Development Info

• Team Size: 700+

• Genre: FPS

• Engine: Proprietary

• Release Date: September 6, 2017

Design Challenges

Blazing a trail into the Unknown: Adventures and removing the load screen for non-ambient content were new ideas to Destiny. They had never been accomplished before, and were something brand new to the open-world experience. As designers, we had to figure out how to integrate these fifteen minute activities into the Destiny experience and make it compelling. My goal was to make satisfying and gratifying gameplay and story happen in a place where an infinite number of possibilities could add to or muddy the experience.

Short-Form Storytelling: Adventures were all about telling a short story in the destination that they take place. They helped fill out the world and told smaller stories that didn’t belong in the main quest line, but were right at home in the open-world spaces. The challenge with this idea is that taking the right size story to try to tell with a 15 minute activity is important: too big and it will feel rushed or confusing, too small and it will feel irrelevant and strange.

Stranger-Friendly Activities: As open-world designers, we had to keep in mind that these will be taking place in the open-world and found that passerby players often wanted to help a player on an adventure in public spaces. With this in mind, I strove to design objectives that facilitated that desire to help and avoided easily abused objectives, instead opting to have easily abused objectives take place in a private space before seamlessly funneling the player back out into the public space.

My Role

As an Associate Designer on Destiny 2, I had a variety of responsibilities that I had to keep in mind and juggle simultaneously:

Titan:

• Designed and implemented three of the four Adventures on Titan

• Ensured that my Adventure content had correct Audio and Narrative

• Ensured that my Adventure content worked with and not against the goals that the Campaign, Strikes, and Public Events teams set out for themselves

• Worked with Artists to carve out a space for these Adventures on a packed-to-the-brim destination that wouldn’t interfere with other Activities and even blocked out two new combat areas only accessible during these Adventures

• Wrote and kept up documentation on the activities I created, facilitating communication with test org and leadership

• Kitbashed and re-purposed content to provide new gameplay mechanics and experiences with existing assets

European Dead Zone:

• Designed and implemented one of the only Adventures in Destiny 2 to utilize vehicles: Unsafe at Any Speed

• Spearheaded the addition of a new functionality to code base

• Re-purposed already completed assets for new uses

• Placed the activity entirely within the public spaces, allowing for a wide variety of systems interaction between ambient state and the Adventure

• Ensured that my Adventure content worked with and not against the goals that the Campaign, Strikes, and Public Events teams set out for themselves

• Wrote and kept up documentation on the activities I created, facilitating communication with test org and leadership