Stormcairn -
A world of warcraft POI
A small landing on Stormcairn island. A stopping point between Lordaeron and Northrend.
regularly assaulted by the habitants of dragon isles, the alliance is once again taking up the monumental task of holding this land.
Role
World Design - Project Lead
Team Size
1
Tools used
Noggit Red - WoW WOTLK
Walkthrough:
I suck at fortnite.
I love analyzing the multiplayer maps and how players fall in love with certain poi’s though.
I did my best to give a comprehensive walkthrough of all the possible flanks, interest points, and locations I thought players would find themselves in most.
Overview:
Stormcairn is a 4 tile location inspired by northrend’s howling fjord & storm peaks. I wanted to implement the verticality and flat plains that both areas do so well. I broke the map up into 4 major pois:
Stormcairn Castle
the breaks beach
the excavation site
gemagnome
The goal was to create a location that could realistically be a low-level (20-25) zone in a northrend style. I focused primarily on pacing via walking speeds and pass throughs on mounts. I also wanted it to be a hub for those who started here.
This is my first map made with World of Warcraft assets & tools.
Good Point of Interest (POI) Design:
A strong POI needs to be readable on first contact but deep enough to stay interesting, and Scurvy Stack was designed with that balance in mind. Each zone supports a different playstyle. Tight interior fights in the bar, long sightlines from the hotel, layered engagements on the docks, and high-ground control from the ship while maintaining clear visual language so players can orient themselves quickly.
I focused heavily on vertical layering and interconnected paths, ensuring that players always have options for flanking, escaping, or re-engaging. The goal wasn’t just to make a cool location, but to create a space players naturally move through in interesting ways.
Too much fun:
One challenge I ran into was managing readability within such a dense, vertical space. UEFN makes it easy to build complexity quickly, but that can lead to areas feeling visually noisy or confusing, especially when multiple elevation layers overlap.
Early versions of the POI had strong individual areas, but when combined, players could lose track of where they were or how to rotate effectively, especially during fast-paced fights or storm pressure.
How I worked with that problem:
To address this, I focused on improving visual hierarchy and player guidance without relying on explicit markers. I simplified certain sightlines, adjusted prop density, and used stronger thematic separation between areas so each zone felt immediately identifiable.
I also reinforced key traversal paths by subtly framing them with lighting, structure, and elevation changes, making routes feel natural rather than forced.
