Star Wars: The Old Republic Developer Blog

Star Wars: The Old Republic world designer Jesse Sky continues the team's recent flashpoint theme by discussing their design in a new developer blog on the official website.
We build set pieces for both boss battles and multiplayer conversations. As much as possible, we try to move you between large, open spaces and smaller, claustrophobic spaces. Every now and then we throw in something crazy. We know we've done our job right when the artists react with a mixture of enthusiasm and annoyance.

Combat is of course a key part of what makes Flashpoints exciting. Naturally we include a number of challenging bosses, but we also work hard to make the spaces between them interesting. We try to avoid the design pitfall of filling areas with '˜yard trash.' Fighting through legions of enemies is part of what makes the cooperative gameplay feel heroic, but we find it helps if your enemies do more than just stand around waiting to be attacked.

The real challenge of building a Flashpoint is balancing momentum with storytelling. We want you to feel like you are the heroes in a Star Wars action sequence, but we also want to give you opportunities to roleplay with your friends. The combat is made meaningful because we place it in the context of an epic struggle with cinematic storytelling. At the heart of every Flashpoint is a conflict that you have some personal stake in. We never want you to lose sight of that.
A handful of new screenshots complement the article, too.