Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Responsibilities

Role: Senior Activity Designer

  • Designed and Implemented a large amount of linear activity and open world content from start to finish in a short timeframe

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

  • Helped design and implement new systems for new activity type

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

  • Integrated with design, art, test, and engineering teams across multiple time zones and internationally

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:

  • Designed and implemented a variety of linear content for The Final Shape

  • Designed and implemented open world content for The Final Shape, including content for a new activity type

  • Helped design and implement several new systems and content for new activity type

  • Took ownership of orphaned content and brought it to shipping quality by interfacing with many disciplines and levels on the entire team and guiding its progress

  • Secrets design and implementation

Post The Final Shape:

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

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.