Design
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“I think that in life, as in game design, you have to find the fun. There is joy out there waiting to be discovered..."
Sid Meier
Who are Arrowhead's designers?
They are at the centre of our games' development.
At Arrowhead, we have five main teams in our design department; Game Design, Level Design, UI Design, Narrative Design and Animation.
The Design teams work together a lot, but also very closely with Programming, Animation and Art, who help to make the magic work and bring the ideas to life.
Designers are hands-on with implementing ideas through the editor, scripting and light coding. And, since they are at the center of development, they are an important part of shaping the game.
The designers live by Arrowhead's three main pillars; Sociality, Playfulness and Believability.
Our designers come from all over the world.
The majority of our designers are based in Stockholm and are onsite at the office. Our designers love working together in the same space to get the energy and creativity flowing freely.
However, we also have a few designers in the team that work remotely from other locations in Sweden, the US, UK and even France!
Every holiday season, the designers come together and watch "The Ultimate Christmas Movie"; Die Hard. It's become a thing.
Warhammer 40K also has a solid fanbase throughout the entire design department.
Let's take a closer look at the design teams...
Game Design
This team focuses on the core gameplay mechanics. We're talking about movement (characters, enemies, etc), anything related to combat (don't forget the element of AI!) and of course enemy gameplay (you need a challenge, right?).
Level Design
World & Environment Design - what should the game world look like? What is the feeling a player gets when exploring our world? What is the environmental setting? What is the environment telling the player, is it a safe haven or should you guard your back? Interaction design in these environments is also a massive part of our design responsibilities.
UI Design
Everything UI. Menu's, maps, all about the User Interface. Needs to be appealing but also easy to read and work with.
Narrative Design
What's the storyline? What's the goal of the game? Why would someone be keen to play the game? All questions that the Narrative Design team answer! They do this by implementing Voice Over, World Building Text, Mission/Quest Scenarios' etc.
Animation
This team is responsible for bringing the character to life. And not just by making a character move, but most importantly by making it look like the character is real! Not everyone walks exactly the same, right?
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We work most with Sublime Text 3 and of course our engine tools (editor). The Narrative team works a lot with localization software and spreadsheet editor, whereas the UI team uses specific UI prototyping software.
Design Department