ArenaNet Dives Into The Design Of Its Latest GW2 Mount, The Roller Beetle

The roller beetle was the highlight of our preview of Guild Wars 2's latest story chapter, leading to a lot of wild rides and some really bad puns. Today, ArenaNet dove deeper into the beetle's design and implementation with a video that explored the complicated mount's origins and development.

One of the most challenging aspects of the beetle was where the rider would sit. Early concepts had a unicycle-like design, but that was scrapped in place of the asura-inspired speeder-bike "saddle" that made it into the final design. Sound design got creative too, using a rubber strip on a spinning bicycle tire to get the squealing sounds of the beetle and a theremin to create the sound effects of the "bike" itself.

As we were told in our preview, the design of the roller beetle started around the time of Path of Fire's launch, nine months ago. Judging by this video and seeing everything that went into it, it's easy to see why it took such a solid chunk of time -- at least three months were probably spent making it look so cute.