I created a series of maps that our QA team used to test game assets. My proudest achievement is a map I call the “Model Previewer” which allows testers to view in-game characters with a free moving camera. As a bonus, it also lets you test all the character’s animations and attachment points. By the time Warcraft III: Reforged shipped, the tool had been used by over one hundred testers and it was considered a mainstay in our test process. 

One of the goals of Warcraft III: Reforged is to remake certain levels so that they match the iconic areas from World of Warcraft. With that in mind, I was tasked with creating the new layout for the Silvermoon map. This proved to be a challenge because this level needed to feel like the WoW city while still maintaining the RTS elements. Overall, I focused on making a fun level and let the art sell the fantasy of Silvermoon, rather than trying to make it 100% accurate to WoW. 

Perhaps the most memorable part of WoW’s Silvermoon is the Dead Scar, a trail of blighted ground that marks the path of destruction Arthas took through the city. When designing the new level I wanted to show the formation of the Scar, so I setup triggers to periodically extend the blight trail as the player progresses through the level. Every time they reach a checkpoint, buildings and trees crumble to the ground as the Scar passes through, corrupting everything in its wake. Ultimately, the level ends with an epic showdown between Arthas and the High Elf heroes making their last stand in front of the Sunwell. 

Unfortunately, the map is not playable due to it being incompatible with the more recent version of the game. You can download the layout version of the map here.

This is the announcement trailer we showed at Blizzcon 2018.

Our video capture team wanted a map they could use to capture units spinning in place without a background so I volunteered to help them. At first I tried simply placing a unit on the map and changing its rotation over time, but unfortunately the Warcraft 3 engine interprets rotation as movement, so this would cause the unit to walk in place. I also tried rotating the camera around the unit, but since the shadows never moved during the rotation it created a strange effect with the empty background. In the end, I created a rotating special effect using unit's model. Since the model was attached to an effect and not a unit it didn't try to play its walk animation, and the lighting was now consistent with the way the model rotated.