Professional Games

CoD Ghosts Cover ArtCall of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward (Activision), 2013

PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U

Senior Designer

Because I didn’t get a enough CoD in my career and because I missed shipping a AAA shooter every year, I decided to head back over to Activision and ship Call of Duty Ghosts. Within a few weeks, they had me working on E3 levels and trying to create a level that was completely stealth from start to finish. Okay, the stealth thing was really a problem I made for myself.

Getting back into real scripting was pretty great. I still had my GSC chops and took over two shipped missions, Into the Deep (E3 Demo) and The Hunted. I also fixed a bunch of bugs across multiple missions because hey, we need to ship on time. I also learned Lua real quick and made the Rorke Files happen, which was a fun little internal side project that probably all of 10 people noticed.

Possible Box Art for Halo 4Halo 4, 343 Industries (Microsoft), 2012

Xbox 360

Campaign Lead Designer

People often ask me “How do you win at Nazi Zombies?” I often say there is no end. You can’t win. The real answer? Make them so awesome that 343 Industries will let you work with the Master Chief. I hear he shots aliens and doesn’t afraid of anything. I think we’ll get along juuuuuuust fine. Cortana though? That’s one scary lady.

Besides laying the ground work for the campaign and lifting the mission designers up to make an incredible Halo game, I did some hands on work as well. Like scripting the target designator (that fires the rail gun on the Mammoth) in “Reclaimer” and a bunch of work on the first mission, “Dawn” for demos and the like. Did you know you can take out Phantoms and Banshees with the target designator? I dare you to try it. Oh yeah, and those new Forerunner enemies? I did a lot of the initial design of them as well. But they changed a lot. I mean a lot.

Possible 360 Box Art for CoD:WaWCall of Duty: World at War, Treyarch (Activision), 2008

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC

Lead Designer

Sure, there’s a lot of people that wish this game was a modern game. Who can blame them? CoD 4 was awesome. Trust me though, this game will be awesome too. You haven’t played a World War 2 game like this, I promise. Gritty, mature themed single player campaign? Check. Four player online co-op? Check. Fast paced, solid multiplayer? Check. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Now, if only there was some way we could get zombies in the game…

360 Box Art for CoD 3Call of Duty 3, Treyarch (Activision), 2006

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Senior Designer

Who says you can’t make an awesome game in one year? Well, half the Internet. But hey, regardless of it’s critical acclaim, the multiplayer portion was one of the most played Xbox Live games for a long time. And c’mon, the first level was awesome right? I say that because…

I worked on the first level, “Saint Lo” as a Senior Game Designer. Ahh, those were the days, when everyone wanted your help but if the situation got out of control you could cry to a lead. They’d cuddle you, caress you and let you know everything would be oooo-kay. Well, working on the E3 demo was a blast and a life changing experience. You know, when E3 was still E3, maaaaan.

PS2Box Art for CoD:BROCall of Duty 2: Big Red One,Treyarch (Activision), 2005

PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube

Designer

One thing is for sure: I’m glad I never have to make a PS2 game again. Although I’m proud of the work I did, the transition from making a PC game to making a PS2 game is no joke. We’re talking about going from gigs of memory to 32 megabytes. You learn real quick how important streaming is on a project like that. Uphill. Both ways.

I worked on the eighth level of the game, “Piano Lupo.” You know, that really long level where you start out shooting planes on a quad .50 cal half-track and end up blowing up an entire tank division while the concrete of your bunkers rain down around you. Not to toot my own horn here, but name one level where shooting down planes is more fun. One (besides Thad’s bomber levels)!

PC Box Art for CoD UOCall of Duty: United Offensive, Grey Matter Interactive (Activision), 2004:

PC Expansion Pack

Designer

My first real job in the industry. UO was a scrappy little expansion pack which lots of people fell in love with. People 10 floors above me love to point out that UO had the “highest attach rate of any expansion pack” ever. I’m not sure entirely what that means, but it might have something to do with aliens or velcro.

For UO, I designed and built mp_foy, did a little work on mp_berlin, and scripted the first level, “Battle of the Bulge” internally known as “Bastogne 1.” So, you can thank me for getting blown up by mortars if you don’t follow Anderson closely enough (the leads wanted it that way, I swear!). You can also thank me for secret hidden dvars which attach toilet models to all the enemies that spawn in, which I’m surprised no one ever found.

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