Dawn of War III - None Left Behind

Dawn of War III is a AAA real-time strategy game set in the Warhammer 40k universe, focusing on intense, large-scale battles, and hero characters. Control hundreds of units ranging from belligerent squads of Ork Boyz, to towering walkers like the Eldar Wraithknight. The campaign consists of 17 linear missions jumping between 3 armies while telling one cohesive story.

On this project I was a Mission Designer, overseeing 3 missions from paper plan to ship.

My tasks included:

• Creating paper plans and level layouts

• Greyboxing levels

• Scripting encounters in Lua

• Scripting objectives and dialogue

• Creating in-game cinematics and non-interactive sequences

• Collaborating with environment artists, sound designers, and gameplay designers on custom assets

• Conducting regular playtests to gather feedback and iterate on the mission

None Left Behind

This mission was unique in that it was the first missions our team created that focused solely on the player's 3 elite units, foregoing base building and large army construction. It was also the first mission players experience on the Cage World planet environment.

The gameplay begins with a single elite unit, Gabriel Angelos, dropping onto the abandoned Cage World to administer last rites to his fallen brother Diomedes. Players traverse a linear level while dealing with encounters of increasing intensity as they gain access to additional elite units through set piece encounters. The mission’s atmosphere feels unnerving and mysterious as key narrative reveals are made.

Full Mission Playthrough - No commentary

Highlights

The Cage World environment is intended to be alien and disorienting. I designed the early parts of the level around small fragmented pathways with vistas to show the depth of the world.

I pitched the concept of fusing a Starfort with the Cage World planet and collaborated with the artists on the look and feel to push the idea that this new world is hostile.

This scripted encounter provides a narrative moment while investigating parts of the fused starfort. This is followed up by an encounter where gaps in the terrain encourage the use of leaping abilities and ranged fire.

Challenges

The lack of base building and large army posed several challenges to this mission. The primary one was keeping players engaged with less units and game systems at their fingertips.

The solutions involved a ton of playtesting and iteration to find the right blend of mechanics and style for this kind of mission.

• Encounters were very intentionally scripted to provide a series of choices in movement, positioning, and ability use.

• A healing item was created to allow players to heal during and in-between fights.

• Narrative moments and dialogue became a greater focus to increase the emotional intensity throughout the mission.

Result

The mission successfully introduced the Cage World biome, kept players engaged with unique narrative moments, and taught necessary elite-focused mission mechanics. On the dev side, this small army scale style of mission was proven successful, and it gave us confidence to move forward with our plans for other missions to follow suit in this style.