Episode 56

Ep56: Creating game worlds with designer Brent Knowles

Today on the podcast, I’m joined by my old friend and former BioWare colleague, Brent Knowles. We chat all about the art and magic of world-building, drawing from Brent’s several decades of experience as a game designer and writer. Brent shares his creative journey, from drawing fantasy maps on grocery shop paper bags as a child to working on iconic titles like Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon Age. We also dive into his recent tabletop work, discussing his Norse-inspired D&D campaign, Raiders of the Serpent Sea , and how a family holiday to Iceland heavily influenced its design.

Key Highlights & Takeaways

  1. The BioWare Days: We look back at Brent’s time working on the Neverwinter Nights expansions , especially the creative freedom his team had whilst developing Hordes of the Underdark.
  2. A Mapmaker’s Origins: Brent explains how spending time at off-season logging camps with his grandfather sparked his imagination , leading him to draw maps of the woods and invent fantasy creatures.
  3. Icelandic Inspiration: How the deep history, sagas, and natural landscapes of Iceland directly inspired his Viking-esque tabletop world.
  4. Embracing “Mistakes”: Why collaborating with artists and embracing their misinterpretations or mistakes often results in far cooler monsters and organic lore than originally planned.
  5. What Breaks Immersion: Brent discusses his biggest bugbears in game design, like when a video game’s narrative completely contradicts its gameplay mechanics —such as finding a +1 warhammer right next to characters who are complaining about being poor.
  6. Advice for Game Masters: Why it’s crucial for DMs to talk to their players to build a shared experience , ensuring it becomes our campaign rather than just the DM’s strict storyline.

Check out Raiders of the Serpent Sea: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/424627/raiders-of-the-serpent-sea-campaign-guide-pdf-version

Check out more images at: https://tales.dups.ca/p/ep56-game-designer-brent-knowles

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About the Podcast

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Tales under the cat tree: Conversations on Imagination, Tech & Human Adventure
Hosted by tech leader and storyteller Duleepa Wijayawardhana, this podcast explores the intersections of technology, fiction, and human adventure. Words create the worlds we live in—join us for weekly conversations that spark your imagination.

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About your host

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Duleepa Wijayawardhana

It started with late nights, glue sticks, and a university newspaper / radio.

That early obsession with how words reach people took me from student journalism to a career spanning the globe. I’ve gone from designing newspapers and having radio shows to building systems at BioWare (yes, the RPG legends), managing data at MySQL, and now leading tech at Supermetrics in Helsinki.

But at my core, I’m still that geek who believes writing is just code for the human mind.

While a computer chip executes code exactly, your imagination runs stories based on your own unique wiring. Tales under the cat tree is where we run those programs together. Whether we're exploring the fiction that inspires us or the tech that defines us, my goal is to spark your imagination and—most importantly—never make you go "meh."

Words create the worlds we live in. Let's explore them.