Travis Day has a unique perspective on game systems! Known as “The Items Guy” for the extensive catalog of items he created for World of Warcraft, Travis has some stories that will surprise you with how much drama an item drop system can cause!
FULL EPISODE NOTES: https://gamedesignskill.com/podcast/episode-10-travis-day
(For mentioned resources, people, quotes, and additional ways to enjoy the episode)
Travis Day is a lifelong gamer who chose to turn his passion into a career. He has been making video games since 2005, when he started working at Blizzard. After a long term there, Travis began working as a game designer at Phoenix Labs, and eventually moved on to Tencent, where he is currently a senior systems designer.
Hosted by Ariana Isbell and Alexander Brazie
Enjoy!
SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrBJHmZ_FHRUJCUm5QTqWpg?sub_confirmation=1
—————————————————————————————————————————
Timestamps:
00:00 – Start
3:57 – Board Game Buddies
6:17 – Getting to Know Travis Day, the Items Guy for WoW
8:24 – How Dedication to Your Favorite Video Games Can Get You Noticed
12:41 – A Brief History of The Items Guy (Behind the Scenes Moments in WoW Design)
18:33 – Is Encounter Design Right For You? Travis Day’s Experience May Help You Decide
19:51 – How to Decide When It’s Time to Move On From Your Current Video Game Design Job
20:59 – What Makes For a Qualified Video Game Design Candidate.
24:00 – What Video Game Design Companies Look For When Hiring Candidates
27:47 – Sit in on a Mock Build for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
34:08 – One of the Most Important Blizzard Core Video Game Design Pillars
34:48 – Continued Mock Video Game Design Brainstorm for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
38:09 – How to Come Up with Amazing Characters During Video Game Design Brainstorms
43:02 – An Important Lesson for Aspiring Video Game Designers
47:49 -The Story Behind WoW’s Badges Vs. Random Drops Controversy
57:57 – True or False: Does Anyone Like Grinding?
1:04:21 – Important Lesson for Aspiring Jr. and Associate Designers to Level Up
1:07:41 – A Discussion on New Ways to Loot in Video Game Design
1:14:26 – Alex’s Strange Eating Habits
1:16:38 – Alex Gets a Makeover!
1:20:33 – And Last… A Great Life Lesson for Not Just Video Game Designers
————————————————————————————-
~Resources~
gamedesignskills.com/blog – More game dev podcast episodes & blog posts
learn.gamedesignskill.com/game-design-digest/
~Social Media~
https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-day-54a618b8/
https://twitter.com/indalamar2
https://instagram.com/gamedesignskills
source
Rest in peace Travis, much love from a wow old player
Very insightful stuff on badges vs. drop tables.
I think retail WoW still suffers from this and timegating.
RIP 🙏
Rest in peace my friend. Love you.
Rest in peace
RIP to a legend, may all your items live on in every player's inventory for as long as games exist.
Thanks for positively changing my life and so many others. Rest in Peace, Travis. Sending my condolences to his Family and Friends.
This podcast helped me understand not only how to do the better game design but have to be a better teammate. I am so sorry to see Travis go. I wish I could listen to him more on these podcasts. Rest in peace.
Rest in peace old friend, love you.