Paying attention to detail is a key aspect of this process. Everything matters – the story, the locations, and the NPCs the player meets along the way.

We’ll explain how our developers combine different aspects of game design – quest design, level design, and level art – to create unforgettable experiences. What does the work of a game designer in Techland look like? We shall discuss the process of designing quests with quest designer, Kalina Sobierajska, level artist, Wojciech Snopek, and producer, Jacek Szarejko.

How do you design a quest?

Jacek: We usually start with a quick pitch. It consists of 4 or 5 sentences in which we try to summarize the adventure the player can take part in. We don’t create elaborate documents at this stage; only when we’re sure we want to start on the production of a given quest, our quest designers and narrative team come together to think about the details of the mission. They talk about things like the hub where it should start, how various stages of the quest should look, or about the gameplay.

Kalina: As a designer, I start by just looking at the map, thinking about its elements, the surroundings, and whether our quest actually belongs there. Missions are often very different from each other – some of them are part of the main story, while others are just side quests. The latter gives us, the designers, much more freedom. Creating the main story is the job of our narrative team. While designing side quests, we can pitch our own ideas for the mission or a character. For example, I come up with a quest that involves a carpentry shop, but there is no such location in the game. This is when I go to Wojtek and ask him whether we can put it somewhere in the game.

Is this where level design and quest design come together?

Wojtek: My job is building this carpentry shop in a way that is believable for the player. To achieve that, we use the ‘show, don’t tell’ method: if the player walks into this shop, they need to immediately recognize the place. Also, it has to fit our post-apocalyptic world. Moreover, we can add to the story by placing certain elements there, like family photos. It gives the player additional information by showing them that this NPC has or had a family. This is what we call ‘environmental storytelling’.

I also have to team up with another level designer whose job it is to design a room’s logic. For example, what items can the player pick up, which cupboards are they able to open, or which dialogue options are available. While designing the place, I must consider its ‘geometry’. It means that if a fight is going to take place there, I have to make sure that the player won’t get stuck in the elements of their surroundings. Level Designers also tell us if there is going to be a cutscene in this location, which we also have to take into consideration when designing it.

What are the next steps for translating your ideas into the game?

Kalina: In the ideal model, we start with the narrative team. They are responsible for creating the story and the dialogue. The next step is called ‘SBS’, which stands for ‘step by step’. That’s my job. We think about the gameplay of the quest and put point markers on the map to represent its stages. They mark places where the player has to kill someone or get something and help our level designers come up with better parkour paths. Let’s get back to the carpentry shop example.

As a quest designer, I’m interested in what happens when the player steps foot inside the shop. Will they have to fight? Or do they have to grab something and bring it someplace else? Are they going to talk to anybody? Answering those questions leads to other decisions, like what actors will be needed for this scene, as well as coming up with dialogue and locations that are needed. It’s extremely important as the next step is adding those elements to the game engine.

Jacek: The next step is building the prototype quest in our engine. We make a rough plan that allows our quest designer to place other action points. For example, our hero gets a request, the marker appears on the map, and then we add preliminary dialogue, camera coordinates, and so on. We play through the mission and further polish it. The quest also gradually becomes more appealing at this stage because of the work of our level artists, who prepare the environment, and our character artists, who design the characters that we need for the mission.

How do level artists know how to design a given location?

Wojtek: It’s the job of our concept artists to come up with how a given location or room where the story takes place should look. I very heavily rely both on their work and references. There are places in the game that are completely based on our concept art, but there are also locations in which I had the freedom to work with my sense of aesthetics and knowledge of the world. Their visuals also depend on the story. Whether we place some objects in the carpentry shop is based on who’s the owner of said shop or who’s hanging around there. By doing that, we want the player to discover this character and their story. Level art is not just designing the environment, but telling the story through its elements.

What are other aspects of game design that require collaboration between quest designers, level designers, and level artists?

Kalina: Quest designers work in the story system, where we prepare the quest’s logic. That is where we decide on what is going to happen, where it happens, the mission stages, and what goals the player must accomplish. We must cooperate with level designers on the technical aspects. It’s our job to show them where the action is going to take place, and they have to prepare the location for us. We should also add that there are different specializations in the level design field, like parkour and combat. That’s why we often have to cooperate with a few different level designers while working on one quest.

Wojtek: A good example of the cooperation between quest designers, level designers, and level artists is the game’s prologue. Since it’s the tutorial, we’ve had a lot of discussions about what we should show the players and what we should teach them there. The area consists of woodland, tunnels, and then the manor on the hill, where Aiden finds some items that trigger memories, like photos or a wine bottle. Narrative elements are interwoven with the geometry of the location, path placement, room layout, and certain elements of the environment – all of this together makes it a great example of good environmental storytelling.

What is the difference between level design and quest design then?

Jacek: It’s hard to define ‘level design’ since it’s a really broad term. I think we could summarize it as creating the world of the game. The quest designer’s job revolves around making lots of different elements of the game work together. There are a lot of people involved in developing a game, but most teams usually focus on just one aspect of the process. For example, the narrative team focuses on the character description, artists on details, and level designers on the environment. But the quest designer has to make all of it work simultaneously while looking at it from the player’s perspective. Our goal, after all, is creating balanced (time spent on it vs gratification for its completion) and interesting missions. And it’s the quest designer who’s responsible for planning out engaging events in the quest line that the player takes part in.

Kalina: Yes, as Jacek said, the pacing and flow of the quest are really important to us. We have to ensure there aren’t any long pauses between quest stages when the player has nothing to do. Our job is to provide them with some interesting activity instead of simply clicking through dialogue. And lastly, the most important part of our job is to ensure our quests are well-structured and engaging. We can achieve that by implementing the classic three-act structure, for example.

What are the stages of quest development?

Jacek: We add different elements to our engine, starting from a very rough prototype, which we then add other elements to. As producers, we decide on the time of sprints and milestones, meet with the team, monitor progress, and provide material to review. That’s why the quest designer must possess traits like approachability, the ability to communicate clearly with other team members, and a readiness to compromise. The quest has to be replayed and changed countless times before leaving production. In the meantime, our team provides a lot of feedback to our quest designers. They have to find a perfect balance between the narrative, game concepts, and production process, all while making sure the game is still attractive to the consumer.

Wojtek: The job of a level artist often makes us revisit the same piece of work multiple times. We finish a certain fragment of a game that is then played through and tested by others. It only comes back to us when it’s been approved. Level designers mainly focus on geometry while designing quest stages. It means that they are working on a rough prototype, mostly on block or dummy boxes with no textures or details. Their focus is the player’s pathing, and working with this rather simplistic form lets them apply gameplay changes faster.

Our job as level artists starts when the quest is approved, and we’re sure it won’t get changed too much. That’s when we add pre-existing assets of buildings, textures, and environmental elements, like trees and stones, and then design the rooms. Lastly, the lighting – we add it at the very end when we’re absolutely sure the geometry of the location won’t get changed since adding it into the game is a very time-consuming process.

What would be your advice to someone who wants to get into this field?

Kalina: You have to be able to receive criticism and not take it personally. It’s also important to voice your opinions. As quest designers, we not only play through each other’s missions all the time but also gather feedback for the narrative team, for example. The key skill in this field is communication with your team members – without it, you won’t be able to accomplish anything.

What helped me was the holistic view of games – one quest consists of many smaller elements, and I can’t just focus on one. The job of a quest designer is often asking yourself: “What is this quest missing?”. You then have to look for that one magical detail that will bring your mission to life.

You can try to reverse that logic, too. Ask yourself: “Why do I like this game or this movie that much?” We often have to rely on something that already exists. Our culture is full of tropes that are reproduced over and over again because people love them so much. In fact, most movies and books are based on them.

When you’re a quest designer, you have to remember that the game and its world have their limitations that you have to fit within them. You can either view them as an obstacle or as a guideline that might make your job easier. It’s like getting a piece of paper – if it’s completely blank, you’ll think long and hard before you draw anything. But if someone gives you some directions, it will instantly become easier. For example, imagine a quest in which the key aspect is the time limit. This limitation can serve as a guide during the process of designing the gameplay, deciding on the distance the player must cover, or adding certain elements to the game that will remind them of the time limit.

Where can aspiring quest designers learn more?

Kalina: If you want to start working in this field, you have to change your way of thinking. A lot of people are terrified, thinking they’ll have to know everything straight away. But as a junior, you actually only need to possess the basic technical skills. We focus primarily on your communication skills and check if you treat the game production in a mature and responsible way.

If you’re really interested in quest design, you should reach out to someone who’s already a quest designer. The easiest way to do this is during a gamedev conference. You can simply walk up to someone working in our field and ask questions about how to get into quest design.

When you know what steps you have to take in order to get your dream job, it gets much easier. You can look for some free courses or local events that are related to it. When I was still learning about this field, I found some courses on game design organized in libraries. I also took part in a course that helped me learn the basics of SQL, but I’ve learned most of my technical skills on the job.

Jacek: The easiest tips would be: play a lot, notice how different game mechanics work, and write down your observations, but, also the job of a quest designer requires some technical skills. You need to be very creative, don’t get me wrong. Creating traditional RPG campaigns is loosely related to quest design. It shares a lot of similarities with setting up adventures and their next stages.

Your main focus should be getting familiar with game engines, though. Our main tools are the quest system and dialogue editor. We work mostly on the game engine, especially during the last stages of the quest production process. You have to have patience to set up certain elements of the game the way you want to.

Wojtek: I started in game dev by making my own maps for a game I liked at the time: Call of Juarez. I was working on the Chrome engine, which was the tool used by Techland to develop their games. It was then that I realized that I like placing geometry and creating worlds. Later on, I made a couple of Dying Light maps, which were noticed by someone from Techland. That’s how I got offered my job. I was already studying game design at university, and some of my professors were working for Techland.

When I was starting there, I already knew the basics of the developer tools, but on the job, I learned the rules of the game development process, workflow during production and optimization. My first maps were full of assets and objects since I wasn’t worried about the game engine being able to process them. In my opinion, if you want to get into game dev, you should start with modding. Nowadays, you can work on many free engines and play with developer tools from many games. I think that my work is relaxing in its own way – kind of like building a house in The Sims or playing with Lego. Just give it a shot.