Destiny ridealong exposes design secrets of the Dreadnaught
Diving into Destiny: The Taken King's destination.
Destiny: The Taken King launched in September 2015, so by now most players probably feel like they know its secrets pretty well. But if you're at all interested in how a game environment is put together, and why designers make the decisions they do, the latest Bungie Ridealong video is well worth a look.
Peeking behind the curtain when developers explicitly foreground design tricks like lighting and enemy placement is super interesting, because it makes you that much more conscious of why some designs succeed and others fail. Some of Bungie's design goals with early missions in The Taken King were making Ghost a useful tool as opposed to a waypoint device, introducing the Taken forces gradually, and encouraging exploration with rewards.
That's not just calcified fragments and chests, by the way; one example is the little Court of Oryx encounter you'll have if you leave the main mission path on your first visit to the Dreadnaught.
There's a great deal of story and lore embedded or at least hinted at in the Dreadnaught environments, too, which many people miss in their rush to get to the next fight. If you're the sort who's never wondered why there's a Cabal ship embedded in the Breach you're in for a treat.
Here's the YouTube archive of the stream, for your viewing please:
Here are some of the concept artworks Bungie discusses during the video, if you'd like a less grainy look:
