Sarah Boulian Interview Part II

The Land of Dungeon Siege has released the second part of their interview with Sarah Boulian of Gas Powered Games, once again focusing heavily on world creation in Dungeon Siege. One of the questions to follow:

Damelon: Are nodes created on an x, y axis or on an x, y, z axis? In other words, are nodes placed on a flat plain and elevation (negative or positive) is placed on the node? Or can nodes be placed at elevation on the map itself; i.e. a high mountain valley between two peaks that are 1000 meters above “sea level” of the map.

Sarah: Try thinking of nodes as if they were Legos. Each piece fits to other pieces along predefined sides, called doors; you can stack them in any direction along those doors. When you first begin a map, you start with empty, black, “node space,” with a single node of your choice. By adding more nodes to that first node, you grow the region outwards, upwards, downwards, etc just by adding more nodes.