“It’s something we couldn’t do in the past” How World of Warcraft: The War Within has one zone at its foundation

World of Warcraft: The War Within, is almost here. It’s an ambitious looking expansion, taking players deep underground to lands and cultures unseen up until this point. But according to associate design director Maria Hamilton and lead prop artist Jordan Powers, this new selection of zones was built on the back of one special zone.

“I’d say we learned from Zaralek Caverns” states Hamilton. “We were trying to make Zaralek Cavern big enough that it didn’t feel too tight or constrained, and we realized we needed these moments where things were vast and unconstrained, even if we were underground. Hollowfall pretty clearly points to us doing that. You come out of the Ringing Deeps and there’s this vast, vast cavern.”

Hamilton continues, “We’ve been setting up our journey underground for quite a while. We had to get some tech improvements in so that we’d be able to do that effectively, without loads and with that level of depth we wanted. Hence Zaralek Caverns! It was our first opportunity to have that seamless layer underneath another layer. It’s something we couldn’t do in the past.”

“Zaralek Caverns was an opportunity for us to try some things, and also learn how to tell interesting stories in that space, and to learn how big of a space we needed. How tall the ceilings had to be, and how to make skyriding feel good in that space […] It was very important for us. To have an opportunity to try this stuff out then was valuable, because otherwise we’d be trying it out for the first time now which wouldn’t be so good.”

Zaralek Caverns, a mid-expansion zone released with Dragonflight, was for many a regular old path zone, packed with numerous dailies, rare mobs, and reputations to grind. But looking back, you really do get the feeling that it’s a test attempt at making large, exciting underground zones. Moreso than Deepholme even, Blizzard’s first attempt at exploring the subterranean reaches of the planet, Zaralek feels like a rich new world just beneath the surface that mixes some of what you know with plenty that you don’t.

This, according to Powers, was a key point in designing these new zones, including The Ringing Deeps. “We wanted to give players some sense of familiarity, with cenotes and beautiful god rays coming down from holes in the ceilings and illuminating these lush mineral pools. It is important to establish that you are in this cavern, that you are still underground, to fulfill that fantasy.”

This familiarity gradually disappears as you go deeper down and progress through the expansion, with the expansion perhaps hitting the peak of this great sense of strangeness with HollowFall. Not only is this WoW’s largest zone ever, vertically speaking, but it brings a lot of fresh ideas to the table.

“We wanted you to have the feeling that it’s endless.” states Hamilton. “We have an endless underground sea down there. the idea that the expanse goes on and on and on. Coming out of the Ringing Deeps, we wanted it to expand in that way and reveal this strange place, that’s not at all what you’d expect.

“We’re giving you a bit of what you’d expect with The Ringing Deeps, with machinery here and there and a bit of greenery scattered around, a very natural environment. Then you come into this space that’s unexpected. I saw that at Blizzcon and when people first experienced it. Seeing people fly down and go ‘ohhhhh’. That’s the experience we’re looking for. What is at the centre of the planet isn’t what you’d think, perhaps. The art team did such an amazing job.”