Call of Duty: Extinction (2014)
Extinction Co-op Mode
Extinction was Neversoft’s version of Call of Duty Zombies which shipped with Call of Duty: Ghosts. Extinction was a 4 player cooperative PvE mode where players fight hordes of ancient alien creatures. After finishing up my work on Call of Duty: Ghosts, I moved to the Extinction team as the design lead on DLC pack #2 Mayday and DLC pack #4 Exodus.
Extinction DLC #2: Mayday
In Mayday the player’s fight to regain control of a navy ship which has been infested with Cryptids. I did mechanic design, block out, level design, and scripting for Mayday.
I designed and scripted a new Seeder enemy type which spits out little alien turrets which stick to walls and ceilings to terrorize players.
I also designed and built the Kraken boss fight which was inspired by raid boss mechanics of MMOs such as World of Warcraft. The Kraken was a multi-phase boss encounter with many layers of mechanics which required tight teamwork and communication to defeat. The Kraken boss was an invaluable lesson in game design, as I learned a tremendous amount from it’s successes and failures.
Watch the Kraken boss fight here - Kraken Boss Gameplay Youtube Link
Extinction DLC #4: Exodus
In Exodus we wanted to give players more freedom of choice, so I designed the map to require activating a series of 6 generators in any order. The order you choose to activate the generators gives you access to different rewards, allowing each session to play a bit differently. I did initial layout, level design, scripting for mechanics and the new “Ancestor” alien type. The Ancestor was designed to be a highly threatening mini-boss with a variety of attacks, including a force field which could be countered by players with a well timed attack.
Extinction was a really fun project, and the first time I was able to take the role of design lead. It was fulfilling to watch a lot of my ideas come to life and guide my team to the victory line.