{"id":1416,"date":"2025-02-08T00:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T00:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2025-03-19T02:27:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T02:27:33","slug":"responsibilities-of-a-world-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/responsibilities-of-a-world-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"My Role"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When choosing what I wanted to prioritise (the game or the role), I picked the game because I knew that I have a broad enough skillset to get by working in different departments like art or programming. What I really wanted to do was take on a design role with a game I knew I could really have fun with because of the way it combines <strong>creativity and storytelling with technical skills<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"628\" height=\"475\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/team-comp.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2117\" style=\"width:186px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/team-comp.png 628w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/team-comp-300x227.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So votes are in and we are put into groups &#8211; I get to work on my top choice. Yay! Everyone cheered! I am chosen as the <strong>World Designer<\/strong> for Those Left Behind! It sounds pretty self-explanatory. The world designer&#8230; designs worlds. Duh. And yet, I still wasn&#8217;t quite sure what that meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After researching the role, I can confidently define the World Designer as the one primarily responsible for creating the fictional world within a game, including its geography, lore, and other details that players will interact with. Essentially shaping the overall environment and immersive experience of the game world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this project, being the world designer means considering:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>World layout &amp; geography<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Design the <strong>world structure<\/strong> (open world, hub-based, linear, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lore &amp; history of the world<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Decide how Earth was ruined (war, climate disaster, etc.).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Understand the characters and their impact on the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Environmental storytelling<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Work with the <strong>environment artist<\/strong> to ensure the world tells a story through ruins, signs of past life, and hidden details.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Think about how architecture and nature have evolved after the apocalypse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Survivor cultures &amp; societies<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Establish how the last survivors live, what they believe, and what conflicts exist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Work with the <strong>narrative designer<\/strong> to connect lore with the player\u2019s journey.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gameplay implications of the world<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Work with the <strong>technical designer<\/strong> to ensure that the world supports the mechanics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/image-17-1024x720.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1608\" style=\"width:475px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/image-17-1024x720.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/image-17-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/image-17-768x540.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/image-17-850x597.png 850w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/image-17.png 1104w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of this role means I&#8217;ll be working closely with the technical designer to refine mechanics and gameplay as well as collaborating with the story and narrative designer to create a cohesive structure for the vertical slice. I&#8217;ve taken a <strong>lead on project management<\/strong>, overlooking our jira board and writing most of the weekly meeting posts on the shared dev blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mini Update<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of writing this update (week 7), I will have taken on the additional role of <strong>UI artist<\/strong>. Working with this role includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wireframe Screens<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gathering References<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Explore UI Style<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create Buttons, Widgets, Icons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Import &amp; Setup UI Assets<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Documenting Workflows<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Choosing &amp; Editing Typography<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about Lament?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My game from last semester was also chosen to be worked on, I&#8217;m very excited to watch it come to life from the hands of others. I&#8217;m interested to see what choices they make and how they navigate creating a vertical slice, I&#8217;ll definitely be snooping about and sticking my nose where it probably doesn&#8217;t belong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When choosing what I wanted to prioritise (the game or the role), I picked the game because I knew that I have a broad enough skillset to get by working in different departments like art or programming. What I really wanted to do was take on a design role with a game I knew I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-all-things-related-to-semester-2s-game-development-module"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2118,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/2118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ab15g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}