ARMORED WARFARE

Creating unique missions

GAME INFO

Genre: F2P Tank-Action MMO

Status: Online

Engine: CryEngine 3

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITIES

Developing seasonal unique missions and level features
Level Design Team Scrum Master
Team of 3-8 people management, scheduling, and production
Lead on mission and encounter design and scripting
Design of mission mechanics reusability
AI enhancements and adjustments for the spawning system
Cutscene production
PvE tier difficulty modes balance
Multiplayer map design and production
Editor tools specifications

Lead Level Designer / Scrum Master

May 2016 – December 2021

SPECOPS SEASONS

Specops is a seasonal update in Armored Warfare with 4 co-op missions in a row that develops the Campaign story arc.

I have been in charge of a season production and entire production cycle of missions with a level design team varying from 3 to 8 people and myself designing gameplay, mechanics, encounters, flow, and feel of missions from start to finish, scheduling, documentation, and communicating season look and feel to other departments.

The season's goals varied throughout the years, from introducing a narrative or challenge to the players to being visually appealing and easily remembered. We had to find new approaches to meet the community's expectations each new season.

Overall, the team produced 29 unique missions in Armored Warfare over 4 years. 21 internally and 8 by our subsidiary studio in Belarus.

You can watch an overview of our work in a showreel below.

Dynamic environment

EXODUS

SEASON GOALS

The focus for this season was to spice up the gameplay by adding unexpected environmental hazards that occur right during your mission. When players think everything is going according to plan, chaos strikes them unexpectedly, forcing them to overcome dangerous obstacles. Players also have to outmaneuver opposing factions while tackling these challenges.

Unfortunately, we managed to develop only Act 1 of this season.

SEASONS CONCEPT:

MISSION FEATURES

The focus is to present one unique visual and gameplay feature in every mission
The first mission has a volcano explosion in the middle of the mission, dynamically changing the mood and the landscape of the level
Mechanically, we presented ally infantry that players need to protect and escort

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Developed the concept of the whole season, production pipeline, and scheduling
Developed the first mission to set the quality standard for the rest of the season for the Team
Communicating mission USPs to the marketing and operating teams
Mood, Lightning, and WorldMachine color mapping

One map - one feature

APOCALYPSE

SEASON GOALS

This season was focused on the actual name Apocalypse: a super volcano has erupted, and a world has gone to decay; each of the 4 missions of this season focuses on one of the Apocalypse horsemen: Famine, War, Conquest, Death.

SEASONS CONCEPT:

STORY

This season was developed to reset the game's lore because we raised the stakes too much in the previous seasons. We decided to leave behind established primary characters and tell the story of secondary ones in a sitcom manner. Players will be presented more or less as scavengers who try to survive in this apocalyptic world.

MISSIONS FEATURES

An evacuation mission on a landscape thorn by Earthquakes that features a building demolition for using it as a bridge
Liberation of the city mission with Flood and Stormy dynamic weather and a train escort
Mission about collecting parts and repairing our flying zeppelin on a Draughty landscape ravaged by bandits landscape
Mission about defending our flying zeppelin before it is too late in a Freezing cold city

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Developed the concept of the whole season with 4 drastically different missions, production pipeline, and scheduling
Leading the production and overseeing teams work of Alexey Krylov and Andrey Tikhonov on mission creation
Accept and assess the quality of the missions and their presentation, team feedback loop
Communicating mission USPs to the marketing and operating teams
Lightning and WorldMachine color mapping

Secret sauce of long Bossfight

SPIRIT HAVEN

SEASON GOALS

The Focus of this season was on Japan's setting and emphasis on Hi-tech, where the tech is reaching its pick and ends up in world annihilation

SEASONS CONCEPT:

STORY

Players as character Hana Buric are helping Magnus Holter to find the secret base of Enigma faction located somewhere in Japan. Magnus will sacrifice himself in the last mission to destroy the HQ of Enigma. A supervolcano will explode, which foreshadows apocalyptic changes for the next season

MISSIONS FEATURES

Mission with 5 different paths of traversing and completing the mission, randomized each session
Intensive multiobjective mission
The final mission with one big futuristic boss fight encounter with 5 stages around the circular base with unique boss abilities

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Lead level, mission & encounter design of 4th mission The Lair
Guide and review other designers work on mission design and level production of Alexey Krylov and Andrey Tikhonov
Season Final Bossfight and encounter Design and Scripting
Cutscene production
Lightning

No harm in Drama

MOSCOW INVASION

STORY

Magnus Holter and The Department faction organize a ceasefire summit, but an unknown enemy launch an assault on the summit site. Players must protect Magnus Holter, but they die at the end of the first mission.

We needed "players" to die since players were mercenaries by plot, but in this season we wanted to present players as other characters
We introduced a new player-character that will need to save Magnus Holter from the prison in Moscow from the newly presenter HighTech faction Enigma

MISSIONS FEATURES

City center nuclear explosion
Evacuate a burning city while saving as many civilians as you can and deflecting aerial attacks on the shelter
Focusing on many different objectives that require player coordination when extracting VIP from the enemy base
Boss Fight a big flying ship with only stationary rocket launchers while fighting swarms of its drones and incoming reinforcements

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Lead level, mission & encounter designer
Guide and review other designers work on mission design and production
Script events, encounters, and mechanics
Cutscene production
Design of hardcore achievements
Collaboration with Creative Director and Narrative Designer on a mission story

Airplane Bossfight

BLACK SEA INCURSION

STORY

The missions are set as a flashback story that is told by previous villain Magnus Holter whom we met in the first campaign. Throughout this flashback, we understand why the narrator Magnus Holter became a "villain" and how his goals are being misinterpreted by other forces

MISSIONS FEATURES

Defending different routes of the city, while fighting AC-130 Boss airplane with stationary land-to-air missile systems
Conducting a military operation in urban terrain with hidden firing points in buildings and a hill base in the center of the city that is protected with bunkers and has artillery and helicopter support

RESPONSIBILITIES

Lead level, mission & encounter designer
Guiding and reviewing other designers work on mission design and production
Scripting events, encounters, and mechanics
Cutscene production
Design and scripting of hardcore mode with unique bosses
Design of hardcore achievements
Collaboration with Creative Director and Game writer on a mission story

Working with allies

CARIBBEAN CRISIS

STORY

Missions are about pursuing a villain Magnus Holter that is trying to commit a terrorist attack on a "peaceful" city. In the end, we find out that he might not be that evil we thought he is after all

MISSIONS FEATURES

Repel attacks on our transport ship while trying to navigate it through the Panama Canal using gateways and bridges
Save, regroup and assemble allied forces to get out of a closing trap

RESPONSIBILITIES