<metaname="description"content="RuneScape Developers' Blogs - Mod Mark talks about some of the challenges of giving feedback on the design of the next Red Axe quest.">
<metaname="title"content="New Dwarf Quest - Feedback and Blue Blocks">
<title>New Dwarf Quest - Feedback and Blue Blocks</title>
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<h3>The Unforgettable Tale of a Lead Designer</h3><divclass="content"><p><spanclass="strong">Mod Mark</span> here, Lead Designer of RuneScape. I<>m the Mark who has been here at Jagex for six years - not to be confused with <spanclass="strong">Mod MMG</span>: he is the Mark who is now our CEO. As lead designer, I am ultimately responsible for the new content we add to the game. This includes deciding what quests we develop, which new skills we work on, where we put new minigames, what levels they are, how difficult we want them to be, how much XP they give, which areas get new achievement diaries, and what new aspects of the game we should introduce, like the distractions and diversions, etc, etc. I don<6F>t actually come up with the majority of new ideas, nor do I write the content, I just decide what direction we want to take the game and create objectives for the developers, helping them to decide which concepts we want to take into full development. Then, after they design how these things should work and create the code that makes their ideas real, I get to play it through and advise how we can improve it to make it the best it can be, before it is launched into the main game.</p><p>I am fortunate to be surrounded by talented, creative individuals who make my job very, very easy! Our relationship is similar to that of a sports coach and a team - the coach isn<73>t actually out on the field playing with the team but, ultimately, he is responsible for its performance. My job is just like that, except my team this time is Captain <spanclass="strong">Mod John A</span> and his Dwarven Raiders.</p><p>Playing through content for the first time is always one of the most exciting parts of my job. When you help someone to sculpt their ideas in the design brief stage of development, you always have a visual idea of what the final product will look like, or you imagine how difficult a puzzle should be. No matter how much you discuss things with the writer or an artist, people often have a slightly different opinion from you, which can have interesting effects on the final product.</p><p>Anyway, it had been a few years since the last dwarf quest, so I played through a few of the crucial elements of <spanclass="em">Giant Dwarf</span>, <spanclass="em">Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf</span> and <spanclass="em">Between a Rock...</span> and thought back on the first conversations I had with <spanclass="strong">Mod Vincent</span>, the original developer of the Red Axe storyline. <spanclass="strong">Mod John A</span><EFBFBD>s style is very different from his, but there were a few things we were keen to keep consistent, like the camera flyover of the city at the beginning (we have had those in all the dwarf quests - <spanclass="strong">Mod Vincent</span> was big on cut scenes but <spanclass="strong">Mod John A</span> less so) and the whole Red Axe/mining conglomerates/drunk dwarf-baiting plotline.</p><p>So, I found Captain Veldaban in the north-east of the city. I<>d had the new concept art for Veldaban on my desktop for ages, so I<>d been looking forward to his updated look...</p><p>But things were a little...blue. In fact, most of the new areas and quest-specific characters were just blue boxes, as the Graphics team were still working on the new graphics. Sometimes, with content we write, we ask the developer to create the majority of it using old graphics, and ask the <spanclass="strong">Graphics</span> team to work on the new assets after they have seen the puzzles, gameplay and level design. This is always quite an odd experience, dodging level 70 blue boxes or trying to find the blue box-shaped key amongst your inventory of blue woodblock objects. </p><p></p></div><divclass="hr"></div><h3>Offering Feedback</h3><divclass="imgright"><divclass="topbord"><divclass="bottombord"><divclass="leftbord"><divclass="rightbord"><divclass="toplcorn"><divclass="toprcorn"><divclass="bottomlcorn"><divclass="bottomrcorn"><ahref="images/ra3/playthrough.jpg"><imgsrc="images/ra3/playthrough_thumb.jpg"alt="ModMarkvstheblue
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