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Portfolio: Total War: Warhammer III

 

Portfolio: My work for Creative Assembly on Total War: Warhammer III as Senior Game Designer

About Total War: Warhammer III:

Official Info Page

The third game of the trilogy, bringing the Warhammer Fantasy World to the Total War turn-based grand strategy campaign, and real time tactical battle formula.

Main Features

  • The Realms of Chaos Campaign: The game’s narrative mode.
  • Immortal Empires Campaign: The game’s sandbox mode.
  • Multiplayer: up to 8 players in simultaneous turn multiplayer in campaign, and new competitive Domination battles shake up the way Total War is played.
  • 6 new Races, with two playable Legendary Lords each.
  • All owned Total War: Warhammer I and II Races, Legendary Lords, etc available in the Immortal Empires Campaign.

My Role as Senior Game Designer

I joined the Total War: Warhammer III team midway through development in order to look after the game’s battle multiplayer offering. Later in the project, especially closer to release I also was one of the designers responsible for managing the battle AI’s development.

Post-release, as the Immortal Empires update was in development, I split my time between bringing the pre-existing races up to the new standards in battles, and delivering battle balance updates in minor patches.

Detailed List of Tasks and Responsibilities

Domination multiplayer battles:

  • Took over responsibility for the mode’s gameplay and level design after initial proposals were approved.
  • Brought 5 maps up to release standards with the help of environment artists, vfx artists, audio engineers and QA.
  • Organized frequent multiplayer playtests primarily with other designers and QA, gathering, prioritizing and actioning feedback.
  • Maintained and iterated the mode’s gameplay post-release, based on community feedback.

Multiplayer suite design work:

  • Note: unfortunately this feature set was cut, due to resources being needed elsewhere.
  • Designed multiplayer client features for social and competitive players. This included server-based networking, player profiles with progression systems for each race, a chat and friend system, ranked matchmaking ranks and rewards, and more.
  • Worked closely with UI artists to turn UI wireframes into production-ready mock-ups.

Battle AI design work:

  • Towards the end of the core project, I was shifted to work on battle AI design, alongside other designers, AI programmers, and QA.
  • Evaluated existing behaviors, and identified areas where the AI needed new behaviors to accommodate the new siege and minor settlement battles.
  • Guided the AI programmers on how AI behaviors can be improved.
  • Helped prioritize requests and advised production and the lead battle designer on critical areas to focus on.
  • Pushed for the creation of designer tools to allow for greater productivity, as opposed to having to go through programmers for small tweak requests. 

Battle balancing work:

  • Post-release patches and the Immortal Empires update had me focusing on battle balancing, now part of the DLC team again.
  • Together with several designers and QA, we reviewed each race’s unit roster to bring them up to game 3’s new standards, particularly when it comes to abilities and spells, which have changed significantly on a systemic level.
  • Organized countless battle playtest sessions to gather feedback to action from.
  • As a secondary priority, I continued delivering minor balance updates in smaller patches before Immortal Empires was released.