Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena - A Mini Retrospectice
Not all games make it across the finish line to full release, but they can still have an impact.
I was reminiscing over the weekend about a game I had the grand pleasure of working on. If you're a fan of dice and strategy, you're probably familiar with the Warhammer series, specifically the version set in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, Warhammer 40,000.
For those of you who might need an overview, Warhammer is a tabletop war game where you build an army of miniatures and battle using dice and special abilities. I've been assembling models and painting them from a young age with great delight.
I had the great fortune to connect with some other alumni from Vancouver Film School's Game Design program. I was given the opportunity to join the newly founded Whitebox Interactive. They were working on a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) set in the Warhammer 40k universe called Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena. I was enthralled. I got into the industry to make this sort of game. Iconic characters, fast-paced action, and
What was the Studio Like
The studio was called Whitebox Interactive and had around twenty or so staff. I joined about 2 years into the development while the company was working in a government tech incubator. Much of the team comprised teachers and student graduates from the Vancouver Film School's Game Design program. That's how I got connected and hired on to join the team.
It was a start-up in the truest form. There was an overwhelming torrent of passion and desire to make something cool. The incentives on the team were to create a game in the League of Legends and Dota 2 style. The overall mechanics were WASD controls with
The lack of industry experience on the team had significant pros and cons. On one hand, things could move very quickly when they needed to. I recall designing the Necron Lychguard character and being able to get it into the game, and by sitting together and working through the details, it was implemented and in playtests by the end of the week. Conversely, there wasn't a change management system or substantive tech review processes. The testing process was ad hoc and primarily based on what areas we assumed to be buggy.
Make it stand out
I recall we were trying to figure out why the game's frame rate was tanking so immensely. We discovered later that when one of the characters was firing their weapon, the game secretly created a Ghazghul Thraka under the map every single time a bullet was fired.
Imagine the terror of being barraged by a weapon shooting out dozens of Ork Warbosses per second!
We didn't have a process to write design documents. We just wrote the features as needed and figured out the necessary information through iteration and talking with each other. We needed to learn about each other's needs and respond accordingly. While I would not advocate for such a practice today, sometimes, when the processes get very rigid, we often lose sight of why these processes exist in the first place. Process is essential, I want to restate that, but processes aren't sacred. They need to exist in the context of the team's needs and serve that. If a process doesn't add value, it should be retailored and mapped to the team's needs.
I'm reminded that by having close contact and empathy with others on our team, we made fantastic progress in a short amounts of time.
I wanted to share this because I learned more on this project than at any other job. It was pure exploration, the team overcoming challenges way out of their comfort zone and raw creative talent. The studio eventually folded, as most start-ups do. Dark Nexus Arena is mainly forgotten as a game that never left Early Access. But it left a mark on me and influenced me as a designer by challenging my preconceived notions about working in an environment like this.
If I can issue a challenge to those of you looking for your next big adventure, it doesn't need to be at a big triple-A studio. You can learn so much from piling into a basement studio with friends or at a mid-size start-up. I am particularly fond of the lack of structure that start-ups provide because you can focus on the tasks that impact the end user so much more.
That's a bit from my memories of working at Whitebox Interactive. If you're interested in more stories, just let me know!
P.S. Ten years later, and this writing this makes me want to make another game set in the Warhammer universe. Maybe some day!
Stay Design Minded!
-Dave
