Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millennium Online

MY ROLE IN THE PROJECT

I was brought on at Vigil to design and implement encounters for the never to be released, Warhammer 4o,000: Dark Millennium Online. DMO, as it was often referred to, was an MMO that had gone through many iterations before I arrived. When I was introduced to it, DMO consisted of two types of level, the Overworld, with massively multiplayer open-world gameplay, and dungeons, individual narrative gameplay spaces that were instanced for you, and up to three other invited players. I worked mostly in the overworld.

Many of my early tasks were to take areas that had existed in some previous iteration of the game's development and update them to function with the current systems and gameplay logic. This could include re-balancing small skirmishes to use the latest balanced version of a weapon or power, implementing or updating loot tables, or adding better cover objects. This lead naturally to my next type of task which was to take a chunk of real estate, hone the existing landscape, add props and enemies, in order to create quest zones. Each zone would consist of up to seven quests. These quests would be bundled to tell the story of the area and fit together as an act, or chapter, of the narrative flow. I worked on three such zones, one with snow filled trench warfare, one on the edge of remote icy cliffs, and one in a swampy forest filled with escaped psychic lunatics. As the project continued, and DMO came closer to it's cancellation, these large sections of original design work gave way to iteration and polish of earlier sections of gameplay. Presumably the company was attempting to create a playable sizzle reel in hopes that the game and the company could survive the coming collapse of THQ.

The only example I can show that relates to my work directly. I took the snowy edge of that cliff and carved it out into a switch-back that lead up to a quest zone on a plateau above.

A rare shot of actual gameplay.

Concept art for the first section of the Overworld.

The first and only playable race, the Imperium of Man. You could play as Space Marines (left) or Psykers (right).

Concept art for the first section of the Overworld.

A foggy shot of one of the various overworld sections I worked on.

Concept art for the first section of the Overworld.

I came away from my time at Vigil with a lot of good ideas, and a lot of great experiences. Unfortunately, I did not leave with much else, so the media on this page is limited to what dribs and drabs were leaked as teaser marketing. None of which can really show off any of my work.