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Michael Barclay Profile picture
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29 Dec 20, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Getting to that time of the year where I log in to LinkedIn.
500 notifications. Logging out for another year.
Didn’t even consider the implication that my dumb LinkedIn joke made it look like I was job hunting, which probably tells you all you need to know about my plans for the future 🐾 ❤️

I DID get headhunted for an Animation Director position in China though...sorry @kurtmargenau
Send me a free copy of your book @GameAnim plz I need to brush up

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Michael Barclay Profile picture
29 Nov 20
Gonna talk a bit about non-linear #LevelDesign in #WorldOfWarcraft because I've obviously been thinking a lot about it recently. To catch people up, WoW has gone back to a linear progression through zones from a "go where you want" mentality during the levelling experience.
It's played with these concepts on and off for years. Once you hit max level obviously you go back to free roaming but levelling is where the majority of the story is experienced and its here that these concepts of worldbuilding matter most.
You'd think in an open world RPG/MMO, this would be a backwards step in design due to a loss of agency. However, WoW has a unique problem in being a massive (old) MMO where player's don't really have much agency over the world. It's a theme park.
Read 11 tweets
Michael Barclay Profile picture
24 Aug 20
One of the hardest challenges on The Last of Us Part II was creating a context for specific events without the player noticing. For example, a buddy character opening a door and stumbling into an ambush that doesn’t feel contrived (e.g. what if I’d arrived at the door first?)
Generally we always want buddy characters ahead of you, simply for the fact that their animated performances can elevate an experience and build their character. But we can only vaguely guess where the player will be in the future, lest we resort to VERY linear level design.
While TLOU2 IS a linear game, we wanted to open up level design more and remove the sense of the designers hand. The levels I worked on for example (Seattle Downtown, The Shortcut, Scar Island) are all typically wide with usually multiple paths (Downtown especially).
Read 11 tweets

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