Guild Wars 2 news » Highlights of “A Bug in the System” on Guild Chat

On last week’s Guild Chat livestream, Story Editor Jessica Price, Game Designer Clayton Kisko, and Game Designer Cameron Rich joined host Rubi Bayer to talk about their work on the latest Living World episode, “A Bug in the System.”

The team developed the episode’s trailer through extensive iteration. Jessica wrote the original script, and described the concept as, “We thought we were in a heist movie, but we’re actually in a zombie outbreak movie.” Many team members had input as the trailer progressed, and Jessica said the tonal shift came together when Cinematics Editor Jason Byfield set the second half to Lana Del Rey’s cover of “Once Upon A Dream.” That created a haunting and threatening atmosphere, inspiring the eerie version of “Fear Not This Night.”

The episode’s ambitious scope made fixing actual bugs an intricate process. Clayton explained a tough problem the team had when replaying the episode out of order: in the fifth chapter, players teleporting from instance to instance would receive the quest goal for the chapter they began the replay from. Cameron said that in new instances of the Sandswept Isles map, weather in the meta event would revert to its previous state, leaving Olmakhan villagers describing an incoming storm while under clear, sunny skies.

Rubi asked the guests which part of the release they found most fun to work on. Clayton’s favorite was an event with a skritt whose dialogue changed based on its state of mind. Jessica said that as a writer and an extrovert, she enjoys the narrative team’s polishing sessions. Cameron said he likes how people from different teams come together to add more detail and realism to the world.