Warcraft Dragonflight Expansion: More Storytelling & Updates
Kalecgos’ Blue Dragonflight has more opportunities to spread its wings in the latest Warcraft expansion. Blizzard Entertainment’s storytellers have been given more time to tell their tales, and the Dragonflight expansion follows a model similar to the Legion’s story, allowing for smaller, frequent updates to keep side character stories running. Lead game designer Maria Hamilton and cinematic narrative director Terran Gregory discuss how the storytelling process has brought together the narrative and quest design teams more closely than ever before. They explain how they have made special efforts to address the expression and storytelling in their animated real-time cutscenes, which are distributed throughout the Dragonflight expansion’s quest experience. They also discuss the balance between too much film and not enough player involvement in the game. Gregory is particularly proud of some of the first dialogue moments between fan-favorite Chromie and Nozdormu, while Hamilton talks about finding the right pace for the game and how the team works together to decide when to give control to the characters. Blizzard Entertainment has experimented with providing players with a smoother way to become familiar with the story, and the company’s aggressive update plan has allowed the storytelling team to play more organic story beats and give each beat more time to breathe. The aim is to make the story less abrupt for players who haven’t played for a while, and to make the story and storytelling a driver of gameplay. The Dragonflight expansion’s increased resources have allowed Blizzard to learn from previous expansions and apply those lessons to this one.
