have left but the so
dramatic sure max thanks drew cars new
mechanics yes new rewards coming in
February 11th yes okay unless something
goes horribly wrong which is always
possible but I'm pretty sure it's not
literally just caused some okay okay
what motivated you guys to bring back ox
Eagle and Wolverine I think it's a where
you know we wanted to die yeah time
pulling my thing back we are doing Norn
and char stuff it's what we're all the
big focus of season and the lost spirits
of the wild are kind of has been kind of
a dangling right like you know it's like
we touched on that and they were thought
to be gone and it seemed like it was
really just it gave us an opportunity to
explore the spirits in general I have
wolf show up as well and like really
dive into them in a way we I don't think
we have in the core story outside of
Norn stuff and there's a you know some
really nice players specific dialogue as
well for especially if you're in or out
wolf
follower so yeah I mean our main motive
was like this is something that is a
part like every time you look at an
episode it's like what parts we build
such a massive world and gold worse to
the metaphor I always use it's like
working in like a comic a shared comic
universe like Marvel or DC where like
you're going to you're going to tell a
story line that's in this one part what
are all the stories that have been told
there before that are that are relevant
right and then when we're dealing with
jakar who's corrupted the Norn in the
past it seems very natural to tie in
like other creatures being corrupted and
some of the lost spirits were chased by
jor mag and things like that yeah yeah
you mentioned spirit of the wolf and
there was a note that I meant to call
out earlier that I really liked it was
just a tiny little touch that was so
funny and so good when you first were
with him and he was talking to the
spirit of the wolf and Bram just got
excited and like finished a sentence for
the wolf spirit very dignified wolf
spirit just went yeah wolf spirit was
thinking about just minding him right
there to say that there's an alternate
version of the episode where Bram just
immediately gets might buy this present
it's smote smoke what's the past tense
of sweet anyway squeezed into that for
us there's a question about more spirit
stories and if we learn more about owl I
can't really answer that it's just uh
we'll see what narratives yeah it's
basically you know as the expert saga
continues on we're gonna be doing our
best to touch on some some old stuff
along with some new stuff and all we can
really say is stay tuned yeah yes stay
tuned is actually a very good idea
actually so whenever my friends because
a lot of my friends know that I work at
our Internet and they also play our game
they're always like what what's the new
hotness and I'm just like didn't answer
also it is now almost 2 o'clock so we
need to wrap up ok because it got late
thank you guys for hanging out with us
for - smitten smitten I feel yeah Bram
got smitten
wait now I think I'm good okay I've
already made the last stream I already
made the right lock and Logan like yes
on a stream are you joking okay okay I
assume not all right thank you like
anomalous yeah we did actually snuggle
thank you all for hanging out with us
for the past two hours thank you guys
for coming on and thanks for the preview
so February 11th yeah look forward to it
until then go check out the spooky stuff
on the map find the spooky stuff that
Connor hid throughout the manor
yeah all right all right we'll find you
or we'll find you
couldn't come to your house yes if you
don't mind if you don't find the creepy
code and they will show up oh my okay I
have some creepy coding to find but till
then we will see you guys in game thank
you so much thank you everybody
see you next time
Guild Chat - Episode 97

Transcription[edit]

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