Dungeon Defenders Eternity
Dungeon Defenders Eternity is the definitive version of the hit tower defense action RPG!
My work on Dungeon Defenders Eternity (DDE) consited mainly of the porting and optimizing of the original Dungeon Defenders (DD1) content. Along with the porting of existing levels my own personal contest entries from DD1 (Akatiti and Moonbase) were to both be included in DDE, both these levels required some additional work in proting due to their more complex secrets or gameplay designs.
Along with the porting the decision was made to improve upon existing level visuals. This meant that most of the maps had some visual upgrades, I was assigned Servants Quaters seen above in the first image, where the roof area was expanded upon and opened up, this not only helps camera control for top-down players, but makes the roof look considerably more interesting to first person players too.
I created one of the new levels for the additional levels we would be adding as free DLC to DDE, this level was Costal Bazaar, you can view above. It features some dynamic gameplay elements, in the player activated orb that can then provide buff, debuff or damage beams in set palces on the level to help, hinder the player or mobs.
It's designed to be a small level that allows the player to place defences in a multitude of positions, design primarily to try and make it so players place their towers in more efficient locations than at the core, to do this the enemy routes are forced into some rather tight choke points before heading to the crystal cores which are more open locations.
Coastal Bazaar includes a collection of new assets created by myself and the artists at Trendy, the design aim was to create a grand expansive interior. That in-turn allowed us to have an open field area for defenders to play around in, while forcing enemies along their respective routes.
I worked closely with the primary scripter to handle the kismet setups for the orb and spawning plus the inital balance. While balance was tweaked over-time after release thanks to the on-going community feedback. The majority of the work on Bazaar was completed by myself, with artists handing the more detailed and larger assets required, lighting was handled by the lead level designer and I finished off working with one of the coders to make sure the funtions for the orb were in as needed to allow the beams to be easily set up from a level design point of view.
Dungeon Defenders Eternity was officially released on 22nd July 2014