Kotaku Splitscreen: The Human Story Behind Call Of Duty’s Zombie Mode

A long time ago I was lucky enough to be featured on the Kotaku Splitscreen Podcast and give a vocal version of how zombies ended up in Call of Duty. Maddy Myers and Jason Schreier were incredibly gracious hosts. They’re wonderful journalists that continue to do great things for the game industry. I was totally nervous but had a great time and feel fortunate to be able to have ended up on their podcast.

I’m amazed how popular “Zombie Mode” has become and how many hours people have been entertained by some of those big risks I took early in my career. I’m always grateful for folks who have spent their precious time enjoying it or tell me about their fond zombie memories. That’s why I make games. My goal is to entertain the world and make some of the most fun and memorable games and experiences ever created. I love playing games and want to give back by making them. Being able to achieve that by adding zombies to Call of Duty and pushing for it’s inclusion was no small feat and was it especially memorable to me how it all came to pass, as it was to the many other folks that helped make it happen along the way. It’s been interesting to see how zombies has evolved over time and has been included (or not) in each CoD release, but it seems to always stick around and remain popular. I remain very grateful on a creative and personal level that I could make it happen for everyone.

Feel free to give the podcast a listen directly from Spotify:

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Space Pioneer Chronicles #1 – Resources

During the acquisition of 2776, this new American flag was drawn up to represent Earth at the center of the New Planetary States.

He sat swiping his hand across his PC.

Patiently waiting for the drives to spin down and begin the atmospheric breach process, he stayed mentally detached from the series of events about to unfold. The entire song and dance was a mechanical procedure he’d been through tens of times before. Scared? Nah. He’d gotten to the point where it might as well be a trip to the head. Luckily, there were no “snakes” on this trip.

Two boring months of travel and a year or so of hard labor, but the pay was worth it. Land on the asteroid, establish basic living quarters, gather up as much ore as possible and return home.

Except this time it wasn’t ore and it wasn’t an asteroid.

The ExxonMobilShell corporation, after developing it’s own ship fleet hundreds of years ago (along with many other companies), began sending out mining vessels to local system asteroids:

“For the sole and express purpose of seeking rare universal materials in order to ensure the security and future existence of the human race.”

Once those ships could travel between the stars, all of those rich, deposit-filled asteroids were theirs for the taking. Pure profit, especially if they were partially funded by the government.

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And Further More, I’m Working on Halo 4

A while back Halo 4 was announced. As you might have suspected, I’ve been pretty busy working on the game. It turns out the campaign for a Halo game requires a pretty intense amount of effort. Who would have thought. I guess people are pretty into Halo or something.

I was actually the first designer hired at 343 Industries, but at the time the studio didn’t have a name. It was called something generic like “Halo Internal.” Woooo. In any event, I was the first designer to take the plunge (there were other designers that had come and gone, but they were pulled from other parts of Microsoft).

I didn’t start as a lead either. I was just coming off a crazy amount of Treyarch crunch (which if you ask around, is some of the most legendary crunch known to mankind) and was looking to get down on some level building, scripting and prototyping. You know, hitting reset on the ol’ work life balance button. However, after working at 343 for a bit, they asked me to be a lead, and being a lead on a Halo title is not something you tend to turn down. Don’t worry, I like to stay pretty hands-on with the tools in addition to having an outlook calendar full of meetings.

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ASCERNITY

“Six Nineteen. Ascernity Administer on approach.”

“We have you now. All signs read clean. Welcome back, Ripper.”

He waited patiently at the door. For all they had learned and understood about The Universe, they still hadn’t figured out how to create personal teleportation devices.

Doors. Just like us. They always end up making doors of their own.

Sure, they could teleport planets across systems and use asteroids as their own personal weapons against would-be invaders, but small scale objects? Impossible. Well, at least until someone figured it out. It was only a matter of time, but the lack of personal teleportation was getting annoying.

And time was still a one way street. A tough nut to crack.

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Time Statue

He had traveled across ten galaxies and had finally came to the end of his quest. He found it. He had finally found it.

The Time Statue.

He approached the two story, stone oracle, located on a remote, but seemingly habitable world. The planet was strangely devoid of life, although he was unphased by this.

The traveler opened his mouth to speak, but the Time Statue’s eyes opened and stared down at the traveler. The Time Statue’s mouth began to move. A booming voice cut through the thin air.

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Org Sharks, Clown Units and Halo Top 5

What are you lookin' at?

I don’t get to talk about work very much. Today, that all changes.

The Top 5 Brigade has been having some trouble with… leaks. After a lofty and well deserved promotion, my wise, handsome, and wonderfully smelling Section 10 officers sent me, Haxington, to root out a mole within the Top 5 unit. The Clown Unit.

So far, my attempts at information extraction have been in vain. Schismarch, whom I suspect to be the culprit has been extremely evasive to my lines of questioning. On the other hand, I think one EckoTech might simply be playing dumb. Perhaps they are in kahootz and they are both moles. The punishment I would no doubt have the pleasure of exacting on the two, if that were the case, would make my life complete. And I would probably get another promotion. Which I would deserve.

Wait. Maybe I’m the mole? No… no! I mustn’t think such foolish thoughts! Their mind games are beginning to weaken my mental fortitude!

I may need to resort to more… extreme measures in the oncoming months. I will find the mole and order within Section 10 will be restored. Come hell or high water. Now, where did I put that bottle of rubbing alcohol, the 9-iron, and “Ol’ Trusty?”

Oh. If you want to see video of my interactions with these two, check out the surveillance footage I’ve received clearance on posting below:

• Me getting promoted, one of the best days in my life.
• Interrogation time. So close… so close.

Exiting Through the Gift Shop

Banksy on the West Bank Barrier, Palestine

“I don’t believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.”

“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.”

– Pablo Picasso

Banksy is one of my favorite artists for a number of reasons. I dig good street art (graffiti!), but Banksy has always impressed me with his skill in creating a mixture of pop culture references, political messaging and dark humor in his work. I remember the first time flipping through a book of Banksy pieces and thinking “Who does political graffiti of this size and scale on the West Bank barrier of all places? The balls on this guy!”

I know a few self-proclaimed stencil graffiti artists, and they just quickly spray on a side walk or wall. That’s it. But actually trying to post it somewhere, in public, highly trafficked areas, in extremely dangerous places, in broad daylight- I always wondered how someone did that. On top of it all, Banksy stays anonymous. Very few people know who he really is. Banksy is some sort of subversive genius street artist millionaire man of mystery.

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The Fat Cat Ate A Rat

Warm and content, slept the fat tabby cat.
On a cold winter’s night, he spotted a big gray rat.

The rat was too slow and didn’t see it coming.
The cat leapt from his bed and gave the creature a numbing.

The rat ceased to exist but the large cat was not finished.
The fat flabby tabby was soon to be nourished.

Half of the rodent swiftly disappeared.
It was then my wife saw what she had feared.

“GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!” she shrieked at high pitch.
I was enthralled and so moved barely an inch.

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Tops for 2010

Here are the top queries, referrals and articles that brought people to my world in the past year. WassUp rules.

…

“ray gun nazi zombies”

Makes sense. I created the damn thing. Well, Max made the ray gun.

“jesse snyder”

I hear that guy sucks. I read it on the Internet like ten words ago so it must be true.

“nazi zombies ray gun”

Huh. That’s a lot like the first one, but I’ll take it.

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Infinite Spawners

Hey! Non-fiction stuff for a second!

I recently finished Call of Duty: Black Ops on Veteran difficulty. Yep, the game I left during pre-production.

It’s interesting leaving a game two years ago and finally getting to play it. Overall I thought the game was a good experience. However, one thing that stood out was the use of infinite spawners in various places throughout the game.

It made me think back on a time I was being interviewed for a design position. Someone asked me what I thought of infinite spawners. I told them I didn’t care for them in general but that they can be used in the right context.

They thought I was wrong. I’m glad I didn’t end up working for them.

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