Pack Development
The Pirates Of The Caribbean Mash-Up pack had to live up to a unique experience which involved both land and ocean travel. Locations from the franchise such as Tortuga, Shipwreck Cove and Port Royal were designed in collaboration with Disney. The major ships from throughout the series were also designed as set pieces.
Asset Development
Due to the nature of the Franchise, ship assets were created early in development. It was important to achieve the correct scale and proportions of the ships to the playable character. An iterative process, assets would be created and sent to Disney for approval and feedback.
level Design
Pirates of the Caribbean allowed for a simple approach to design, as both the series and the game primarily takes place across various islands and water." "It was not without challenges however, the largest being how to provide varied and interesting gameplay elements that could be incorporated with such a vast amount of water. The largest of those challenges, was finding interesting gameplay elements that could be incorporated with such a vast amount of water in comparison to other maps.
It was crucial that Boat travel was safe and easy between islands, and it was important that the player could have visibility of other islands, particularly when in the ocean. Ships and other landmarks were primary locations placed around the oceans, which are easily accessible and give the player an easier view around the world.
Performance Design
Performance is of upmost importance for the packs as they release across a variety of devices and consoles. Some design considerations are made to ensure the pack works as intended across all platforms.
Large shadowed areas could cause a large performance dip, therefore floating structures and islands were created in a way to avoid the creation of large shadows. This could be done through location choices and allowing the light to pass through the object by designing hidden light shafts.
Due to the amount of high, large scale objects in this pack, design was tasked to work within the height bounds of Minecraft.
Quality Assurance and finalising
We worked alongside Disney to ensure our world matched the standards required. It was also important to find and resolve any problems throughout the map which would disrupt the players ability to play.
Areas where players could become trapped needed to be resolved.
areas which were required to be accessible were tested to ensure it wasn't too difficult or impossible to complete.
The map was tested and solutions were made to overcome any performance related issues.
