Conception
The Stonebridge map was designed as a central social hub, serving as the primary launch point to key locations such as The Crypt and The Farmlands. Built using The Sandbox engine, the environment emphasizes verticality and architectural depth, offering players a layered, multi-dimensional space that enhances both exploration and navigation. A major focal point is the underground forge, inspired by the iconic Dungeon Siege Forge. This subterranean area serves as both a visual and gameplay landmark, adding depth to the world while maintaining stylistic continuity with the Dungeon Siege universe.
To maximize the playable space, the city layout incorporates interconnected structures, utilizing bridges, ladders, and multi-tiered pathways to create a seamless flow through the environment. This approach ensures that players experience organic movement and progression, making navigation intuitive while maintaining an open-ended exploration structure. Beyond its architectural design, Stonebridge is filled with hidden secrets, encouraging players to interact with the world, uncover lore, and discover rewards tied to Dungeon Siege’s history. The city’s layout was carefully planned to support diverse gameplay objectives, integrating exploration elements, narrative interactions, and traversal mechanics to enhance player engagement. Below is the map overview showcasing the level structure and design approach (note that some textures may be missing).
The Stonebridge experience begins just beyond the town gates, where players encounter a guard NPC stationed at the entrance. This initial interaction serves as both a narrative introduction and a guided onboarding system, providing context for the city’s lore, key locations, and objectives. The guard also delivers the primary questline, tasking players with locating and rallying five legendary Dungeon Siege heroes, each essential to the unfolding story. The town’s layout was deliberately structured to encourage organic exploration, ensuring that players naturally navigate through key landmarks, NPCs, and points of interest. The design prioritizes intuitive movement flow, keeping players engaged through subtle environmental cues that lead them toward hidden secrets, lore elements, and interactive objectives.
Beyond hero recruitment, Stonebridge integrates a variety of quests and social elements, reinforcing its role as a dynamic player hub. Quests are designed to expand narrative depth while supporting engagement-driven interactions, fostering both player-to-player connections and world-building immersion. A dynamic day-night cycle further enhances the experience, adding a layer of environmental realism that impacts atmosphere, NPC behavior, and player perception. This feature reinforces Stonebridge’s role as a living, evolving space, ensuring a consistently immersive experience throughout gameplay.
In Stonebridge, my primary responsibilities centered around three core areas: quest design, NPC/creature interactions, and environmental integration. The goal was to ensure that every NPC—regardless of their significance in Dungeon Siege lore—felt authentic and narratively relevant, contributing to a cohesive and immersive experience. As a quest designer, I developed structured questlines that provided both engaging challenges and hidden narrative elements, encouraging players to explore, interact, and uncover the deeper lore of the world. Each quest was designed with a balance of gameplay flow, player agency, and environmental storytelling, ensuring meaningful progression.
In addition to quest development, I focused on NPC behavior and creature interactions, ensuring that dialogues, animations, and AI responses enhanced player immersion. NPCs were designed with contextual interactions, offering dynamic conversations and evolving responses based on quest progress and player choices. Environmental design played a crucial role in grounding Stonebridge within the Dungeon Siege universe. I worked on integrating world-building elements into the town layout, ensuring that architecture, pathways, and quest placements aligned with franchise lore and gameplay navigation principles. This approach reinforced spatial storytelling, allowing players to intuitively explore and engage with the town’s history and characters. The result was a seamlessly connected world, where quests, NPC interactions, and level design worked together to deliver an authentic Dungeon Siege experience while providing fresh gameplay opportunities within The Sandbox Metaverse.
Please enjoy a complete playthrough video(s) below!
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