May 13, 2020

Path of Exile - Natalia_GGG

In today's news post, we're taking a look at all microtransactions from Path of Exile's beginning to see which microtransactions in each category have sold the most and discussing the various factors that contribute to this.

Before we begin, it's worth noting that all microtransactions featured below are ordered by quantity purchased rather than how much they contribute to overall sales.

Let's start with Armour Sets. Released in 2015, the Infernal Armour Set became an absolute hit amongst the community, holding the top position even five years later. Interestingly enough, while only two out of the ten armour packs in this list can be considered as relatively new, both represent the most popular microtransaction themes, Celestial and Stygian. It's also worth noting that these stats skew towards older microtransactions simply because there's been a longer amount of time to purchase them. More recently released microtransactions are at a disadvantage for appearing in these lists as there has been less time to purchase them.

Armour Sets

Infernal Armour
Demon King Armour
Seraph Armour
Celestial Armour
Arcane Armour
Stygian Armour
Elite Pack
Arctic Armour
Ghostflame Armour
Vampiric Armour

Looking at back attachments, we can see that the majority of players who purchase cosmetic effects prefer actual wings and wing-like attachments (the bigger the better!). The Exile's Essentials Back Attachment is in third place which is most likely a result of it being the very first back attachment we've released alongside its low price. Another microtransaction from the early days of Path of Exile, the Seraph Wings, remains popular even now, which is quite interesting as most of the old cosmetic effects tend to taper off in sales over time.

Back Attachments

Gloom Wings
Seraph Wings
Exile's Essentials Back Attachment
Tentacle Wings
Dragon Hunter Wings
Celestial Wings
Ultimate Chaos Wings
Phoenix Wings
Seraph Spirit Wings
Celestial Hooded Cloak

Now onto Character Effects. With the Celestial theme being so popular, it's not a surprise that Celestial microtransactions made it to the top in almost every category. However, many people also enjoy bloody and dark character effects for their Exiles (Bat Swarm and Ultimate Chaos effect in the top three).

Character Effects

Celestial Character Effect
Bat Swarm Effect
Ultimate Chaos Character Effect
Sin Character Effect
Fire Character Effect
Arcane Character Effect
Seraph Character Effect
Innocence Character Effect
Arctic Character Effect
Bone Aura Character Effect

Just like with Armour Sets, the Infernal theme prevails in the Footprints category. Yet again, the majority of microtransactions in this list have been released a long time ago which is the most likely cause of them being so high in the list.

Footprints

Infernal Footprints
Ultimate Chaos Footprints
Lightning Footprints
Ebony Footprints
Necrotic Footprints
Celestial Footprints
Ghostflame Footprints
Radiant Footprints
Sin Footprints
Fire Footprints

A preference for visually impressive microtransactions is pretty clear under the Weapon Skin section, with the massive Crypt Sword and the Colossus Sword being on the first and second place respectively. The recently released Darkprism and Void Emperor Weapon Skins can be applied to a wide variety of weapon types which explains their popularity (in addition to being made in celestial style).

Weapon Skins

Crypt Sword
Colossus Sword
Seraph Dagger
Adder's Claw
Darkprism Weapon
Seraph Sword
Void Emperor Weapon Skin
Warlock Dagger
Kacha Axe
Dragon Hunter Sword

Let's look at Weapon Effects. The majority of microtransactions in this list have been available since the beginning, their prices are relatively low which make it easy to add them to your collection. Additionally, most people get weapon effects from supporter packs nowadays which is very likely the main reason for the absence of modern weapon effects in this list.

Weapon Effects

Turquoise Weapon Effect
Extra Gore Effect
Infernal Weapon Effect
Emerald Weapon Effect
Crimson Weapon Effect
Ebony Weapon Effect
Azure Weapon Effect
Celestial Weapon Effect
Acid Weapon Effect
Arcane Weapon Effect

Stash Tabs are continuing to be popular no matter what, no surprises here. The upgrades are most likely the most popular due to people upgrading their initial four stash tabs. Also, Extra Stash Tabs have the appearance of being more popular but considering the Premium Bundle contains six tabs which count as a single purchase, you'd see more of them in reality than regular Stash Tabs.

Stash Tabs

Upgrade To Premium
Extra Stash Tab
Currency Tab
Premium Stash Tab Bundle
Map Tab
Premium Stash Tab
Premium Quad Tab
Divination Tab
Essence Tab
Fragment Tab

The Skill Effects section represents the meta of the past with Seraph Spectral Throw in third place (thanks in part to one certain streamer). In general, the high popularity of older effects can be explained by their prices which become even lower during our big weekend sales. By this point you're probably not surprised to see Celestial effects at the top again.

Skill Effects

Blue Cyclone Effect
Celestial Herald Effect
Seraph Spectral Throw
Ethereal Stars
White Cyclone Effect
Black Hole Frostbolt Effect
Water Nova
Automaton Arc Effect
Blue Flame Incinerate
Celestial Aura Effect

In the Shields category we see a dominance of the shiny and epic-looking cosmetics yet again with big and colourful Celestial and Yaksha Shields in first and second place respectively. The presence of the Zenith Shield in this list is quite interesting. Recently released, this shield stands out from other cosmetics with its futuristic design, which is very likely the reason for its popularity alongside other microtransactions from this series (although there are no Zenith cosmetic effects in other categories, this theme is popular enough and we would expect to see it potentially rise through the ranks over time).

Shields

Celestial Shield
Yaksha Shield
Badge of Skulls
Seraph Shield
Demon King Shield
Carnage Shield
Arcane Shield
Radiant Shield
Zenith Shield
Innocence Shield

Despite a huge assortment of portals of all possible kinds, the list below shows that players tend to prefer relatively simple effects for their portals. Most of the portals featured here were released a long time ago which is probably another reason for their high popularity - back in the days when players had a limited number of effects to choose from. With the introduction of the random portal option and a range of portals we have available now, we're likely to see a different situation here over time.

Portals

Black Hole Portal
Shaper Portal
Demon King Portal
Orange Portal
Steam Powered Portal
Ultimate Chaos Portal
Arctic Portal
Fire Portal
Dragon Portal
Malachai Portal

The Weta Pet has conquered the top of the Pets section, being the most popular choice for a purchase when we run our 'Get a Free Mystery Box' promotions due to its price (or there are an enormous amount of entomologists in our community). A high demand for cats doesn't need to be explained, but we didn't expect to see the Sin Sword Pet and the Innocence Sword Pet in this list. Perhaps, you'd like to see more variety for this type of pet?

Pets

Weta Pet
Frog Pet
Celestial Cat Pet
Scorpion Pet
Blue Frog Pet
Sin Sword Pet
Black Cat Pet
Innocence Sword Pet
Blood Guard Pigeon
Ghostflame Swarm

The Polaris Mystery Box has beaten all previous records and become the most popular Mystery Box of all time, which was expected considering the ever growing number of players and awesome design of these cosmetics. It was also released alongside a large expansion which would have boosted its sales. With the release of the Chaos and Order Mystery Box we introduced the concept of competing sides in mystery boxes for the first time. We have also significantly improved the quality of Mystery Box contents by adding 38 completely new microtransactions (instead of reskins or microtransactions that were already in the store). The contents of the Chaos and Order Mystery Box were received so well by our community that you can find individual microtransactions from this box in various lists of the most popular microtransactions.

Mystery Boxes

Polaris
Chaos and Order
Sin and Innocence
Fairgraves
Glimmerwood
Apocalypse
Fire and Ice
Thaumaturgy
Classic
Oriath

The following microtransactions can't be attributed to a specific category, but we thought you might be interested in how they rank relative to each other.

Miscellaneous

Skin Transfer Single
Extra Character Slot
Skin Transfer 10 Pack
Invisible Buff
Vanishing Dye
Guild Member Slot Bundle
Witch Dance
Skin Transfer 50 Pack
Shadow Dance
Ranger Dance

Finally, the hideouts. The top three microtransactions in this category - the Falling Leaves, Wide Light Beam and Rain decorations - are the oldest cosmetics of this type, available with a low price and look good in almost every hideout. The Celestial Nebula in this list shows the continued popularity of the space theme, and the Hideout Music Player just had to be here because who wouldn't want to listen to the Legion soundtrack over and over again in their hideout?

Hideouts

Falling Leaves Decoration
Wide Light Beam Decoration
Rain Decoration
Wisp Swarm Decoration
Celestial Nebula Hideout
Hideout Music Player
Shaper's Hideout
Glimmerwood Hideout
Fireplace Decoration
Energy Dome Decoration

That's it for this round of statistics for today, we hope you found it interesting. All the data mentioned above represents our community's willingness to support the development of Path of Exile and enable us to keep launching new content like our upcoming June expansion and of course, Path of Exile 2. We really appreciate it! Thanks so much for your continued support!

May 12, 2020

Integrating League Stories into Existing Lore

Path of Exile - Natalia_GGG

When working on a new league, finding a way to integrate its story into Path of Exile's existing lore is always a challenge. Nick, one of our narrative designers, has written an article to give you a behind the scenes look at the "Day Zero" rule they keep in mind when introducing a new story into the current lore.

Who remembers Talisman League? While not one of the most popular leagues, Talisman was a turning point in Path of Exile's league design philosophy. Prior to Talisman, Standard and Hardcore each got a separate league mechanic, with the mechanic designed to be a layer that sits on top of Path of Exile's core gameplay. There was a time when a league could just be some new monster mods!

But Talisman changed that. It introduced a new set of items, a progression, an endgame boss, and a story. After Talisman, every league was to feature these things.

When we're working on a new league, finding a way to integrate it into Path of Exile's expansive lore is always a challenge. Here's why:

Unlike your typical MMORPG, Path of Exile features regular 'resets'. When you create a character in an MMO, you're stepping into a living world that could have years of real-time events already built into it. But in Path of Exile, when you create a character, you are entering a very specific moment in time; Dominus rules Oriath with an iron (or golden?) fist, and you have been exiled to the shores of the forsaken continent of Wraeclast.

Kitava has not risen. The Elder and Shaper are at war, yet to be conquered. Past leagues may exist, but their big bad bosses haven't been bested by the Exile yet because, well, the Exile is currently face-down in the sand. Every league's story must begin from the player's Day of Exile.

I call this the "Day Zero" rule. We often bump up against this rule during league design. People are eager to build upon previous league lore, or have characters reference the events of a past league, but in almost all cases, doing so would cause chronology issues. I'm always the most adamant proponent of the rule. It may sound nitpicky (and it probably is!) but, to me, it serves some very important purposes.

For starters, it ensures there's no weirdness with characters acknowledging things that the player has not yet done or encountered. An NPC discussing the purging of the Blight before the player discovers Cassia is bound to cause some confusion.

It also forces us to be friendlier to new players. With every league, we have some number of players who have never before tried Path of Exile. In addition to all the complex mechanics they have to learn just to enjoy the main story, they typically have a B-story to follow (the current league). Throwing references to past leagues into the mix muddies the waters.

The most recent example of us encountering the Day Zero rule is Delirium. The Strange Voice begins talking at a certain point during the Campaign because the events immediately preceding allow it to do so. The cost of adhering to this rule was that the first 4 acts didn't also contain the Strange Voice.

The lore of Conqueror's of the Atlas also had to wrestle with chronology. The defeat of the Elder happens between the time that you, the Exile, defeat Kitava, and the time that you then find yourself in the Epilogue. A lot of story ideas had to be nixed because they violated the Day Zero rule, requiring that certain things happen (or had already happened) when the timeline shouldn't allow for it.

I'm excited for Path of Exile 2 not just because of all the cool stuff it contains, but because of what it allows us to do narratively. With Path of Exile 2, we can at last acknowledge all the events of Path of Exile (including the leagues!), and build upon them.

Let me know in the replies what you most want to see continued in Path of Exile 2!

May 10, 2020

Developer Interview - James - Game Designer

Path of Exile - Natalia_GGG

As you know, sometimes we hire talented people straight from the community. James (aka viperesque), a subreddit moderator and long-time community member you may be familiar with, joined our team a few months ago. We recently asked him to share some insight about his background and time with us. We hope you enjoy this interview.

Hi James! Thanks for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself.
Hi! I’m James, but in Path of Exile circles more people will know me as viperesque from the forums, reddit or Discord. I’ve been working at GGG as a game designer since January this year.

Tell us a bit about your current role at GGG.
Before I started working to get this job, I didn’t really appreciate how many different tasks were involved in game design in Path of Exile! Turns out there are a lot of hats to wear. The roles which I expect people associate most with it are coming up with ideas and doing balance adjustments for items, skill and support gems, crafting systems, and so on. That’s definitely a big part of it, but for example, setup and scripting for monsters and encounters are also designer roles and end up being a significant portion of the job (though I’m only just starting to graduate from simple monsters myself). There are also things like bug catching, visual effects implementation, level design and preparing materials for announcements.

It’s also an extremely collaborative role — whether the initial idea for a feature or change comes from a designer or someone else, it almost always needs to go to another person (a programmer, animator, artist, level designer, sound designer, or anyone else) to be created, and then sent back to the designer to be implemented into the game. That’s been one of my unexpected favourite things about the position so far, because you get to work with so many people throughout the company and learn little bits about how they do their jobs.

How and when did you find out about Path of Exile?
A friend of mine had been a closed beta supporter, and told our whole group of gamer friends about Path of Exile when it went into open beta. So I first found out about it in February 2013, and have been playing regularly ever since.

What was the moment that got you hooked on the game?
It wasn’t a single moment. Even in 2013, Path of Exile was such a complicated game that it took months to fully appreciate it. That said, I can pick out a few exciting events. I remember I’d been wishing for years for more RPGs that took character customisation seriously without having turn-based or terrible gameplay, so that first time seeing the passive tree was definitely more of a “Hell yes!” for me than the “What the hell?” that I know many people experience. Getting my first real build (Marohi Ground Slam, already going out of style in early 2013 if we’re being honest) to endgame after two or three false starts made me feel like I was starting to understand the game, though I was so wrong. About 100 hours into Docks farming with Spork totems (now there’s the 2013 meta we knew and loved!) I was definitely hooked. At some point much later, the purpose of temporary leagues clicked for me, and that was when I realised I would be playing this game for years and years. Certainly never expected to end up here though!

You are known in the community as a Path of Exile subreddit moderator. How did you start there?
Whenever I get really invested in a complicated game, I tend to start semi-obsessively devouring information about it. I also sometimes start answering people’s questions about the game online, partly because it’s a fun and fulfilling way to spend bits of spare time and partly because the process of helping people and reading other people’s answers improves my own knowledge.

In the case of Path of Exile, I started on the official forums, then made a reddit account to answer questions there as well, then got really into the Discord server when that started. This got me noticed by the Discord mods (who at the time were mostly subreddit mods too), and I was asked to help out modding there. That eventually led to being asked to help with the subreddit too, since I was active on both. I actually turned down that request a couple of times because I was worried about the time commitment/potential stress based on previous modding roles, but eventually I said yes on a trial basis, found it was much less painful than I expected, and stuck with it.

What were the most difficult moments and the most fun moments?
The biggest difficulties always came from trying to reach a compromise between groups with completely opposite opinions or beliefs about how the subreddit should work. Reddit is weird like that I think — forums can be subdivided as much as you like, but subreddits mash everything together and you’re stuck with it all (and splinter subreddits rarely get much traction), so everyone has to put up with some content they don’t really care for and that causes friction. Having people on both sides of a debate accuse you of being biased against them is an unforgettable experience.

Most fun...well honestly, modding isn’t fun. Occasionally you get the satisfaction of handling something well, but otherwise it’s very neutral.

How did you end up working at GGG?
In a word, Bex!

Before GGG I was a research biochemist, and it was fine but never felt like a perfect fit for me. I was thinking about much less drastic career shifts — maybe pharma or government science. The idea that maybe I could apply to GGG popped up from nowhere one day and I couldn’t quite shake it. I know heaps about the game, I’m active in the community, I lived in Australia long enough to get citizenship and my partner is Australian so we could dodge New Zealand’s overseas hiring regulations...I thought it was kind of a silly dream, but I knew I’d regret not following it up. Luckily I was already on good terms with Bex because of communication about subreddit issues over the years, so I asked her whether it would make any sense for me to apply for a community role at GGG.

As it turned out, the community team was full. However, Bex thought I might fit in more roles, encouraged me to send an open-ended application in anyway, and gave me a lot of advice for doing so. If it wasn’t for her I probably would never have sent anything in, and definitely wouldn’t have considered myself for a design role.

It turned out that Chris and a few other GGG staff already knew of me. A few emails and a couple of Skypes with Chris later I was being considered for a game design position. I made it through Neon's two hour interview/chat/gameplay session, flew over to try out in person, my partner was happy to quit her job, and next thing I knew we were packing up our household and moving to Auckland!

How has working with us been so far compared with your expectations? Have there been any surprises?
I didn’t really know what to expect until I started, so in that sense everything has been a surprise! When I first tried out, I had to make sure to prepare myself in case I hated it! It’s been great though. I feel incredibly lucky to be in this position and to have a job I really enjoy doing, and everyone in the office is so friendly. I guess one nice surprise is that game balance has a surprising amount in common with scientific experimentation, so I can apply a lot of my experience and training there. Sorry to people who’ve had to read my issue notes when I start treating them like a lab notebook!

It’s also been interesting to finally be able to learn about all the mechanics GGG keep secret, and how wrong I was in my assumptions about some of them. And while it’s not directly related to the job, going into Covid lockdown three weeks after arriving in New Zealand was definitely a surprise, and one we’ve only managed to handle by borrowing a lot of things from the office...

You were involved in the design of the notables for the Cluster Jewel system. What was the most challenging part in this process?
Firstly, getting my head around this crazy new system I’d just been told about on my second day on the job. Secondly, just coming up with all the ideas! There was never a specific goal for the number of notables to end up with, but we had to have enough so that every build we could think of had a decent number to pick from. Rory jokingly(?) suggested that we get to a list of 3000 and cull from there. We probably came up with at least 500, although to be clear this was a group effort and no more than a third of them were mine.

Do you have any advice for aspiring designers?
I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer this question yet! For Path of Exile specifically, I’d echo Neon's comments at ExileCon that the big thing you need is to know the game inside and out. Understanding how the game’s mechanics and calculations work, being able to quickly figure out use and abuse cases for a new item or skill, making sure you don’t repeat anything that has already been done, and knowing what metrics to use for balance are all absolutely vital. I’m being taught the rest as I go, though some aptitude for computers is obviously a plus. Also, this applies to any role and is a bit of a cliché but it’s so helpful to be visible! I was lucky that GGG senior staff were engaged with the community and noticed my years of answering questions to the extent that I could convince them to hire me, but if you’re gunning for a job from the get-go I’m sure you can think of a better strategy than that.

What can the community look forward to in terms of things you're working on at the moment?
Naturally I’m mostly working on 3.11 right now. In particular, I’ve been improving and reworking some of the less-loved unique items and buffing a few underpowered skills. If your favourite hipster build goes meta in 3.11, or a buffed skill/unique is still ignored and unused, you can probably blame me for it. I also have smaller roles in new skills and unique items for 3.11, and a bit of league mechanic setup. Looking further ahead, I’m taking point on a fairly large set of changes to some older content that you’ll find out more about later in the year, coordinating the finishing touches for Act 1 of the Path of Exile 2 campaign, and doing setup for some of the monsters from Act 2. Exciting times!

May 3, 2020

Developer Interview - Concept Artist - Shaun Brown

Path of Exile - Natalia_GGG

We're starting this week by publishing an interview with Shaun Brown, one of our concept artists whose works you're all familiar with. Shaun created art for divination cards, the Atlas of Worlds and other in-game content. In this interview Shaun not only told us about his work at GGG and the process behind creating concept art, but also has shared several pieces of his artwork. Enjoy!

Hi Shaun, thanks for participating in the interview! Please tell us a little about yourself and what you do at GGG?
Well I'm a bit of a hermit and I spend most of my time doing art or art-related stuff. I also like learning new skills like juggling, archery and learning how to drive in VR. So I'm a very goal-oriented person.

Here's a list of what I do at GGG:

Monsters
Weapons
Bosses
Portals
MTX
Uniques
Characters
Pets
Symbols (like Magic Effects)
Graphical illustrations (Divination Cards, Atlas Map etc)
Sketch random ideas to Erik

How did you get started as a concept artist?
It had been my dream for many years to become a concept artist. I've always loved to draw monsters and come up with imaginative ideas since I was a kid so it felt like I was born for this job. It also took many years of practice, learning, failing and hard work! And I'll always be on that path of learning.

How did you come to work at Grinding Gear Games?
I started working at GGG in 2014. A good friend of mine was working for GGG and told me there was a job opening that I should apply for. There was a test but I don't remember it being too hard! That was the first concept art I did for GGG.

The community is most familiar with your artwork that appears on Divination Cards. What is this process like?
Once the game designers have confirmed the design with the client, I would read and look at the images in the description of the card and usually an image will pop up in my mind. Most of the time, I'll sketch the image exactly as I saw or I'll edit what I see to make it better. I guess it's like seeing the future and drawing it down (lol).

Then it's a matter of linework and colouring.

Which Divination Cards did you enjoy working on the most?
Hard to say. There are so many of them now! I do enjoy the ones that have hidden messages or symbols in the illustrations, like in The Union where you can see the date of the wedding.

Behind the scenes, you've created a lot of concepts and illustrations for microtransactions, monsters and game areas. Which of these presents the most challenges or limitations?
Well I can think of some that haven't come out yet, but the one that comes to mind is the stained-glass windows. There was quite a bit of information to simplify into a flat image so it can be readable in-game too.

A lot of thought went into them to help express what was happening with the characters - like the higher the character, the better off they were (and vice versa), and the use of contrasting shapes, colours etc.

You can see that when Sin's power grows, the symbol at the top is eclipsed except for panel 5 which is when the mother and son are planning to get rid of Sin, and he is not fully in power - that's why there are gold horn shapes pointing at him too.

How much of a personal spin do you get to put on your work for GGG?
Depends on the task, sometimes it can be a lot when I intuitively generate ideas that will work in the game. But there are constraints when it comes to the mechanics of the game (things like the number of joints and how they move etc).

It's quite fun to problem solve and play around with ideas to get around these limitations.

Are there any cool concepts you created that didn't make it to the game?
Sometimes that happens but they often end up in the game later on.

Is there an area of concept art that you find the most enjoyable or interesting?
That would be portals! It's fun to try to reinvent how a doorway can open up. It pushes you to think outside the box.

Do you have any hobbies outside of art?
Yeah I'm trying to get away from computer screens and get outside! I like mountain biking and kayak fishing when the weather is good, but it's been hard to do this year since the pandemic. I've been getting into reading psychology books about dream interpretation and just got into archery too.

Do you dabble in any other art mediums than digital?
Just pens and pencils on paper. I would like to get into oil painting, water colours and clay sculpting but I don't really have the time. Maybe later down the track or when I retire.

Which artists have inspired you the most?
There's too many of them and I keep finding more every month! Here's the Top 10 artists that inspired the most, that I can think of off the top of my head:

John Singer Sargent
Anders Zorn
Alphonse Mucha
Andrew Loomis
Iain Mccaig
H. R. Giger
Takehiko Inoue
Yoji Shinkawa
Kim Jung Gi
Jason Hong

What kind of work did you do prior to working here?
I was a struggling freelance artist doing concept art and illustrations for small businesses and got commissioned to do personal projects. Some of the things I did were illustrations for board games and card games, and a book cover.

Do you have any advice for people who are looking to become professional concept artists get into the industry?
Post your artwork on a site or a blog to show your growth and dedication. Learn from your mistakes because you're going to make a lot of them - and try not to repeat them! Keep at it if it's what you really want because you never know when an opportunity will arise out of the blue.

You've also done a lot of concept art work on Path of Exile bosses and monsters for the third act of Path of Exile 2. What are you most looking forward to the community seeing?
There is a boss I worked on last year. All I can say is that he has a big flat ornament on his head, has no feet, there are snakes coming out of his back like wings and there's a man standing inside his stomach. Sometimes it's hard to know how good things will look when they're in the game, but I'm hoping it turns out well.