Episode #74 - Ex-WoW Dev, Bo Bell, On Exterior Level Design, Blizzard & Classic

In the second part of the trilogy of talks with former World Of Warcraft developers, Josh sits down with exterior level designer Bo Bell, for a lengthy chat on the making of vanilla WoW. Highlights Below: In Depth Interview - 2:35 Bo's Resume - 3:20 Working At Blizzard - 7:50 Working in QA - 9:50 Speaking Publicly About Games - 16:05 What Bo Works On Now - 19:35 Artistic Freedom Working On Exterior Designs - 24:30 Balancing Metzen's Vision With Personal Tastes - 31:30 Fighting For Keeping Duskwood Dark - 37:10 Love For The Planned Emerald Dream - 41:45 Real World Inspirations In WoW Exteriors - 47:50 WoW Planned To Be Everquest? - 53:40 Smoke Break Ideas/Cutting Wee From WoW - 1:05:25 How Close Were We To Flying Mounts In Vanilla? - 1:09:45 Lord Of The Rings Inspirations - 1:13:20 Runemasters In Vanilla WoW - 1:22:50 Other Scrapped Classes - 1:27:25 Favourite/Challenging Zones That Bo Worked On - 1:31:00 Seeing Cataclysm Change Bo's Work - 1:37:50 Blizzard's Level Design Approach Now vs. Then - 1:42:45 Origins Of The Forsaken - 1:48:20 Moonglade Plans/Timbermaw - 1:55:50 Zone Regrets - 1:59:35 Guesses At Playable Zones In The Demo - 2:02:15 Invisible Walls - 2:07:00 Classic's Longevity - 2:10:55 Classic As A 'Do Over' - 2:15:50 Classic Release Date Guess - 2:18:20 Classic 'Forum Leaks' - 2:23:40 Demo vs. Alpha vs. Beta - 2:43:00 Shout Outs - 2:49:50    Pick up awesome Countdown To Classic show rewards @ Patreon: patreon.com/countdowntoclassic Or support the show with a tip @ Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/Y8Y3D2TT Or simply show your support by leaving the show a review at iTunes or by telling a friend! Directly download here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/countdowntoclassic/C2C_Episode_73_Final.mp3 Also listen @ Spotify here (Spotify takes a couple of hours to upload after posting, check back later if not there): https://open.spotify.com/show/38mHWjscNorJr7OFeNu8X5?si=c6JKxJeSRCeLQPSIlKJL8w Or @ iTunes (As above, can take a short while to upload after posting): https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/countdown-to-classic/id1352967778 Or @ Stitcher (As above, can take a short while to upload after posting): http://stitcher.com/s?fid=174762&refid=stpr Send your Memory Lane stories, Anger Management rants or just say hello to Josh at [email protected] or get in touch on social media: Twitter: @count2classic FB/Insta/YouTube: @countdowntoclassic Add Countdown To Classic on Twitch: @CountdownToClassic And join the Countdown To Classic Discord here: https://discord.gg/2xJAwNf