Black Ops 6 - First-Person Shooter from Raven Software and Activision Blizzard

What Did I Work On For Black Ops 6?

I worked as a Junior Mission Designer for the level design department of Raven Software. My duties were focused on the ownership of several locations of the “Hunting Season” mission that I was responsible for building and iterating upon. I worked on the building the environment geo, setting up the encounters, and scripting additional behaviors or functionality related to those encounters. I worked alongside the engineering, art, and design departments to ensure each section of the mission was brought up to shipping quality.

  • Led the design, building, and population of key locations in a unique new mid-sized open-world mission using a proprietary toolset (Radiant), focusing on player agency and exploration to craft highly engaging environments that emphasize unique gameplay systems, rewards, and open-world mechanics.
  • Owned the development lifecycle of the sections for which I was responsible, from concept to finish, working closely with other teams to ensure each section of the mission met the goals of each team.
  • Built and iterated on the level geometry and combat spaces, balancing progression with dynamic gameplay, focusing on enhancing player agency and engagement through unique encounters and experiences.
  • Adapted mission content, world areas, and rewards to seamlessly integrate with narrative-driven progression systems, emphasizing immersive player driven experiences.
  • Setup the environment, collision, encounters, and enemies for each of the areas I owned in engine and in script.
  • Collaborated with cross-disciplinary teams, managing the full development lifecycle from concept to final implementation, while maintaining design, narrative, and gameplay consistency.
  • Scripted examples of multiple features in a test map for testing UI-related features for the project.

    You can find the sandbox mission previewed prominently in the gameplay trailer for the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyZY_BiTmd8

What Did I Learn From Black Ops 6?

  1. AAA WORK FLOW – Black Ops 6 was my first professional work in the industry as well as my first AAA work in the industry. I learned a lot about how games are made at the AAA level, how level designers are supposed to operate and work with the other disciplines like Art, Lighting, Sound, and Tech. Since I had full ownership of multiple sections of a larger map I had to figure out where to iterate and build upon the levels on my own, while still getting feedback from my peers.
  2. GSC SCRIPTING – Learning new scripting languages and skills is always good. Most of my experience up to this point was in C# and GSC isn’t all that much different, but it was still a learning process to figure out a new language and I believe it will help me going forward when learning other proprietary scripting languages.
  3. RADIANT ENGINE – Similar to learning a new language, learning new engines and tools are also very important.  I learn tools fairly quickly, however I did spend a bit of time at the beginning of the project learning more about Radiant.  I had used the older versions of the engine for making maps and mods for games like Call of Duty: World at War, but learning new versions of engines whether used in the same or a different way can be strange and a process.  I learned this when returning to Unreal Engine from Unreal Engine 3 to 4 and 5.  The process of learning a new engine is a fun and interesting task, it allowed me to learn new techniques for solving certain level design problems based on the tools I had available to me; sometimes that is an extra tool and sometimes it is a lack of a tool, both scenarios bring new challenges that helped me grow as a level designer.
  4. PROPER BUG TRACKING / JIRA – When working on the title we used JIRA and Confluence to monitor and track tasks, bugs and document various elements of the project. I had never used these tools nor had any proper experience learning to monitor and track bugs. Learning these tools not only helped me in terms of learning new tools, but also improving skills that I was lacking in going into the project.

GALLERY

Satellite Farm Outpost - Level Design / Encounter Design / Content Design

I used the Radiant engine to build out one of three major outposts in the campaign mission “Hunting Season.” The location was developed and iterated on with the goal of giving the players choices on how to approach the outpost without creating one approach that was significantly more optimal than the others. Radar was given several unique approaches for stealth, and an aggressive assault. This way you could approach the primary objective of the mission in a unique way depending on the order in which you tackle the outposts and encampments.

Tools Used / Learned

  • Radiant
  • Radiant Terrain Editor
  • Confluence
  • Jira

Skills Used / Learned

  • GSC Scripting

Village Encampment - Level Design / Encounter Design / Content Design

I used the Radiant engine to build out the interior and exterior of this Village Encampment. The central building is a multi-layer kitbash of a few pre-existing assets created to fit nicely into the layered layout of the village. There are three approaches into the village each giving you a unique view on the location. Coming from the north gives you easy access to the cliffside overlooking the lower village, coming from the east gives you the opportunity to low, and slow move through the empty cornfield, and the option from the south gives you a nice approach from either the river bed, or the bridge that crosses it. Each providing an optimal approach for your current weaponry.

Tools Used / Learned

  • Radiant
  • Radiant Terrain Editor
  • Confluence
  • Jira

Skills Used / Learned

  • GSC Scripting

SAM Sites / Caches - Level Design / Encounter Design (Outdated images will update soon)

I used the Radiant engine to build out multiple exterior scenes that you can find when exploring small section of iraqi desert that hosts the “Hunting Season” mission. These caches were placed around the level with equipment that the players could use to supplement themselves. I positioned these evenly throughout the map adding encounters at some of them where there was less enemy activity. I also took an additional pass on the level design and encounter design at the secondary objective SAM sites. We wanted to make sure the space you explored in the “Hunting Season” mission was reasonably filled with activities for the players to engage with.

Tools Used / Learned

  • Radiant
  • Radiant Terrain Editor
  • Confluence
  • Jira

Skills Used / Learned

  • GSC Scripting

Dune Encampment / Radio Tower - Level Design (Outdated images will update soon)

I used the Radiant engine to build out a few additional locations in the mission creating the initial pass of the Dune Encampment before it was revisited by Zack Ganous as I was working on other locations of the “Hunting Season” mission. I wanted the encampment to seem hidden, but still allow the player to spot it on their map or via approaching from the right direction. The radio tower was meant to be a unique lookout on the Radar outpost allowing you to get a nice vantage point on the unique challenge the outpost presented.

Tools Used / Learned

  • Radiant
  • Radiant Terrain Editor
  • Confluence
  • Jira

Skills Used / Learned

  • GSC Scripting