The Undying City
A mod adventure for Divinity Original Sin 2
Role: Level Designer, Writer, GAme Designer
The Prince of Dreams is an mod adventure for DOS2 set in the location of one of my Dungeons and Dragons campaigns in my homebrew world. I am writing, building, scripting and setdressing this quest from start to finish.
Solo
Ongoing
Divinity Engine 2
Responsibilities
Learning a new game engine: Divinity Engine 2
Concepting and researching setting and progression
Blocking out the level
Creating combat arenas
Quest scripting
Dialogue scripting and writing
Setdressing
Ongoing Project: Work in Progress
About the Undying City
Quest:
Find the Missing Captain!
You are a Prisoner of War in an army camp. The Captain of the camp has recently went into the nearby City Ruins and has not returned. You are given a chance to earn your freedom if you venture into the City and find the Captain!
Dungeon:
Venture into the ruined city!
The ruins of this ancient empire where the Captain is located somewhere hold a mysterious long lost history. Discover what happened to this city and explore within the haunted ruins as you trace the Captain’s steps.
Combat:
Fight the Golems of the City!
Amidst the ruined buildings Reanimated Constructs roam the streets, These Golems, who have gone mad throughout many years, hold the true secrets of the City and its downfall.
Click through the Slideshow Below!
In the Camp the player is given the quest to go into the City and explores the area looking for companions.
I drew inspiration from army camp layouts, flooded city locations and took architectural elements from DOS2
A passion Project
From tabletop to Engine
This adventure first took place at the table where I was acting as Game Master in DnD for one of my homebrew campaigns. When I set myself the task to create a modded level for Divinity Original Sin 2 I realized I wanted to tell one of my own stories with it, so I began to adapt my DnD campaign into the framework of the DOS2 ruleset.
My friends playing my DnD Adventure
Adventure in Mod
A Multifaceted project
The nature of this project required me to delve into many different facets of game development, which I had great fun doing. All of these contributed to the overall direction and goals of the project, which was to deliver a complete experience of progression and narrative within this adventure.
Project Deliverables
Workflow breakdown
Creating a concept based on the original adventure story, including:
Layouts and progression node maps
Level sketches
Reference images for the setting
Planning with deliverables and milestones
Concept
Reference board
Taking time to learn and experiment with the engine’s capabilities and limitations, including:
Getting familiar with the editor controls
Managing assets
Learning the Terrain tool
Learning the Dialogue editor
Learning basic Scripting
Learn Engine
Used assets Gym
Dialogue Editor
Blocking out the level with the basic shapes and functionality, including:
Terrain and AI navigation
Quest progression
Item placements
PCs and NPCs
Blockout
Dressing up the level to create an atmospheric setting and immerse the player in the story.
Setdressing
Town Area: Army Camp
Player Experience
The player feels like a prisoner kept within the bounds of the camp
The player feels they need to prepare for the quest and gather companions and tools for the journey
A sense of mystery is felt when seeing the ruins of the city’s remnants
Design Intent
Looking for allies for the dungeon as well as information on it and the Captain the player is driven to explore the entirety of the Camp, talking to different NPCs and looking into crates, gathering gear and allies.
Visual Atmosphere
The look of the place is meant to create an eerie anticipating feeling with a damp, foggy weather, dead, withered vegetation and the introduction of the city’s ancient (ruined) architecture.
Army Camp Layout
Camp showcase screenshots
Dialogue Scripting and Writing
The interactive dialogue of the NPC Guards and Prisoners in the Camp area serve to:
Guide players toward the recruitable companions
Give context to the story and the setting
Create memorable
Dialogue editor
Receiving the Quest from the Officer in the Beginning
Dungeon: Ruined City
Player Experience
The player feels curious to investigate the disappearance of the Captain and trace his steps
A mystery unveils as the story of the Captain and the City’s downfall are both slowly coming together
Dangerous Golems roam the streets, focing the player to evaluate their approach and be careful
Exploration is rewarded with loot
Design Intent
While looking for the Captain the player is guided through the City with landmarks, NPCs and loot.
Obstacles and enemies stand in the way of the player with multiple approaches - either quick and dangerous or careful and safe.
Visual Atmosphere
The look of the City is meant to tell the story of its downfall with the environment. Among the ruined buildings and Golems roaming the streets can be seen a City once brimming with life and technology, creating gloomy and tragic feeling.
Player paths
Golden Path
Setdressing
For setdressing the following was used:
A combination of game assets that fit the atmosphere and story
Terrain Tool to create the visual of a crumbling, flooded city
Prefab buildings made by me pasted around the map
An atmosphere setting fitting for the story’s tone
Building prefabs
Examples from the city
Combat arenas
Multiple approaches
Player agency and freedom are very important elements of the original DOS2 game and I especially liked the combat scenarios where because of the difficulty of the enemies I had to be careful with which direction I approach from, striving to gain high ground to initiate combat. Based on this inspiration I created combat arenas in the level, including the one broken down below:
Breakdown of combat encounter with 2 possible approaches
The combat encounter in game
Narrative Beat Map
NPCs and landmarks serve to lead the player through the adventure’s story, revealing information about the Captain’s diappearance, the City’s downfall, how those two are connected as well as setting mini-objectives for the player to complete.
Project reflection
Working on this mod taught me a lot about learning a new engine and how to plan scope in relation to what the engine’s limitations are. I learned it is very important to become familiar with the options to create challenges in level design within the engine and experimenting with that before starting to work on the actual project.
I learned a lot about the differences in level design in turn-based RPGs compared to 1st-person shooters or 3rd-person platformers I worked on before. It took some time to understand a player’s psychology while playing DOS2 and how much more intentionality and conscious choice is involved compared to more fast-paced experiences. I had to adapt to that with the level design and create challenges that facilitate player choice a lot more than I did before.
Lastly one of the biggest learnings was how interconnected the player path and the story are and how NPCs and their dialogue can be as strong a guide to the player as visual leashing or landmarks.