Ever wonder how Funcom comes up with all of the creepy locations for The Secret World? Lead Content Designer Joel Bylos has written an interesting dev blog entry that explains their process for creating the game's modern world.

After the writing and art teams identify the location's purpose and research how it fits into the real world setting, the content designer creates an overview design for the area with an emphasis on flow. "It’s a tricky thing to get right; some players prefer to be guided step by step through the content while others prefer complete freedom in how they approach things," he said.

Bylos gave examples of how different mission types require a different feeling of flow. They give a great preview of the various gameplay features you'll encounter in The Secret World. Here's his list:

• Action Missions: We tend to be fairly heavy handed here. Action missions will lead the player from point to point, dealing with enemies and obstacles along the way.
• Sabotage Missions: These are more open, but not completely freeform. Yes, we want players to use their skills and abilities to find the way into the pumping station, but we still tell them where the pumping station is!
• Investigation Missions: Here we tend to be completely freeform. We don’t guide players at all. We let them find the path with no attempt to guide them beyond the most subtle of clues.

In his next blog entry, Bylos will talk more about how the team builds The Secret World's physical environment using their world design tool.