Bigpoint: Game of Thrones: Bringing Westeros to Life

Bigpoint: Game of Thrones: Bringing Westeros to Life

1. RE-CREATING WESTEROS By Mike Swanson

2. My Background 22 years making video-games Started out as an artist Moved into Art management role Moved into production role Currently Sr. Producer on Game of Thrones at Bigpoint

3. World-Building I started my career creating 3D Stadiums for sports games Worked on several large scale RPG and RTS games with very large maps/levels – each posing unique design, art and technical production constraints.

4. What problem are we solving We want to faithfully represent the look and feel of Westeros in a richly detailed game. The challenge for us is to do this in a web-browser that runs on low spec machines.

5. What problem are we solving Historically most web-browser games have been 2D or if they are 3D, they have been much smaller games. Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms seeks to change this paradigm in creating large-scale terrain visualizations in 3D, playable through a browser.

6. WESTEROS Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

7. WESTEROS Isometric view with zoomable camera and large scale terrain visualization. Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

8. WESTEROS There are seven “kingdoms” that occupy the different regions of Westeros – each with it’s own geographic and architectural style

9. WESTEROS Westeros has several different ecosystems – a snow filled Northern region, a desert-like Southern region and many differing types of regions in-between.

10. WESTEROS Westeros is supposed to be around the size of South America – or 7000KM long* The Wall is estimated to be 500 KM long *speculation!

11. WESTEROS Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

12. WESTEROS Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

13. EXPANSION We need enough space for the map to expand over time Additional areas will open up with new adventures and new factions

14. WESTEROS DIVERSITY OF ENVIRONMENTS

15. WESTEROS DIVERSITY OF ENVIRONMENTS

16. WHAT TOOLS DO WE USE Proprietary Engine - NEBULA World builder Brushes Maya Articy Various texture-making tools Proprietary tools

17. TECHNICAL FACTS SERVERS: The game world is split into different servers – this allows us flexibility and also to shift the server load around. It is technically still on the same map

18. TECHNICAL FACTS Persistent: Every change that happens on the map happens for all players. You affect everything in the world…..and can see everything everyone else does to their game.

19. TECHNICAL FACTS

20. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 1 – Terrain Creation: Terrain is generated in World Machine 2 Terrain is exported as Tiled Export Maps generated: Height map, Color map

21. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 2 – Terrain Export: Terrain is exported as Tiled Export to Nebula (our proprietary game engine) Our engine automatically generates LOD´s (Level of detail) for the Terrain

22. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 3 Models and animations are exported from Maya (Using Granny export ) GAME

23. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 4 – Tree Brushes: Tree Brushes: Artist Create a Point Cloud (locators) in Maya and Export to engine

24. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 5 – Node Network: Import the Node Network Data from Articy into the Nebula Editor 3d Assets are connected to the Nodes automatically

25. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 6 – Placement of Assets on the World Map: Adjust the Node Network by repositioning the Nodes Adjust the Roads by adding and manipulating Road Points

26. TECHNICAL FACTS Step 7 –Ground Detail: Decals are generated in Maya and exported in the same way as Static Models Decals are placed on the World Map in the same way as Environment Assets

27. Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

28. TECHNICAL FACTS Other Polish Steps include: Global Lighting Regional Lighting (Light Trigger Zones) Rivers – uses planes with animating shaders Ocean – uses planes with animating shaders Particle Effects place throughout game world UI Icons (3d Icons ) place throughout game world

29. TECHNICAL FACTS ONLINE AND OFFLINE PLAY IN A PERSISTENT WORLD Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

30. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS OPTIMIZATION SERVERS Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

31. DESIGN Balancing such a big map is difficult……the design team uses custom made brushes to paint on resources and player locations. As the designers can re-paint an entire region in a few hours using these brushes helps to fine-tune the game balance which needs fast iteration.

32. DESIGN

33. DESIGN While the map is still huge – ensuring we can get enough players occupying a specific region is always difficult. It takes time for the brushes to be created so that the world does not feel too crowded. We will use a “instancing” of each region once they are filled with players – however there will be common areas for all players (PVP region and special quest locations)

34. DESIGN Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

35. DESIGN The designers also need to split up the PVP region (represented by the Riverlands in the Game of Thrones world) so that we do not show too many players at once and bog down the game engine. We also use a “fog of war” to prevent the PVP and PVE region from showing too many players and becoming visually too noisy. Visual acuity is important to our gameplay

36. DESIGN Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

37. DESIGN The world is connected by roads – we can block off many areas by not having any roads lead through them until we are ready to unveil that region. Utilizing roads and a node network gives us tight control over where players travel and also is an important part of our gameplay strategy.

38. DESIGN Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

39. DESIGN We also utilize a separate screen to showcase the players base – this allows us to add in more detail than what is possible on the main map. The Castle (or Keep) will show it’s visual upgrades in both screens so players can see where other players are at around them.

40. DESIGN In order for players to travel around the map without taking hours we have added in fast travel locations – these are represented by camps and docks throughout all of the regions. Each of these regions is on a different server. We originally allowed players to travel without using the fast travel system but the gameplay was simply not fun and did not fit with the game style.

41. DESIGN Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

42. DESIGN Strategic map

43. DESIGN Questing Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

44. DESIGN Questing Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

45. DESIGN Questing Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

46. ART We try to use all the latest tools we can to build up the map as quickly as possible. Iteration is key to building a great game

47. ART Everything can be upgraded or edited requiring several versions of one asset Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

48. ART We will unveil new regions as the game progresses. Animals and interesting landmarks are also spread throughout the map

49. ART Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

50. ART Lighting Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

51. ART Water Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

52. ART Trees Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms – Pre-Alpha in-game screenshot

53. ART What’s next?

54. SUMMARY

55. QUESTIONS? If you have more please e-mail me at: [email protected]