MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR
Monolith Productions
Level Designer
(Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC | Open-World Third-Person Adventure)
September 2014
Weapon Challenges (Dagger Quests and Sword Quests)
Nemesis System (Power Struggles, Warchief Missions and Confrontation Missions)
Vendetta Quests
Nemesis System Content Design
Cinematic Camera System (Power Struggles)
Grog Barrel Gameplay Object
MISSION DESIGN
Mission Design Responsibilities
Designed, scripted and managed mission gameplay and combat encounters using LithScript, including:
45 Warchief Missions used by the Nemesis System
5 unique Power Struggles with 50 variants used by the Nemesis System
15 Weapon Challenge Quests, comprising all Sword Quests and half of all Dagger Quests
All Vendetta Quests
Iterated on owned mission content utilizing feedback from daily playtest sessions
Worked with world design to iterate on gameplay spaces based on quest needs and gameplay feedback
Weapon Challenges: Dagger Quests
I was responsible for designing the Dagger Quests in the latter half of the game. A main design goal for these quests was tutorializing late-game mechanics, including Brand, Combat Brand and Dispatch. In these quests, players are tested in every aspect of Stealth, such as using Wraith Vision to track enemies, luring unsuspecting Uruk away from others for a Stealth Kill or using Brand to set an ambush. The quests were designed with a high difficulty level, acting as a test of skill for what players had already learned.
Weapon Challenges: Sword Quests
I designed all Sword Quests in the game, making it a goal to introduce players to new Sword and Combat skills, while also encouraging players to make more strategic decisions in the more intense large-scale battles. Initial failure is expected in the later quests, requiring players to reevaluate their general approach and Weapon Runes loadout.
Nemesis System: Power Struggles
I designed 5 Power Struggles with a total of 50 unique instances to be dynamically populated throughout the world by the Nemesis System. With the Nemesis System, they are infinitely replayable and allow players to exact a large amount of influence over the Uruk Hierarchy in the world.
Nemesis System: Warchief Missions
I designed a vast number of unique missions used to draw out Warchiefs from their strongholds into battle. These missions ranged from killing all the Archers within a given Stronghold to strategically raising a Stronghold’s alarm level to high. Once the mission objective has been met, the Warchief will confront the player.
I also designed the Beck and Call Missions. Once the player has Branded a Warchief, they gain the ability to summon them at will. In doing so, the Branded Warchief can be Commanded to interact with other Warchiefs and Captains in the Uruk Hierarchy, influencing the Nemesis System.
Nemesis System: Confrontation Missions
I designed Confrontation Missions that give players the opportunity to battle unique Captains and gain Rare Runes.
Vendetta Quests
I designed all Vendetta Quests, which are generated when a player’s friend is killed by a Captain in their game. That Uruk will then appear in the player’s game, offering the player an opportunity to avenge their friend and claim a Rare Rune. However, losing to the Uruk results in them gaining more power.
"Developer Monolith Productions has built an open world that actually feels like it lives, breathes, morphs and moves with or without your own actions. It's a surprising effort that successfully blends a strong plot and clear goals with the delightfully unpredictable elements of dynamically generated content."
Polygon
SYSTEMS DESIGN
Nemesis System Content Design
All Power Struggles, Confrontation Missions and Warchief Missions needed to be strategically authored to support a large number of instances in the world, under a variety of circumstances. This allowed each situation to feel fresh and unique, without creating too much additional work on the content side. I added variables to alter each instance, such as unique patrol routes, spawn locations and an adjustable number of spawn waves.
Cinematic Camera System (Power Struggles)
To implement the cinematic intros for all Power Struggles, the need arose for a versatile and expandable cinematic camera. Within each intro, multiple cameras can be added with variable positions, blend-rates and fade in/out values. This system also needed to communicate and blend with the procedural Nemesis character cameras, including smoothly transitioning back to regular gameplay.
Responsibilities
Designed and built a cinematic camera to meet mission needs
Worked with stakeholders (design, cinematics, animation) to identify and implement all required variables to ensure system versatility
Grog Barrel Gameplay Object
The Grog Barrel is one of many gameplay objects in the world, and serves a number of purposes. It is a point of interest for enemies to interact with, it can be used as an explosive object and it can be poisoned (once the player has acquired the requisite skill). When poisoned, it will attract nearby Uruks, who will help themselves to a cup of Grog for a toast. Immediately after, a few Uruk will vomit from the poison and die. If any Nemesis Uruk are drawn to the barrel, their poisoning will be prioritized, which is especially useful for Feast Power Struggles. The survivors will then accuse each other of poisoning the Grog and fight to the death. I designed this as a way for the player to introduce some stealth chaos and distract a large number of enemies at once.
Responsibilities
Designed, scripted and iterated on the Grog Barrel gameplay object
Worked with senior design and design leadership to ensure the Grog Barrel met all gameplay needs for campaign missions, as well as high-level vision
Worked with animation to design and integrate unique drinking, cheering and accusatory animation events into the Grog Barrel’s scripting, for polish and watchability
"Every session of the game is peppered with moments of glorious chaos that feel far more rewarding and exciting than the scripted fodder Grand Theft Auto or Assassin’s Creed push in the player’s direction."
The Guardian
"Shadow of Mordor is going to give other developers in this genre a lot to think about. This would be a perfectly competent open-world game even without the dynamic AI, but that one system works so well that it makes you feel like you're having a tailored game experience that's unique to you and your actions. That's a powerful feeling, and I hope it's one similar games make the same effort to replicate in the future."