How We Made the Wurm
By: Neo Zhang
Hello! Neo here, a Game Designer on Sunderfolk. Last time, I shared with you on how we create cinematics, but today, we’ll be diving into monster design, using the Wurm as our star example.
This was the first enemy I worked on after joining the team and learning the ropes of character design under our Lead Encounter Designer (Kara Centell-Dunk). I’m excited to share how we brought this big, scaly, wiggly menace to life!
Defining the Wurm
When the Wurm was officially greenlit, the first step was to define its core fantasy, in-game behavior, and personality. Using concept art from our talented art team as a foundation, I began pulling inspiration from both media and nature. Around this time, Dune: Part II had just come out, and I was especially drawn to the Sandworm, an unseen threat beneath the sand, swallowing anything in its path.
I also looked at the Sarlacc from Star Wars and antlion traps from nature documentaries, both of which pull prey into a central pit. With those ideas in mind, I began writing out concepts that take elements from them.
With a solid starting point, I moved on to pick out a few concepts with strong potential that could really make the Wurm stand out. At the same time, I also started cutting ideas based on my understanding of how difficult it would be to implement, if our tools supported the design, and whether the idea was aligned with the overall monster design direction established by Kara.
After some careful thinking, I landed on the following key ideas that I felt would define the Wurm’s identity and bring a fresh challenge to players:
An Immovable Force
I loved the idea that the Wurm is so massive and mostly underground, that it simply can’t be pushed or moved by any means. It adds to its presence and reinforces its weight and scale!
Manipulates Player Positioning
I wanted to challenge players’ spatial awareness in a new way, especially in the late game. A spell that forcibly shifts player positioning feels like a unique mechanic that requires careful planning.
Burrows Underground
When threatened, the Wurm can burrow underground for a turn, avoiding all damage. On its next turn, it resurfaces in a more dangerous state. This mechanic adds a layer of complexity and gives the monster a sense of danger.
Brainstorming Wurm’s Kit
With the core concepts set, the next step was designing the Wurm’s kit—its spell cards and passive abilities. I brainstormed spells and passives that would reinforce the Wurm’s core mechanics. A key focus was ensuring each design plays into both the combat and the team-based, collaborative play that is central to our game.
After some more thinking, I settled on the following design!
Passive Ability: The Wurm retreats underground when its health drops below a certain threshold and is immune to any involuntary movement from external sources. While submerged, it is untargetable and safe from any player actions until it reemerges on its next turn.
Spell Cards: The Wurm has two spell cards, which is unique for a non-boss monsters:
Standard Tactic: Performs two attack actions, including an AoE that hits all characters.
Emergence Attack: Activated when the Wurm resurfaces, it uses a wide-range pull to drag all characters several hexes closer before unleashing a powerful attack.
After a few rounds of feedback and iteration with Kara, I finalized the design and got the Wurm ready for its next big step: PLAYTESTING!
Paper Playtest and Implementation
Using Miro, I organized a paper playtest session with team volunteers. These early tests offered valuable insights—highlighting which parts of the Wurm were fun, which mechanics felt strong, and which ones missed the mark. For anything that fell flat, I explored possible changes and shared them with Kara, who provided some actionable feedback to help polish the design forward.
What was fun?
Players have shown a lot of interest in the Wurm’s Pull mechanic in its emergence spell.
Many find the pull both chaotic and challenging, as it can disrupt their positioning and potentially ruin carefully planned setups.
Wurms can be utilized as a tool for the player, especially since it doesn’t distinguish between friend or foe when using this ability.
What was weak?
Players found tracking the Wurm’s health and its threshold for submerging confusing and math-heavy.
The passive ability was difficult to grasp due to too many moving parts.
Because of how rare the Wurm does its pull spell action, fighting the Wurm didn’t always feel rewarding or exciting.
Moving forward!
We removed the health threshold mechanic. Instead, the Wurm now submerges when its health drops to zero, reemerges with lower full health, and does so only once.
We gave the Wurm two distinct phases: after resurfacing, the second phase features more powerful attacks, adding an element of surprise and fresh challenge.
Rather than switching between two spell cards based on emergence, we give one card per phase, with the pull mechanic reserved for the later, more aggressive phase.
After two to three rounds of paper testing, it was time to bring the Wurm into the engine. Using tools built by our engineering team, I implemented the monster into a test encounter and made sure everything functioned smoothly. Once it was in a good place, it was time to set up a playtest where our whole team got to play the new monster. Just like before, I documented what worked, what didn’t, and continued refining the design based on team feedback.
Polish and Send Off
After several rounds of iteration, it was time to hand the Wurm off to other team members to work their magic. Our animator brought the monster’s attacks and movements to life with more organic motion, while the VFX artist added details like dust particles during its emergence and impactful effects on its attacks.
Meanwhile, the QA team dove in to uncover any bugs or edge cases I hadn’t anticipated, helping ensure a polished final experience.
Conclusion
And just like that, our monster is alive and ready to kick the Hero’s butt!
Creating the Wurm was a blast, but what I’ve shared here is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how we design our monsters. For a deeper dive, I’ll hand things over to our incredibly talented Encounter Design Lead, Kara, who crafted most of the encounters and creatures you face in the main game, and established the very design philosophy that forms the backbone of Sunderfolk.
Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoy playing Sunderfolk now that you’re officially a pro at how our game comes to life. Until next time!
Neo Zhang