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| 0s | [Music] |
|---|---|
| 2s | [Applause] |
| 9s | thank you |
| 11s | hey I'm Dennis dalfit I'm the lead |
| 13s | designer for koning exiles I'm Chris |
| 15s | Meredith I'm a senior technical designer |
| 18s | on exiles |
| 23s | it was promised a long time ago whenever |
| 25s | we first showed off the game |
| 29s | Bill said yeah there will be sorcery in |
| 30s | the game and you know that that video |
| 32s | made its rounds and how people wanted to |
| 35s | know more about what would be in the |
| 36s | game and it was early access at the time |
| 38s | so a lot was missing |
| 40s | uh but honestly it just boils down to |
| 42s | the Pure Fantasy of Conan right like |
| 44s | it's always about |
| 45s | a |
| 46s | base Barbarian defeating a decadent |
| 50s | sorcerer |
| 51s | you have to have sorcery to have the |
| 52s | decadent sorcerer |
| 58s | very abstract at the start we honestly |
| 61s | didn't even know what source was going |
| 62s | to be when we first started on it we |
| 64s | knew we wanted utility |
| 66s | but there were just so many questions |
| 68s | because |
| 69s | in in the lore it's very abstract as |
| 71s | well |
| 72s | and what fits in the game doesn't only |
| 75s | perfectly line up yeah from from my |
| 78s | perspective going back to the very |
| 79s | beginning essentially our chief creative |
| 82s | officer handed me a document and a |
| 84s | couple screenshots and said this is the |
| 86s | design that I had for sorcery that I |
| 88s | made six years ago |
| 89s | and you know that's a really good |
| 91s | starting point for us for someone like a |
| 93s | creative director to give you his vision |
| 96s | for what sorcery would be like and it |
| 98s | was very different from what sorcery |
| 99s | wound up being today but it was the |
| 102s | basis for |
| 104s | how sorcery ended up there were times |
| 106s | where we would deviate from it and we |
| 108s | always kind of wound up finding our way |
| 109s | back to it because the foundation that |
| 112s | he gave us was so good |
| 113s | [Music] |
| 118s | so in the beginning it was really uh it |
| 120s | was really up in the air like a lot of |
| 122s | us had ideas for what we thought should |
| 124s | be in sorcery there were a lot of |
| 125s | suggestions for things that came from |
| 127s | the actual Howard books things people |
| 129s | saw in comics that they wanted |
| 131s | and |
| 133s | the way I I approached that was I took |
| 136s | down all the ideas that the team members |
| 138s | had we had a slack Channel where you |
| 140s | would just dump all your ideas for |
| 142s | sorcery no matter what they were and it |
| 145s | was based on the premise |
| 146s | as a sorcerer in a hiborian age I want |
| 149s | to dot dot dot and then I took all of |
| 152s | those ideas and put them on Post-it |
| 154s | notes in teams and I had a giant board |
| 157s | with a bunch of Post-it notes and I |
| 159s | would Shuffle these things around and |
| 161s | try to categorize them into different |
| 162s | schools of magic |
| 164s | and try to cut out the things that don't |
| 166s | make sense in the lore of Robert E |
| 169s | Howard |
| 170s | and at the end of the day we wound up |
| 172s | with this giant list of things that |
| 174s | people wanted to be able to do as a |
| 175s | sorcerer and at the end of the day the |
| 178s | list |
| 179s | was somewhere near 200 spells I think it |
| 182s | was very large and and we had to pair it |
| 184s | way back we just had to keep cutting |
| 186s | stuff off that made less and less sense |
| 188s | or things that had overlap and we had to |
| 190s | take all of those nuggets of ideas that |
| 192s | everybody wanted to be able to do and |
| 193s | distill them into the bells that you |
| 196s | received online |
| 197s | also back near the start we had a lot |
| 200s | more spells that were combat folks well |
| 203s | that was before we decided that sorcery |
| 205s | shouldn't actually got invested in |
| 207s | combat being a sorcerer is all about |
| 209s | preparation for thought it's about |
| 212s | creating the scenario in which you will |
| 213s | succeed not finding yourself in a |
| 216s | scenario and then some imagining your |
| 218s | way out of it that's not how |
| 220s | and we had a number of spells that were |
| 224s | very combat oriented very much in the |
| 226s | vein of all right I'm in combat there's |
| 228s | a guy shooting me I'm gonna summon a |
| 230s | wall in front of him |
| 232s | doesn't really work yeah especially |
| 235s | because there were a few |
| 237s | I guess directives I established early |
| 239s | on you know when we we found out that |
| 241s | a lot of combat even in the original |
| 243s | story or sorry a lot of sorcery even in |
| 245s | the Original Stories wouldn't be combat |
| 247s | oriented it was really easy to say okay |
| 249s | sorcery is a means to obtain power it is |
| 252s | not like outright combat damage directly |
| 255s | and there was also a really early Focus |
| 258s | for things to be ritualistic and slow so |
| 261s | while we were working on deciding how we |
| 263s | would ask spells and everything that |
| 264s | played a lot into it as well as the |
| 266s | contents of the Spells themselves some |
| 268s | of the things that we saw really early |
| 269s | on you know there were there were a lot |
| 270s | of really big asks and one one of them |
| 272s | that stood out to me a lot was that one |
| 275s | of the developers wanted to see |
| 277s | basically sorcery on a scale that was |
| 279s | like heaven versus hell like demons |
| 281s | versus angels and they felt it felt very |
| 283s | out of place with Conan so another thing |
| 286s | we had to do in there was consider which |
| 287s | of those things really worked within the |
| 289s | confines of R4 |
| 292s | in every system that we had in the game |
| 293s | not just sorcery we tend to try to look |
| 296s | at the actual contents that Howard wrote |
| 299s | first |
| 299s | and think of ways we can pull little |
| 302s | tidbits out of it to make the game |
| 304s | really unique and stand out because |
| 306s | those stories are something we have that |
| 308s | nobody else has if we can use unique |
| 310s | elements of those |
| 311s | to create our gameplay as well we also |
| 314s | have a unique game |
| 320s | um so basically we took that |
| 322s | sticking the entire page of sticky notes |
| 325s | that everyone had for ideas and I broke |
| 327s | them down into schools of magic and then |
| 330s | we had from our creative officer we had |
| 332s | a list of things that would be our our |
| 334s | domains of Magic the schools in which |
| 336s | magic would operate and we could try to |
| 340s | figure out which ones of those actually |
| 341s | fit into a school and which didn't so |
| 343s | that was like the first cut off point if |
| 345s | it didn't match any of our actual |
| 346s | domains of magic you're gone uh a lot |
| 349s | went that stage and then after that we |
| 352s | kind of had to prioritize them based on |
| 354s | usefulness and a big directive that I |
| 357s | gave early on as well was that a spell |
| 359s | had to First have a use in PVE because |
| 361s | we know the vast majority of players are |
| 363s | going to be using spells in PVE so if |
| 366s | the spell exists it has a PVE use and if |
| 369s | it has a use in PvP that's just added |
| 371s | incent it was kind of in the collective |
| 373s | conscious but it wasn't being fully |
| 375s | adhered to by everyone so we had some |
| 377s | spells like invisibility they originally |
| 379s | didn't have |
| 380s | and it was it was a bit of work to make |
| 382s | them actually work in people yeah it's |
| 384s | true it was that or we just lose the |
| 386s | spell and we didn't want to lose spells |
| 387s | like that |
| 388s | and then after we had um you know a list |
| 391s | of all the spells that actually worked |
| 392s | we had to decide which ones we thought |
| 394s | were coolest and we could actually |
| 395s | prioritize in it's easier for us to have |
| 397s | a ton of ideas than it is for us to have |
| 399s | a ton of time and money so we have to |
| 401s | pick and choose which ones we actually |
| 402s | make so you know everyone kind of |
| 405s | collectively went through and I sent out |
| 407s | a survey to everyone and had them rank |
| 408s | which one which which spells they liked |
| 411s | the most and then I aggregated all the |
| 413s | data from which ones people liked most |
| 414s | and then put my own you know opinion on |
| 417s | top of that of which had the most value |
| 419s | to the most types of players and we |
| 422s | started to get a list that filled out |
| 424s | what we would actually make and then we |
| 426s | took that list and prioritized it based |
| 428s | on the most interesting and compelling |
| 429s | thing so the things that wound up at the |
| 431s | top are the really obvious ones like the |
| 433s | army of the Dead with a fog in the |
| 434s | zombies the lightning storm the bat |
| 436s | demon the teleporters it was all stuff |
| 438s | everyone wanted to see for sure |
| 441s | um and then you know beyond that we just |
| 443s | had a list of things that had were |
| 444s | really um you know certain types of |
| 447s | player really like seeing this or |
| 448s | certain types that I really like tea |
| 449s | yeah it's also worth noting that there |
| 452s | was after we did an implementation of |
| 455s | adding in the alpha State we were able |
| 458s | to play test a bunch of stuff we looked |
| 460s | at a bunch of spells and said this |
| 461s | doesn't work we thought it would be cool |
| 463s | it's not we had to go back to the |
| 465s | drawing board and in some cases some |
| 467s | spells actually didn't exist in the form |
| 468s | that you see now originally Army of the |
| 471s | Dead used to be two separate spells |
| 472s | that's right it used to be fog an army |
| 474s | of the Dead yeah I did the same thing we |
| 478s | also had spells that we cut entirely we |
| 480s | had a a vertical ice wall purpose was to |
| 483s | let you climb up things it wasn't the |
| 484s | icebridge you've got now that goes in an |
| 486s | incline but I mean we tried it and it |
| 489s | just it wasn't useful enough wasn't fun |
| 492s | it was too clunky and got replaced with |
| 495s | a different concept the New Concept |
| 497s | works way better some spells were too |
| 499s | good like we already had the directive |
| 501s | uh you know no combat spells while the |
| 504s | firewall used to deal damage on like a |
| 506s | very fast interval uh you could pull a |
| 508s | bunch of enemies with a thrall and have |
| 509s | them all like annihilating your thrall |
| 511s | and cast one firewall on them and it |
| 514s | would just dupe everything in like two |
| 516s | seconds used to have a very painful heat |
| 518s | component where if you as a player stood |
| 521s | next to a firewall it was it was very |
| 524s | much like standing in lava |
| 526s | instantly very very hot by health |
| 529s | the the play with temperature was the |
| 532s | thing that we thought could be |
| 533s | interesting but |
| 534s | I don't know if it wound up being as |
| 536s | interesting as we thought it would be |
| 538s | there was an interaction for a while |
| 540s | between the ice wall and the lava wall |
| 542s | where their temperatures would fight |
| 544s | each other and they would melt |
| 546s | but in part of the fire it was too |
| 548s | obtuse it didn't make sense naturally |
| 550s | yeah part of the firewall like the idea |
| 552s | was that when you're in those really |
| 554s | freezing places like if for some reason |
| 556s | your food buff wears off and you know |
| 558s | you're now freezing you can cast a |
| 560s | firewall and have that feel like hit |
| 561s | these scores exactly uh realistically |
| 564s | with the slow ritualistic nature of |
| 566s | sorcery it would have Frozen adaptive |
| 572s | [Music] |