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Quest Design Internship for
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

During the Summer of 2022, I worked remotely at Activision Blizzard on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. 

Over the course of my internship, I developed a full questline made up of 7 quests in the Azure Span Zone. I worked with the Zone Lead along with other Quest Designers to make a unique story in my assigned POI while populating the surrounding areas with wildlife. 

I was responsible for the POI "Slyvern Plunge" and the quests: 
 

  1. Prowling Polar Predators

  2. Mossing the Mark

  3. Needles to Say

  4. Vitamins and Minerals

  5. Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

  6. Save a Slyvern

  7. They Took the Kits

I had so much fun making puns with each quest title, as is a right of passage with quest design. 

I wanted my POI to focus on the area's wildlife, specifically the adorable slyverns that were native to the Zone. Because of this, every quest was in some way related to the Kirin Tor studying the wildlife or healing sick slyvern in the area.

At the end of my internship, I communicated with Narrative Designers, Reward Designers, and Level Designers to punch up dialogue and polish the area once my internship ended. 

Screenshot 2023-12-07 141729.png

My Design Thinking

My initial pitch (pictured above) is significantly different from the final iteration both in its story and gameplay.

I had a solid idea of how I wanted the player to move through the POI, but needed to iron out the monsters the player had to fight and how the objectives helped to tell the story.

I also worked hard to make sure the way I was using the Ley Lines and Kirin Tor in my questline adhered to the pre-existing lore. In my diagram, I was sure to map out the areas in the POI that the quests took place in along with whether or not a quest was focusing on slaying monsters, picking up items, or interacting with objects. 
 

The above is a graphic I made for the Intern Expo at the end of my time at World of Warcraft. Of course, it also is titled after a pun, like most of my quests.

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I looked back on my progress and what I learned, including:

  • How my questline developed to focus on NPC dynamics and telling a story through the player's actions in the quests

  • Making cute effects, like stacking the baby slyverns on the player's head

  • Spawning wildlife to help tell the story of an area

  • The importance of playtesting and engaging with feedback from peers

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