Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare DLC 2: Ascendance
Developer: High Moon Studios Co-Dev with Sledgehammer Games
Genre: Single-player/Co-op/Multiplayer; First-Person; Shooter
Engine: CoD Tech
Platforms: Playstation 3; Playstation 4; Xbox 360; Xbox One: Microsoft Windows
Released: March 2015
Gameplay Overview: The second DLC pack for Advanced Warfare. We worked on the zombies map for this release, Exo-Zombies: Infection
My Role: Senior Game Designer (generalist)
Duties: Level design and block out (sewers), gameplay scripting, bug-fixing, polish
Responsibilities:
Principal design, blockout, and gameplay scripting for the sewers section of the map.
Designed and scripted the easter egg side quest
This was the first of what would be several tours of duty working on CoD Zombies, and it was a blast. The high-level concept was a return to Burger Town, a location from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but now overrun by exo-suit-wearing zombies. I was involved in the design and planning of multiple aspects of the experience, including the new microwave gun, the new enemy (the Goliath) and the overall map mechanics, but I was principally responsible for the underground Sewers section of the map and the easter egg side quest.
Highlights for me were:
The freedom to be not so serious and just come up with wacky ideas. Some of my favorites include the Insta-Gator trap ( a.k.a. sewer crocs), bringing Bubby the Burger Town mascot to life, and launching giant burger bombs in the finale of the easter egg.
I learned a good design lesson about knowing your audience. I was given carte blanche to design the easter egg side quest and rather than do my homework and research what the fans would enjoy, I designed something I thought would be silly, fun, and memorable. As it turns out, there is a niche audience of fervent CoD zombies easter egg fans who have certain expectations, and my design did not meet those expectations. I don’t relish failure, but I do welcome the growth opportunities that failure brings, so this was a good learning moment for me.
Exo-Zombies: Infection
Infection had several elements that were fun to design for. The idea of exo-suit-powered zombies was a new twist on the classic CoD zombies formula, and player characters with exo-suits also presented challenges for this mode.
The map was partitioned into sections, with entrances into the sewers in each of them. I designed the sewers in a way that they were the deadliest area, but they also contained some of the most important affordances in the map, for example the decontamination station. The tight corridors and confined spaces made it a natural choice for this kind of risk vs. reward, given that players would sacrifice much of their exo-suit-powered mobility while there.
The easter egg side quest was a zany collection of quest steps that culminated in unlocking Bubby the Burger Town mascot as a powerful companion who would fight alongside you. Getting there involved a bit of culinary skill, some occult rituals, and the launching of a rocket into space.