Development Info

• Team Size: 600+

• Genre: FPS

• Engine: Proprietary

• Release Date: June 2024

Design Challenges

New Activity Type: As a senior designer, I was part of the process of ideation and implementation of a new activity type wholly unknown to Destiny and online fps looter shooters. As it was a new activity type altogether, as a team we had to identify what problem we were trying to solve, why were we trying to solve it, and how would we do it.

Context Switching: I worked on a variety of both linear and open world activity content concurrently, consistently switching from task to task with precision and constantly evolving my work prioritization as new needs arose. I was also design support for other overwhelmed designers when we had a few key departures and feel like being backup for them while also keeping my tasks up to quality was instrumental in our team health and final product quality.

Remote Work: Most of our team was based on the west coast, but several of us were all across the USA and Canada, making each conversation a consideration of who’s out to lunch and who’s still just getting into the office. I made an effort to have my camera on as much as possible in teams meetings so that I would maintain a visible presence with the team I had joined. Communication is so important and is a constant vigil, and remote communication is even moreso. Every teammate communicates differently both in person and remotely. Taking the time to learn your teammates ways of communicating and overcommunicating are paramount to minimizing miscommunications. We’re all teammates and want to row in the same direction, after all.

My Role

The Final Shape:

• Level designed and mission designed post-campaign mission “Home, Part 1” utilizing existing combat spaces in new ways and modifying them for use outside of their original mission

• Designed and implemented linear activity content and open world activity content for The Final Shape from conception to shipping in a truncated time frame 

• Designed and implemented open world activity content for the Final Shape

• Helped design and implement several new systems and content for a new post-campaign activity type, The Pale Heart 

• Took ownership of orphaned content and brought it to shipping quality 

• Maintained up to date and accurate activity documentation and supporting information

• Co-Designed, scripted, and implemented seasonal systems-driven activity 

• Integrated with design teams remotely across multiple time zones and internationally 

• Designed and implemented secret missions in the Pale Heart which unlocked more abilities in the new Prismatic subclass introduced in The Final Shape 

Post The Final Shape:

• Joined a new team and helped design and implement a new seasonal systems-driven activity, Boss Rush

Design Support for Seasonal teams:

• Provided design support for seasonal design team on multiple seasonal activities, including the 6-player matchmade Salvage activity for Season of the Deep.