Lordbound

The Druadach Valley

Lordbound takes place in the Druadach Valley, a new playable worldspace rife with conflict across multiple factions.

As a level designer, I first joined the team working on bringing our dungeons to life, then moved onto the world team to breathe life into our massive new zone. Some of the things I’ve done include:

• Dungeon Interiors
• Dungeon Exteriors
• Puzzles
• POIs
• Combat Encounters
• Environments

Exploration & Immersion

One major focus I had across all of my projects was finding ways to promote exploration and build immersion.

Though my work was largely on content unattached to any particular quest, I worked with our narrative team to create locations that told a story and felt believable in the Valley. I did this through:

• Environmental Storytelling
• Written Notes and Journals
• Enemies, NPCs, and Set Dressing

Gameplay

Two of the most important design pillars in Skyrim to me is playstyle versatility and replayability. I tried to design my locations with these goals in mind, iterating until they felt good.

Some ways in which these goals manifest in my designs include:

• Nonlinear Layouts
• Combat Zones with multiple approaches
• Combat Zones that include options for the three major styles on combat in Skyrim (Warrior, Thief, Mage)

The Wow Factor

Gameplay in Skyrim isn’t just about bashing skeletons and flinging fireballs, it’s also about taking in the beauty of the world around you.

Whether it was a dungeon, a POI, or a patch of land that needed some love, I tried to always include some focal point that the player would remember even after they finished the content.

These are the sorts of locations that make the player go “wow”