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Hello, everyone!

As you saw, December 2 was not just the release date of the Hive Scum DLC class, but also of the No Man’s Land Free Update!

In addition to our Hive Scum focused dev blogs (check out the last one here), we’ve prepared this dev blog to break down the level design of No Man’s Land, a brand new Operation-type mission that is coming as part of the Free Update.

For this dev blog we've interviewed Karl Thornblom, the level designer behind the No Man’s Land Operation.

“I’m Karl Thornblom, Level Designer [...] I’ve been working on Darktide since like two years before launch [...] and I’ve pretty much worked on every level to a certain degree.” ~ Karl

Free Update: The Road to No Man’s Land

Road to No Man’s Land is a new story campaign, similar to ‘Battle For Tertium’, where you play through three missions in a connected storyline, unlocking new chapters as you go. The first chapter features the Rolling Steel operation, followed by Excise Vault Spireside-13 as the second chapter. The third and final chapter of this campaign is the new Operation: No Man’s Land.

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No Man’s Land Operation

“What we wanted to do was kind of like a very intense, movie-like war mission.” ~ Karl

No Man’s Land is an Operation-type mission that lets you dive into an active warzone and blitz through the trenches, making your way past enemy lines to accompany a Leman Russ tank on its way to disable enemy artillery!

“You start in the trenches, in one of the few places where a Valkyrie can land and that the Imperial Guard still hold, and then you push into the sections of the trenches where [the Heretics] have taken over.” ~ Karl

While the trenches provide some much needed cover from all the gunfire and artillery being unleashed above, you will only be able to rely on them for so long. As you keep pushing through, you will go into more open spaces, devastated ruins and shelled battlefields while you make your way to the occupied bastion.

“[...] which creates a very different environment and also a very different type of gameplay. Trenches are kinda, like, corridor-y and a bit claustrophobic at times… And then it opens up into this ruined plaza, pretty much. [...] And then you get into the real “No Man’s Land” section, and that’s where it really opens up.” ~ Karl

The Operatives have a task not just to wade through hordes of enemies and make it to the stronghold, but to also ensure that the Leman Russ they’re accompanying makes it to its target. Both the team and the Leman Russ are key to this mission, helping each other by clearing the path and removing obstacles in ways that the other cannot. Success would not be possible without one or the other!

“The tank helps you, but you also help the tank sometimes.” ~ Karl

Why an Operation?

Operations fill a niche in our game of being tighter experiences that allow us to explore different concepts. Compared to normal missions, they’re shorter and more linear, but also allow us to hand-craft each encounter and keep the whole mission tight, action-packed and spectacular.

The shorter nature of them is also part of the goal, as we want Darktide to offer options for those players who, every now and then, just want a quick 15-minute session or so. As Rolling Steel is our only Operation at the moment, we wanted to add another one to fill that niche a bit more, which was the starting point for No Man’s Land.

That’s not to say that they play exactly alike! No Man’s Land does not feature a hard time limit, for instance, and we actually expect it to last a few more minutes than Rolling Steel on average. However, while Rolling Steel involves a lot of advancing and stopping to complete some objective, No Man’s Land is a non-stop push towards the finish line! It is only at the very end event that you’ll be halted by an objective that requires some time to complete.

Visuals and Inspiration

No Man’s Land was a great opportunity to explore some environments previously unseen in Darktide, the Operation doesn’t take place inside the Hive but actually on the outskirts of it. Poking out of the trenches you can see that there’s actual landscapes, that the buildings don’t reach up endlessly into an artificial roof, and that you can actually see the sky.

“In some ways it was freeing, but it was also a new thing.” ~ Karl

No Man’s Land shows a more gruesome and grim aspect of the war against the Heretics. There’s a lot of inspiration taken from historical warfare that was used to build this level; trudging through the trenches while all hell is breaking loose on the surface, the devastated buildings wrecked by artillery, the vast sea of rubble that’s all that’s left of a once bustling part of the Hive.

“We even have rockets and mortar fires landing in gameplay space [...] And you actually get knocked back from it and stuff, so it’s really cool!” ~ Karl

This also gave us the opportunity to depict some of the most iconic pieces of scenery used in the Warhammer: 40,000 tabletop game! You might recognize some particular sections of ruined buildings and half-destroyed environments that are very characteristic of what’s most commonly used to play on the tabletop, which is something we’ve been wanting to do for a while.

“And also, we’ve had the Leman Russ in multiple missions, but it’s always been a static one. [...] So we were like, it’d be so cool to actually see the Leman Russ in action.” ~ Karl

Design Process and Challenges

The idea of a warzone mission like this has been something we have wanted to tackle for a long time, and that concept has floated around in various iterations until finally landing in the short and action-packed version we have for the Operation.

As with most levels, the design of the layout begins with a rough blockout where the level and its gameplay are built up using placeholder assets.

“For quite a while I worked alone on this and I made an entire, fully playable blockout (with a very janky tank driving by!)” ~ Karl

This is also where most of the experimentation with the pacing and gameplay happens, as it’s the easiest to adjust. There’s an intentional design of having the gameplay space of the map constantly change between tight, oppressive corridors and more open spaces, then back again. This constant shift in how you play through the map can give it a lot of variety in the moment to moment, but also hopefully makes the Operation feel truly unique compared to normal missions.

One of the more challenging aspects of this map was the Leman Russ itself. We wanted to showcase it as much as possible and have it be a vital part of the mission, and a lot of thought and planning had to go into making that a reality within the technical limits of the game. After all, we didn’t have a working tank before!

“I had to spend quite a lot of time figuring out the tank’s path. Where it goes in relation to the player, and the timing and the moments you can see it and all of that. In some aspects I had to arrange the tank’s path after the players’, but sometimes it was the players’ path that depended on how I could make the tank go, and make it pop and be visible.” ~ Karl

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Bonus: What did you enjoy the most about No Man’s Land?

“I think it’s really fun to create something that is a bit smaller and more contained, but also very intense. And I think the coolest thing for me is (since this was an idea that I had for a long time and I worked on it alone for quite a bit) to see all of the cool things that the team added to make it all pop, and make it feel cinematic and epic. [...] It’s been really, really cool to see it all come together.” ~ Karl

That’s all for today, but keep an eye out for our next and final Dev Blog of the year, coming soon!

For the Conclave!

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