Diablo IV | Ally Guo

Internship Experience: Diablo IV

Summer 2024 | Blizzard Entertainment, Encounter Design Intern | Proprietary engine, Lua

As an Encounter Design intern on the Diablo IV team at Blizzard, I worked on the following items:

Designed and implemented a complete, playable 3-phased boss fight with proprietary tools, creating a new combat experience for an unannounced release
- Scripted 10 complex monster powers using Lua, visually communicated danger zones and implicit narrative with existing vfx, sfx, and animations, and implemented AI states to define boss behavior
- Collaborated with an animation intern to make 3 custom poses and 1 animation, iterating based on cross-discipline feedback to create bespoke content and enhance player experience
- Brainstormed, prototyped, playtested, and iterated upon monster powers and fight progression with team, continuously improving upon monster design, combat mechanics, balance, and fight clarity
- Wrote a detailed 4 page design document, easing the transfer of project ownership at end of internship

Summer 2023 | Blizzard Entertainment, Dungeon Design Intern | Proprietary engine, Lua

As a Dungeon Design intern on the Diablo IV team at Blizzard, I worked on the following items:

Created procedurally generated dungeon levels, quests, and events using proprietary tools, developing 2 new minor dungeons for the Vessel of Hatred expansion
- Designed 2 dungeon layouts and quest sequences using a visual node-based tool
- Scripted dungeon objectives and events in Lua, increasing encounter and combat variety in dungeons
- Prototyped and iterated upon a new mechanic received from the Activity Design team, assessing playtest feedback to brainstorm, test, and tune solutions while remaining true to the design specs and vision
- Greyboxed a new boss room and integrated it into a minor dungeon, increasing level variety