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As World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is released across the globe, Principal Exterior Level Designer Gary Platner gives the Mirror an insight at what goes into planning levels for the new expansion and what players can expect.

World of Warcraft has been running for 14 years and during that time the game has expanded across six different lands.

With each new expansion, the developers have an opportunity to stretch their creative muscles when it comes to designing zones and vast areas of terrain.

But according to Platner sometimes all it takes is a simple Google search to help shape a whole new world.

“So we like to start a zone just on paper, where we're just going to sort of 2D it out and here's how we think the area is going to look like.

“We'll even do a bunch of Google searches first and look for areas that we like and find inspiring.

(Image: Blizzard Entertainment)

“You can see that a lot in Mists of Pandaria, when we did that it was so fun because we had all of China to look at.”

For Battle for Azeroth Platner took inspiration from a Canadian national park for the design of Kul Tiras.

“I always like to look at different parts of the world as inspiration so for the Kul Tiran zone we were looking at this Banff National Park in Canada as sort of a stepping off point,” he said.

Not all ideas make the cut

However, the Blizzard developer admitted that as with all art it is common for the final product to look nothing like the initial idea.

Early versions of the Kul Tiras and the city of Boralas were very different to the final landscape players will see in the expansion.

“When we first started to create their city we wanted it to be like a big walled city and I wanted the rest of the land to be sort of unexplored and wilderness.

“My idea was to make the other camps outside of the city be like 1849 kind of mining camps - very basic, with a few mining carts and a few tents, because it was all meant to be unexplored.

“And our lead dungeon artist Wendy was like you know what that isn't what Kul Tirans would do.

“They would build and overbuild and would have large buildings and they wouldn't have tents, they wouldn't have anything temporary,” Platner revealed.

Frustrated but determined to get it right, Platner went back to the drawing board.

“I went from something I didn't like to something I just fell in love with and really absorbed myself into their culture.

“I ended up making just I don't know one of the best zones I think we've ever done.”

Another design players won’t be able to see in the new expansion, was a city based around the Kul Tirans’ main fishing economy.

“I pitched something where we made an entire city based around like a giant fishing pole that has these huge reels that would lure in big prey and pull it into this bay.

(Image: Blizzard Entertainment)

“They would have these harpoons and they would all harpoon everything.

“Sadly, storylines change but I love trying to figure out their culture and the things that they would do dictate how their buildings would be made if that makes sense,” he said.

Islands in the stream

Upon reaching max level adventurers can team up as a three and explore uncharted islands. These expeditions were created by Platner himself and is something the Blizzard veteran says he’s immensely proud of.

“We have a completely new type of AI and the way they interact with you is going to be different every time depending on what type of class the player is.

“Plus the island itself is going to change the way the spawning works too, I can’t go into detail just but we've completely revamped how everything works,” he said.

Alongside new zones and as with every expansion there are new areas to explore.

Level designers have a history of hiding Easter eggs and secrets to surprise and even guide players on where to go as they explore the world. But when asked about just how many he’s hidden inside Battle for Azeroth, Platner was quick to avoid the question.

“I'm not going to tell you where all the secrets are but it's really fun putting all those secrets in, which there are many.



“There's always going to be something, we always try to inject some sort of small storyline in everything we make not just with the secrets but we want people to discover places, we want people to go off and explore on their own and then be rewarded for doing that.



“But no I'm not going to tell you all the secrets, what do you think this is?” he laughed.

Battle For Azeroth is out August 14 but is available for pre-purchase digitally in a standard edition (£39.99 SRP) and Digital Deluxe (£59.99) edition.