Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Developer: High Moon Studios Co-Dev with Raven Software
Genre: Single-player/Co-op/Multiplayer; First-Person; Shooter
Engine: CoD Tech
Platforms: Playstation 4; Playstation 5; Xbox One; Xbox Series S/X; Microsoft Windows
Released: November 2020
Gameplay Overview: The 17th installment of the Call of Duty franchise, featuring a spiritual return to the original mind bending Black Ops game.
My Role: Lead Game Designer
Duties: Team lead, personnel management and career growth, design direction and feedback
Responsibilities:
My team was responsible for two of the campaign missions, from concept to completion:
Black Ops Cold War was a return for me to the single-player campaign of Call of Duty, and it was the first time that Raven Software was the lead studio. We had a very productive relationship with Raven, and I felt like we had a good creative box to work within. We began by taking the high-level prompts for each mission, making pitch decks, and proposing them to creative leadership.
Once we had the green lights, we began, as we always do, with blockouts, gameplay prototypes, and constant rounds of playtesting and feedback. From there, we iterate and adjust as needed until we’ve hit the target.
Highlights for me were:
Navigating the team through this project stands out to me. Many on my design team had been working on the zombies game mode for quite a while, and before that, they were building combatants, bosses, and activities for Destiny 2. So, helping everyone through that transition, both from a game design perspective and in terms of feeling inspired and motivated, was a big focus. I try to be a good listener for my direct reports and take their concerns to heart. Sometimes, it may feel like there’s not much I can do for them, especially in the mad rush to get a project done, but I always catalogue their concerns and aspirations and look for opportunities to position them for the kind of career growth they’re looking for.
Mission 5: Echoes of a Cold War
Echoes of a Cold War, like pretty much every Call of Duty level, had its own set of design and technical challenges. Luckily, I had one of our strongest senior designers on it. Having someone on your team that can independently problem solve and proactively tackle issues is always a blessing.
The ending sequence with the server being lifted out of the base by helicopter was a big question for the whole length of development. But we worked the problems, and in the end, made it happen.
Mission 10a: The Final Countdown
The Final Countdown was a bold and bombastic mission that during development started with a clear beginning, but a shakier hold on the middle and end bits. As we always do though, we found the fun and made it work.
My initial pitch was for an amphibious assault on a location inspired by a real-world destination - the Solovetsky Monastery in northern Russia, a structure with a long history of repelling sieges due to its geography and massively thick outer walls. For this fictional mision, the monastery stuck, but the amphibious assault turned into a land one for technical reasons. Still, the action beat struck home just as well.
After the vehicular intro, which was a massive effort from the animation, technical art, and vfx teams, the courtyard fight, the substructure, and the graveyard battle, all came together piece by piece through gradual, determined iteration and working problems one at a time as they came up to satisfy the vision or the desired action beat.
That is the best way that I’ve found to achieve true excellence in game development - start with a strong vision and clear high-level goals, and then iterate in software until it comes together one way or another.