The Prince of Dreams
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 Prince of Dreams
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!
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
In the beginning phase I created 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
Since before the project I was unfamiliar with the Divinity Engine 2 I had to take my time learning and experimenting 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
After I sketched out the concept I began blocking out the level with the basic shapes and functionality, including:
Terrain and AI navigation
Quest progression
Item placements
PCs and NPCs
Blockout
After the Blockout was finished I began dressing up the level to create an atmospheric setting and sell the immersion.
Setdressing
Town Area: Army Camp
Player Experience
Here the player is meant to feel like a prisoner surrounded by walls with the only way out being going into the ruined city to look for the Captain. The area is also meant to give the experience of preparation, gearing up and finding allies before they can say: “I am ready for the challenge, let’s go”.
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
To make NPCs in the Camp feel alive and create an introduction that pulls players into the narrative I learned how to use the Dialogue Editor within the engine. I scripted dialogue options based on conditions and wrote dialogue for the characters.
Dialogue editor
Receiving the Quest from the Officer in the Beginning
Dungeon: Ruined City
Player Experience
Given the quest to find the missing Captain the player will be investigating and tracing his steps through the city. Along with the City’s history being discovered this meant to give the player a feeling of unveiling mystery and dark secrets.
Design Intent
While looking for the Captain the player is driven to explore the City, finding clues and keys. While doing this they must overcome obstacles in the form of combat encounters and puzzles, rewarding them with items and gear.
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.
City layout
Gameplay
Setdressing
To create a strong setting I wanted the player to truly feel like they are exploring a ruined city/are in an army camp. To achieve that I:
Browsed and selected assets that fit the setting
Used the Terrain Tool to shape and build the base of the level
Created modular prefabs for buildings and structures
Picked an Atmosphere Setting that fits the story
Building prefabs
Example from the city
Combat arenas
Understanding combat
To create a dangerous, hostile, but also exciting atmosphere in the city I staged combat encounters against the Reanimated Golems of the city who play an integral part in its story. To understand the combat I researched DOS2 combat arenas and identified the main implications of covers, high ground and choke points.
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
To be able to tell the story of the city well as the player progresses through it I needed to plan out how they get access to all the pieces of information, while embedding that information into the setting. To plan this out and make sure the story remains consistent and goes through a satisfying arc I created a map focused on the Narrative Beats that take place in the level.