Thread by @DanaENight

The first thing that I worked on at Arkane was The Flooded District, with Christophe Lefaure. Here's some of my early flow diagrams and paper maps, in no particular order. (Cont.)

Quick aside: Using the word "thug" to describe members of Slackjaw's gang is regrettable. It's weird seeing that word here. (Cont.)

This might be the earliest process image. Calling the hub area the "Bear Pits" was a little Thief homage. The whale slaughterhouse didn't make the cut, but that's a good thing. The version made for Knife of Dunwall was worth waiting for. (Cont.)

When I began work I was given a maybe four paragraph design doc as a starting point. Most of what it outlined is in that "Intro Sequence". I was pretty free to design what I could imagine for the rest. (Cont.)

Daud cut off your arm in the original pitch. That was in the game until very late. Alpha probably? "Cutting the cut" was a tough decision but I believe the best one. We got to revisit the idea of "The Outsider's arm" with Billie Lurk. No idea is every really wasted. (Cont.)

I was still so much in Architecture Student mode when I made these. I recall also being constantly terrified that everyone would realize I had no idea what I was doing. That feeling eventually faded... After nine years. 😊 (Cont.)

This one came much later, after the whaling house was changed into the refinery and Daud's base was put at the halfway point. Normally I hated boss fights so it was kind of excited to design one to avoid all of the stuff I didn't like about them. (Cont.)

Designing that encounter with Daud is still one of the things I'm the most proud of. I love watching people play though it. Oh, that incredibly on the nose Thief easter egg, the training sequence, was my fault. (Cont.)

One thing I'd change if I had the chance was make the mission end after the Daud encounter, and have the next two maps be their own thing. The mission is just too too long. But that was intentional. It was supposed to be a long journey back from hell. (Cont.)

That's it for now. ☺️ Don't read too much into some of the outlandish ideas in those. Most of those plans were from when we still didn't have a clear idea of what Dishonored would be. I was making wild guesses. (End.)

I hope these are easier to read.

These should be easier to read and have better cropping. I'm still getting the hang of this. ☺️

Easier reading. 💛

Better for actual human eyeballs. ☺️

One last little disclaimer! I made most of these in my first months as a junior level designer in her very first AAA design job. This is not the work of an "expert" but rather a newbie flailing wildly trying to figure out how level designer do. 😅