BioWare Blog: Being a Level Designer, Part One

In the latest entry to BioWare’s official blog, level designer Cori Nicole May gives us some insight into her day-to-day responsibilities.

But the real joy of my job is that, if I wait long enough, I get to do everything, at least a little bit. Level designers are at the hub of every part of the game, and thus they get feedback on all those parts, and sometimes even get to dig in and get their hands dirty in them.

Don’t like the way a particular character looks? Back in the old days, it was just a matter of pleading with an artist until they changed it. (When I tried to get C**** to be a little prettier, the artist looked so hurt I thought perhaps he’d modeled the character on himself). But now, I can go in and make my own head to show them what I was thinking of. Sometimes they’ll even accept it! (And then make it much, much better. It has become very clear that while I may have far-too pronounced opinions on art, I sure am not an artist.) And I swear, I did not go in and change any heads when the last call for lockdown came in, not even to fix a certain henchman’s skin problems. Honest. But I was very, very tempted. I love creating the way a creature looks, actually; head passes and clothing passes are very fun, changing little things here and there just to achieve a certain nuance. It’s probably lost on most people, but I know it’s there, and I can point it out to my friends later.

I’ve also made areas infinite areas, actually, as the dungeons in Infinite Dungeons were under my purview. By the end of my time on ID, I knew every tile in Neverwinter Nights in painfully intimate detail. And I had completely forgotten how to script. Thankfully, it comes back quickly.