Call of Duty Zombies – Exclusive Interview with Scott Carpenter and Lee Ross
David Gelmini
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Activision and Infinity Ward today debuted the gameplay trailer for ‘Rave in the Redwoods,’ the undead survival co-op mode featured in the upcoming first DLC Map Pack for Call of Duty®: Infinite Warfare, Sabotage.
Rave in the Redwoods continues the macabre narrative of the Infinite Warfare zombies experience, taking fans through a new storyline where they’ll fight as one of four classic ‘90s characters and battle new varieties of the living dead in an abandoned lakeside summer camp full of twists and turns.
We recently sat down with Scott Carpenter, Lead Multiplayer Designer and Lee Ross, Associate Project Director, Zombies to get the skinny on the latest Sabotage DLC which is AVAILABLE NOW.
Dread Central: You’ve got some pretty cool new maps in the Sabotage DLC. When designing a new map, what are the key factors and ingredients that you take into account, and how do you combine them into something unique?
Scott Carpenter, Lead Multiplayer Designer: The first step we take whenever starting any new map is to look back a bit. In Sabotage’s case, we looked at community feedback for the base maps in Infinite Warfare and what was working and what could be improved. A designer generally has a core goal in mind when starting out a new map. In Neon, for example, the desire was to elongate the engagements a bit and play with how advanced movement works in that situation. From there it’s just hard work and iteration. We play the early version of the maps several times a week, tweaking things along the way based on feedback from the team.
During the iteration process, map theme and art style is brainstormed. Most of the time, there is a core idea for a theme for a map and the map is designed with this theme in mind. Concept artists do their thing and take vague ideas and images and bring it to the next level. The Infinite Warfare universe has expanded our traditional battleground theaters, so we have a lot of new genre settings to mine, but we also need to weigh that with making settings both relatable and memorable.
DC: Unlike many recent AAA shooters, Call of Duty has always retained a single-player story component, and you’re adding an all new story to this DLC in the form of the chilling horror adventure Rave in the Redwoods. Do you think that it’s important for the COD franchise to always offer a strong single-player narrative-driven experience in addition to its multiplayer?
Lee Ross, Associate Project Director, Zombies: I think COD is a magnificent offering considering you get three games in one. The scope of all three modes now have grown to exploding proportions and I believe strongly that fans have come to expect this from the franchise. The beauty of it is that each mode offers a completely differing experience from the next and that allows us to engage a much wider audience than say if we were just a single player experience. So, in short, yes we need strong single player narrative but we also need an engaging multiplayer and a solid cooperative experience as well.
DC: Can you describe how you came up with the idea for Rave in the Redwoods and how it went from idea to reality?
Lee Ross: Bringing any of these experiences to life is always a challenge because this incredible team I have the privilege of working with has a ton of amazing ideas. Narrowing down those ideas and funneling them into a cohesive experience is where we shine. We continually challenge ourselves to bring the best experience we can with all the knowledge we’ve garnered working on cooperative games we feel like we’ve got something very special in what we’ve released and what we’ve yet to release.
DC: RITR also looks like it couldn’t be more different from Zombies in Spaceland. Did manage to differentiate RITR from the core Call of Duty experience without alienating fans too much?
Lee Ross: The team at large wanted to make a strong departure from what we did in Zombies in Spaceland both from a visual standpoint but also from a gameplay perspective. In our first Zombies endeavor we wanted to make things a little friendlier. Hence the bright lights, wide open spaces and lots of goodies to turn the zombies into mush.
Consider Zombies in Spaceland our training simulator for Rave in the Redwoods. What players can expect in Rave in the Redwoods is the same good time but with a stronger horror push and a much more aggressively designed play space. We want players to feel a bit more uncomfortable in this map and to help bring the fear factor of hanging out in a location with these horrible monsters to life. Personally, I’d NEVER want to spend the night there. Spaceland, I think I could deal with but on second thought maybe not. LOL.
DC: Since zombies first appeared in World at War back in 2008, they’ve become such a staple of the Call of Duty series that it almost wouldn’t be the same without them. What do you think makes their addition so endearing? And do you think that zombies and COD are now inseparable.
Lee Ross: I touched on this a little but I believe this experience is a requirement for the franchise at this point. Being able to play a cooperative game with family or friends can lead to some really great gaming moments. Not everyone is a story driven player and not everyone likes competitive gameplay. In our package, we offer something for everyone and that cooperative experience helps us satisfy that player that just wants to go to town with a buddy. And of course, if co-op is not your cup of tea, Infinite Warfare has you covered on the other fronts too.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Sabotage DLC Map Pack is available as a standalone pack or via the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Season Pass. The Season Pass can be purchased on its own or obtained as part of the Legacy Pro or Digital Deluxe editions of the game. Season Pass gives discounted access to all four Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare DLC Map Packs released during 2017 (discount based on a Season Pass suggested retail price of $49.99, and four individual DLC Map Packs at a suggested retail price of $15 each). Season Pass owners will also receive 10 Rare Supply Drops upon purchase plus 1,000 bonus Salvage Credits to craft new prototype weapons.
For more information, please visit www.callofduty.com. Fans can also follow @CallofDuty on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Categorized:Horror Gaming News
