Carbine Studios: WildStar
Zone Lead - Bringing Pulpy, Sci-Fi Fun to Broad Appeal MMO Content
WildStar sought to bring a broad variety of players to the table, from hardcore raiders to casual housing enthusiasts. As a Zone Lead, I found I was not only able to help bring high quality, rootin’-tootin’ space western experiences to life, but champion features that helped elevate the experience for all types during my time on the game. I came to the team midway through production and stayed through launch until the game’s sunset.
Shiphands/Expeditions
Shiphands (later renamed Expeditions) were short, 15-30 minute instanced content scaled for 1-5 players meant for the more casual crowd. As feature owner, I led the team in conceiving, designing and implementing both Space Madness and The Gauntlet, as well as developing the concept from more involved quests into a proper feature. I served as consultant for other teams who made their own, and helped bring max-level versions into the game’s queueing system after launch.
These were some of the best ways to have players experience flavorful, pulpy sci-fi stories alone or with friends, and remained some of the most popular content until the game’s sunset.
Holidays
What live game is complete without holidays and other yearly events? As the feature owner, I led the team in designing and implementing two major holidays: Shade’s Eve (Halloween) and Protostar’s Winterfest (Winter Holiday). Each holiday came with a scalable instance similar to that of the year-round Shiphands/Expeditions; I designed the flow of these experiences. I also designed and implemented the daily quests present in each capital city for gaining currency and obtaining holiday-specific rewards.
Encounter Design
Later, serving on the Dungeon and Raid team, I designed minibosses for the Redmoon Terror raid and bosses for the dungeon Coldblood Citadel. Executing these meant combining knowledge of the game’s AI systems, spell system, and the engine’s proprietary scripting language to bring these to life.
…and more!
As is common on MMO teams, I wore many hats during my tenure. I served as primary designer for the revamped Discovery system, as well as the feature owner for the capital cities: Illium and Thayd. My team was also responsible for the polish of Levian Bay, Ellevar, and Whitevale. I worked with everything from items to abilities to spawns in the creation of content within WildStar.
I also served as one of the longer running official developer liaisons to the community, guesting on several livestreams and seeing the game off with the players when it sunset in late 2018.
