One of the defining themes of The War Within, the next expansion to World of Warcraft, is to revisit the past.

The visual approach was also carefully considered with Warcraft's long history in mind, said Gabriel Gonzalez, lead visual development artist. It is the first expansion to the story arc, the tenth in WoW and the game's 20th year.

"One of the things we really lean into is the classic flavor of World of Warcraft, the sense of nostalgia," Gonzalez said. Even before World of Warcraft, my first encounter with Warcraft was with Warcraft 3." So when we really think about what the core flavors are that players recognize as the most Warcraft-like Warcraft visuals imaginable, that's where we're trying to lean."

He gave the example of Dawn Island, the starting zone for the expansion. It is an earthen island, inhabited by the stone ancestors of modern dwarves, with rolling hills and blocky rooflines echoing the original buildings and landscapes of Warcraft.

"[The native peoples] are very different from the dwarves and have their own culture, but there are similar themes that serve as a reminder," Gonzalez says, "that tie in with the common themes you experience at the beginning of Warcraft, when you are playing the original zones.

Gonzalez said.

The color palette of some zones, he says, is in some ways like WoW Classic and recalls the first few years of the game; every zone in The War Within has a unique visual style, but they are well blended well with the throwback elements.

Despite the nostalgic theme, the team worked hard to make each zone feel unique, he says.

"It definitely has its own language," he says, "from the types of shapes we use for the rocks to the set of tiles we paint on the ground. Dawn Island owes much to New Zealand and Scotland, as do Dun Morogh and Dun Algaz in Warcraft.

"In World of Warcraft, I think one of the challenges we have in creating zones is that World of Warcraft is about to turn 20 years old. We've been working on this for a long time," Gonzalez said. It's always a challenge to find something unique and special to introduce a new zone. But with Dawn Island, we tried to bring in some classic fantasy.