Game Overview
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS COLD WAR (a.k.a. BLACK OPS 5) is a historical military themed first-person shooter featuring MULTIPLAYER, single-player CAMPAIGN, and co-op ZOMBIES horde modes. MULTIPLAYER and ZOMBIES modes were developed by TREYARCH. BLACK OPS COLD WAR released in 2020 for Xbox One/X/S, PlayStation 4/5, and PC.
Role Overview
As an Intermediate Designer at TREYARCH, I scripted objectives, enemy spawns and environment interactions in the ZOMBIES mode of BLACK OPS COLD WAR. I was self-sufficient as an individual contributor in creating content. I used the development tools of TREYARCH’s T9 game engine, including their proprietary version of the Radiant level editor and GSC, their proprietary C-style scripting language. I worked on BLACK OPS COLD WAR for 8 months post-launch through the ship dates for Season 3-6 DLCs.
Specific Responsibilities
The ZOMBIES mode of BLACK OPS COLD WAR has both traditional “ROUND-BASED” levels and objective-based OUTBREAK levels. Similar to prior ZOMBIES modes in CALL OF DUTY, in ROUND-BASED ZOMBIES, you attempt to survive as many Rounds as possible while being chased by an endless horde of Zombies by opening up the level to access more powerful weapons and perks as the Rounds get progressively harder. In the debuting ZOMBIES OUTBREAK sub-mode, you explore large-scale environments completing open-world objectives and events with Zombies in every direction.
I worked on the final ROUND-BASED level: FORSAKEN. I also worked on half of the OUTBREAK levels: DUGA, ZOO, COLLATERAL and ARMADA. My responsibilities on each level are detailed below. . .
FORSAKEN – A Russian military training site housing a faux American town overrun by Zombies.
FORSAKEN Trailer
Walkthrough of FORSAKEN
My primary responsibility was implementing the introductory quest in its entirety:
Pack-A-Punch Quest – Infiltrate a top-secret lab and defeat the Abomination to supercharge your weapon.
Guide for FORSAKEN Pack-A-Punch Quest
I implemented every step of this quest from scratch to their final stage. The steps can be simplified and summarized as follows:
- Charge up the teleporter in Staging Area and survive, teleport to the next area.
- Progress through Main Street and teleport to the next area.
- Find parts to repair the broken teleporter in Anytown and teleport to the next area.
- Defeat the Abomination in The Amplifier and teleport to the next area.
- Lift the lockdown from Observation Tower to access the Pack-A-Punch Device.
Notably, I had to override certain gameplay systems with custom functionality due to the unique requirements of this quest. Firstly, Staging Area at the beginning of the quest overrides the Rounds system with “Accelerated Rounds” that incremented automatically rather than requiring all Zombies to be killed like normal. That change starts off the level with a bang by pressuring you to leave the area while also allowing for a fun “Starting Room Challenge”, as seen here:
Walkthrough of FORSAKEN Starting Room (ends 11:46)
Secondly, the objective waypoints for each step are player-specific and conditional to where you are in the level. If you’re not in the same area as the objective (i.e. if you backtracked through one or more teleporters), the waypoint instead points you to the teleporter with the fewest teleport jumps to the objective and dynamically updates as you teleport. Since each Player can be in different areas simultaneously, I had to override the Objective system using client-side functionality to place the waypoint on a per-Player basis. That allows each Player to have their own context-sensitive objective waypoint to point them in the appropriate direction no matter where they are in the level.
Also worth noting, the teleporter parts for repairing the teleporter in Anytown can be picked up in any order and even before reaching the broken teleporter. That allows speed runners to beeline straight through Anytown without having to backtrack unnecessarily. I also proposed having multiple possible locations for each teleporter part, as seen in the game. I iterated on the placement of each teleporter part, looking for challenging and appropriate hiding spots, which had to be maintained as the level design was taking shape.
I scripted each step of the quest, overridden Rounds and Objective functionality, and quest-related voiceover lines in GSC code. I used Radiant editor to place any quest-related objects such as teleporters, teleporter parts, the Abomination spawn, and interactable buttons.
I also had secondary responsibilities for the initial setup to integrate scripting for common gameplay systems into the level:
ROUND-BASED Zombie Spawns & Zones – Spawning Zombies each Round to give chase where Players are.
In ROUND-BASED ZOMBIES, each level is divided into “zones”, which are segments of navmesh in playable space. Each Round, waves of Zombies spawn outside playable space and enter into playable space in a zone either inhabited by Players or adjacent to an inhabited zone. Removing Door Buys and other gating barriers not only allows Players access to newly playable space but also enables zones behind it for Zombie spawning.
After level designers blocked out the layout for FORSAKEN, I used Radiant editor to place nodes and boundaries defining each zone, as well as each Zombie spawn point. With over a hundred spawn points throughout the level and the core functionality of ROUND-BASED ZOMBIES revolving around zones and Zombie spawns, I assisted diagnosing issues that arose in order to keep the level in a stable and playable state during development and internal playtesting even after handing off those responsibilities since I was the most knowledgeable about that setup.
I also scripted the rules determining zone adjacency and disabled status based on gating barriers in GSC code.
Buyables – Spend points from killing Zombies on opening up the level, weapons, perks, and more.
I used Radiant editor to place the common buyable features in ZOMBIES mode: Door Buys, Wall Buys, Mystery Boxes, Perk Machines, Crafting Tables, Arsenal Machines, the Trial Computer and the Pack-A-Punch Machine. I set the cost of Door Buys based on a progression formula. I iterated on the location of specific Wall Buys and Perk Machines based on direction from the feature owner for FORSAKEN.
ZOMBIES OUTBREAK – An objective-based ZOMBIES sub-mode taking place across large-scale, open-world levels.
In OUTBREAK, you infiltrate into a level, complete randomized objectives and events for loot, then exfiltrate to the next level and repeat the process. Unlike ROUND-BASED levels – where Zombies are constantly spawning nearby and chasing you until the end of the Round – in OUTBREAK, there are “hotzones” of wandering Zombies throughout the level which spawn even more Zombies when agitated. For tighter spaces (mostly indoors), Zombies are triggered to spawn as an “ambush”.
My primary responsibility was integrating scripting of the common hotzone spawning system and editing ambushes across multiple levels:
OUTBREAK Zombie Spawns – Spawning Zombies to populate a large, open environment.
I took over the initial setup of hotzones and ambushes, expanded and iterated on them until final stage across multiple levels. I chose the possible composition of Zombie types for each hotzone to have variety and fit the environment. I looked for fun spots to ambush Players and catch them off-guard. As level designers iterated on the environment of each level, I maintained each and every Zombie spawn point and trigger in across multiple levels. With dozens of hotzones and ambushes throughout each level, and hundreds of spawn points between them, I had to stay on top of level design changes in order to keep the level in a playable state during development and internal playtesting. I used Radiant editor to place and set properties for hotzone nodes and spawn points and shape triggers for ambushes.
I worked on the following levels in OUTBREAK performing those responsibilities:
DUGA – A Russian military base guarding an enormous radar array crawling with Zombies.
ZOO – A Russian animal exhibit park crawling with Zombies.
COLLATERAL – An African oil drilling site crawling with Zombies.
ARMADA – The wreckage from a naval battle on the Black Sea crawling with Zombies.
I also took over post-release bug fixing for the Zombie spawns of all of the previous OUTBREAK levels: RUKA, ALPINE, GOLOVA and SANATORIUM.