Dungeons & Dragons Online Developer Diary

[GameBanshee News]

Turbine's official Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach website has been updated with a new developer diary penned by conceptual artist "Muttonhead". The article primarily focuses on the decisions that were made while designing the city of Stormreach:

We decided that the ancient, ruinous parts of Stormreach should feel somewhat like a mixture between Roman and Mayan architecture, with angular stone pyramidal shapes as well as elegant support columns, only on an enormous scale. The idea was that different parts of the city would not only be built amongst the ruins, but that what was once a foundation wall for a giant building, would now become the retaining wall for various sections of the city, providing built-in protection from the wild and dangerous elements of the continent of Xen'Drik.

I started designing the various wards of the city by drawing small maps of each area, defining the general shapes and characteristics of each ward. I wanted to make sure that in-between exciting dungeons and quests, players would still have plenty of interesting things to look at and explore. So I made sure we designed a lot of really cool, unique palaces and buildings that would be fun to climb on.