Embers of Neltharion’s crystal biome was a ton of fun to work in. The art team gave us a bunch of cool otherworldly assets to play with, all kinds of floating crystal formations and bioluminescent plants. My contribution to this section of Zaralek Caverns was filling in large stretches of nature between POIs; while the interstitial space in a big map is easy to overlook, it’s important that the world the player is traveling through feels as compelling as where they’re trying to get. The journey matters as much as the destination, right?

One challenge in this area was getting the feel of the road to work. These crystal caves are sort of the “backwoods” of Zaralek in a way, so having a large maintained road between settlements would feel really odd and immersion-breaking; on the other hand, having the player just wander through endless fields with no guidance would quickly become frustrating. The solution we went with was to wind the road through the lumps and hills suggested by the rock texture, and sculpt the terrain accordingly. I think it results in a sort of meandering country road vibe that’s very appropriate.

My personal favorite part of the area has to be the crystal pond, pictured above. I think it’s a really tranquil little spot; while the area around it ended up being kind of dangerous in the live game due to enemy spawns, I hope someone playing Embers of Neltharion has set up there and done a little fishing.

The level design work for Zaralek Cavern was performed by world builders Victor Cortis, Ian Gerdes, Matt Morris, Michael Esten, Travis Hickman, Esther Love, Taylor Kemp, Ryan Moore, Alexandra Miller, and myself.