by theygamesUndermine. Home to Azeroth’s Goblin population, the underground metropolis has existed on the fringes of World of Warcraft for over a decade – just out of reach, yet within touching distance. With WoW patch 11.1, Undermine(d), we’ll finally be able to explore this chaotic metropolitan world that, in many ways, feels like a real-life city. In an exclusive interview with various members of the Blizzard team, I asked about the pressures of designing a zone that players have such high hopes for, as well as what it was like creating the G-99 Breakneck, the MMORPG’s newest feature.
In many ways Undermine is reminiscent of a bustling American city. There are tight streets and alleyways engulfed in a haze of smog, horns are blaring, Goblins are probably yelling ‘I’m walkin’ here.’ Yet, Undermine is immediately recognizable as being a World of Warcraft zone: it retains its fantasy roots, while injecting a little bit of real-world spice. As a Dimension 20 fan, it immediately reminds me of The Unsleeping City, Brennan Lee-Mulligan’s New York-set Dungeons and Dragons campaign. There’s magic and wonder around every corner.
But we’ve been waiting for this zone for a while. As someone who sticks to various types of elf, I’ve been well fed over the past few years. Goblin players, on the other hand, probably aren’t saying the same. We haven’t really dived into Goblin lore since the addition of Kezan back in Cataclysm, and the Motherlode!! dungeon in Battle for Azeroth. Expectations are pretty high as a result, so I ask the team how it went about designing the MMORPG‘s newest city state, and how it stayed true to game’s original vision.
“People have a specific expectation when it comes to Goblins,” associate game director Morgan Day tells me. “They feel very narrow in terms of their motivations. In Undermine(d), we’re going to explore a little bit more about the culture and learn about what all of their other motivations are, who the other characters are, and how they feel about some pre-established characters like Gallywix, who are so single-mindedly motivated.
“The whole notion that there’s this space that no one has ever seen in the game but it’s been talked about and gossiped about gave the design team an opportunity to just fully dive into [the Goblins’] zaniness and wackiness,” continues associate design director Katrina Yepiz. “It’s their world, it’s their space.”
When I ask if the zone’s mystique adds extra pressure, Day laughs. “There’s always pressure working on World of Warcraft! This is a space that’s been talked about in WoW’s lore for some time, so there’s tons of community conversation and feedback to pull from that was really inspiring.”
But Undermine has been carefully crafted to feel like a Goblin city from the top down. “One of the main goals was to create something vibrant and distinct that players expect from World of Warcraft, but make it feel inviting as an underground setting,” lead prop artist Jordan Powers recalls. “There are Vegas-style light up signs, glowing rivers of industrial waste, streetlights – all of the things that people think of when they think of Goblin culture. It’s a really cool tonal breakup from what we’ve traditionally seen in zones across The War Within and Warcraft as a whole.”
“We’re trying a lot of new things with the civilians in Undermine, too” senior game designer Sean McCann continues. “If you’re walking around Undermine and you start dancing, a lot of the Goblins will start dancing with you. If you die they’ll walk around your corpse and see what happened, and if you’re a Gnome, some of them won’t react too friendly to you. This is us dipping our toe into making reactive civilians in the area. It adds to the feel that this is a lived-in world.”
But just as Goblin’s will curiously inspect your corpse and hurl various insults at Gnomes, you’ll also see them zipping around in cars – vehicles are their speciality, after all. The highlight of patch 11.1 is, of course, the G-99 Breakneck, the all-new D.R.I.V.E mount that allows for enhanced ground traversal within Undermine’s limits. Think Dragonriding (now Dynamic Flight), but on the ground.
“When we were talking about Undermine early on, we were thinking about the fantasy of these dense, busy streets,” Day tells me. “So we talked about how we move around the space in a way that’s really engaging, exciting, and really helps you enjoy movement, but in a way that feels thematic. The idea of huge dragons flying overhead doesn’t really get you into that feeling of the hustle and bustle of New York City.”
G-99 Breakneck was born from those discussions, and from there it was all about nailing the feeling of driving a jacked up hot rod-style vehicle. Powers tells me making the Breakneck feel rooted in Goblin lore was imperative to the design process: “there’s gaudy animal print stitched to the seat, there’s an engine that looks like it’s way too big for the chassis: these things sort of embody Goblin culture as a whole.”
“There’s crazy acceleration, you can boost, you can do donuts,” Day says. “That was important from the outset; you had to be able to do donuts in this thing. If we can nail that, the rest is easy.”
I do, of course, ask if the G-99 Breakneck will always be confined to Undermine – Dynamic Flight was initially restricted to the Dragon Isles, after all. “I can never say never – that’s something I learned with World of Warcraft,” says Day with a smile. “Depending on player feedback and how people receive it, we’re totally open to that idea, but [the D.R.I.V.E mount system] was developed and currently planned to be just an Undermine city streets system.” Fingers crossed then, folks.
World of Warcraft Undermine(d), the War Within’s patch 11.1 update, is rolling out now. It adds not just Undermine and the G-99 Breakneck, but also a slew of new Delves, a Raid, and the shiny Cartel system. You can learn all about it here.
If you, like me, smacked your car into a lamppost and are looking to drive responsibility-free in Undermine, check out our list of all the best WoW addons. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something completely new, here’s our guide to all of the best free MMORPGs.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.