This case study details our collaboration with Monolith Productions on their ambitious sequel to Shadows of Mordor. Faced with the challenge of developing a high-quality game environment with limited internal resources, Monolith turned to us for our proven expertise in full-level development and seamless integration capabilities.
The mission of this project was to assist Monolith Productions in creating the expansive and visually stunning environments for their game sequel, Shadow of War. With a relatively small internal development team and a unique proprietary engine, Monolith needed a reliable partner who could offer both creative and technical support. Our role was to function as an extension of their team, providing comprehensive-level development services to bring the city of Minas Ithil to life. We were also tasked with creating statues and props.
Monolith Productions was tasked with developing a sequel to their successful title, Shadows of Mordor, but faced several challenges. They had a reduced internal team and a proprietary game engine that had never been used by an external partner. Additionally, the project required tight integration between gameplay mechanics and the game environment, demanding a partner with extensive experience in full-level development. The challenge was to find a vendor capable of providing seamless collaboration under these constraints. Another challenge was also to work seamlessly in the client engine and perforce.
To address Monolith’s unique needs, Lakshya Digital proposed a collaborative and cost-effective solution. We assembled a diverse team of experienced game developers and artists from both US and India, blending industry veterans with highly skilled creators. This team worked closely with Monolith’s internal developers to ensure that the game environments met the high standards set by the proprietary engine while aligning with the creative vision of the project. Our solution included taking initial level block-outs and benchmarks from Monolith and expanding them into fully realized game environments.
We were also tasked with placing markups and doing collision testing in game. For this, we also leveraged the Keywords FQA team to aid in the training the Lakshya team in functional game testing so that we could ingest clean and functional assets into the live game environment seamlessly.
We modeled and textured the assets based on the specs and utilized the approach of using modular architecture. We were also tasked with creating a pristine asset as well as a damaged version of the Minasithil Level.
We reviewed the assets created by using prefabs in the client-provided engine. Since this was alive build, we were able to ensure quality is intact when plugging the architecture assets in to the level.
Our team constantly faced some synching issues for the data in hand at the onset of the engagement. We resolved this by upgrading our servers. As we went further into development and were closer to content closure, the builds got bigger, and speeds got worse as now the data had risen manifold. This higher volume resulted in latency in data transfer. To mitigate this, we took a new approach to ensure that data is synched when the team starts work. We requested the client to label and share stable builds which were last functional at their end. We explained to the client that as their day ends, if something is broken in their tool, we are blocked till their team comes online again during their day with a solution. In line with the above, we proposed labelling the last functional build that the client’s team used in perforce. With the use of perforce labels, our team only pulled stable files that would not break the engine build.
We took a 2-step approach to mitigate:
Our process began with understanding the specific requirements and constraints of Monolith’s proprietary game engine and internal workflow. We then organized our team to align with Monolith’s production schedule and began the creation of initial assets and environments based on their block-outs. Regular reviews and feedback sessions were held to refine our outputs and ensure alignment with Monolith’s vision and gameplay integration needs. Our collaborative approach enabled us to scale our efforts efficiently, ultimately delivering a high-quality game environment with minimal oversight required from Monolith.
We started by analyzing the specific requirements and constraints of Monolith's proprietary game engine and workflow.
Our team was organized to align with Monolith’s production schedule, ensuring effective collaboration throughout the project.
We created initial assets and environments based on Monolith’s block-outs, focusing on their design intent.
Feedback sessions were conducted regularly to refine our outputs, ensuring they aligned with Monolith's vision and gameplay integration.
Our collaborative method allowed us to scale efforts efficiently, minimizing the oversight needed from Monolith while delivering a comprehensive game environment.
The Comprehensive Development Process Behind High-Octane Games Proven Costly, Often Requiring More Supervision.
