Intro 

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World of Warcraft is a game that needs little introduction. Widely cited as one of the greatest video games of all time, WoW broke records as the most popular MMORPGs (peaking at 12 million subscribers) and one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time. As one of my first real gaming experiences, to say that I was blown away the year of its release (and many to follow) would be an understatement. But I'm getting ahead of myself-  

 

Hello, my name is Molly Moessinger, and I'm a WoWoholic. 

 

I'm in recovery, (at least for now), but for the first 6 years of its release, World of Warcraft was my home away from home, and has forever influenced the way I design games. From its immense world design to its alchemical transformation of traditional RPGs, World of Warcraft has charmed, bewitched, and befuddled me. This was one small project to better understand it. 

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What is a Cover? 

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"It's sort of like how musicians start by "covering" their favorite artists before writing music of their own. In the process of mastering someone else's work, a musician develops a slew of new techniques, as well as a better understanding of why that track works the way it does." 

-Chadly Cable 

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Game Overview 

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World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG. Similar to other MMORPGs, the game allows players to create a character avatar and explore an open game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players.

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Loot System Overview 

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• Cursor UI 

  • Cursor changes when hovering over a lootable item or enemy 

• Loot Window & Item UI  

  • Loot window opens with the mouse positioned hovering over the first item

  • Loot window stays open until the window is closed or everything is looted

  • In current-gen wow, a standard-setting is to auto-loot all items

  • When the mouse hovers over the loot item, it displays a window with the name and price, anchored in the top right corner 

• Inventory Item Data 

  • Type​

    • Identifies what the item can be used for. Ex. Crafting Reagent, Consumable, Equipment. ​

  • Quality 

    • Items are color-coded to identify how valuable it is. Poor - Grey, Common - White, Uncommon - Green, etc. ​

  • Drop Rate 

    • Range of how likely an item is to drop. In current wow this is tied to level. Quest-specific items require that quest to be active. ​

  • Other 

    • Name, Icon, Sell Price, & Maximum Stack ​

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Inventory System Overview 

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• Bags  

  • Default Bag (Backpack) can not be moved or changed. 

  • Bag Slots 

    • Players have 4 additional bag slots. Additional bag slots can be equipped and swapped out at any time. 

  • Slot Type 

    • Items have a slot type that determines where they can be placed. Ex. Gloves can be placed in the hand slot, bags can be placed in a bag slot. ​

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Programming Overview 

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• UI Layout Groups for loot windows, sub displays, and inventory panels

• Selective Masking for item sub displays so they can render outside the loot window layout group 

• Prefab Generation for instantiating items based on enemy loot parameters

• Scriptable Objects with enum types to store item data  

• OnHover Functionality to determine mouse activity 
   

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Made in Unity using C#