Let's make a game!

The new Infinity Ward team was finally on the same page and pumped to continue the work on Modern Warfare 3. We only had 20 months remaining to ship this game and the hiring process was slow. It was important to set a good standard for the single-player campaign early. So, we concentrated our efforts into heavy production on one mission: Mind the Gap. That particular mission was set in London. It required the focus of multiple level designers, scripters, as well as all the other departments. The results were good and the progress was ongoing. But it was clear that with only half of our original team and the time constraint, we were going to need major assistance.

Mind the Gap:

Activision first enlisted the help of their newly acquired studio, Sledgehammer Games. At the time, Sledgehammer was led by the studio-heads that were responsible for the excellent and instant classic game: Dead Space. Despite a relatively functional partnership and collaboration, our design philosophies would sometimes clash with theirs. We disagreed on the tone and content for certain portions of the campaign. For instance, we disagreed on their proposed idea for the level intro of the mission Black Tuesday. The new Delta Force team were to emerge out of a round sewer maintenance hole in the middle of a New York street, looking upward to witness enemy missiles striking a high-rise building. We suggested that the same view reveal could be achieved with an overturned armored vehicle. With the player character laying on his back before crawling out to the view of missiles striking the high-rise. We would discuss this among ourselves in one of the IW design meetings: “This is the introduction of the Delta Force team, a first impression. It should feel more like an elite military unit mid-battle and less like Ninja Turtles sneaking in from a sewer.” For the Hunter Killer mission, Sledgehammer wanted to feature the hijacking of an enemy battleship and already had a version of the ship in the game. But we really pushed for the hijacking of an enemy submarine, instead. I remember sitting in another meeting with several other IW leads and one of our new studio heads, Steve Pearce. We described a sequence of underwater sabotage: “This sub is massive, you get right near it to plant explosives. The detonation forces it to surface. You are right next to this thing as it breaches through the water. It would be so epic. Not doing that would be a missed opportunity.” - I said. When there was some disagreement, Steve Pearce would do his best to find a balance where everyone would be happy. It was not an easy task having two separate studios in two different locations. I remember, that by the end of the project, the stress on Steve was clearly visible.

Hunter Killer:

We were overall very grateful for Sledgehammer Games, as this game would not have been made without them. Their in-game scripted sequences and superb use of lighting were especially impressive. The missions developed by Sledgehammer Games were: Black Tuesday, Hunter Killer, Persona Non Grata, Back on the Grid, Bag and Drag, Scorched Earth and Dust to Dust.

Still, our combined studio efforts would not be enough to finish everything on the schedule. Enter Raven Software, a prestigious and long-lasting Activision studio. We had a smooth and cohesive relationship with them from the start, as our design and tone philosophies were aligned. They exhibited a strong grasp of the Call of Duty formula and developed two spectacular missions: Turbulence and Return to Sender. They also helped us finish several other missions with additional scripting support. The constructive feedback that we would exchange back and forth about the missions would push both teams to create greater things. That bond and mutual understanding between Infinity Ward and Raven Software continued into future Call of Duty projects from that point on.

Return to Sender:

Towards the end of the project we also received some extra help from Treyarch, with more scripting and level design work on several of parts of the game. Having worked at Treyarch previously, it was nice to chat and contribute with some of my old co-workers. If I remember correctly, they developed the majority of the Stronghold mission. They also implementing the second half of Blood Brothers, a mission pitched by me and designed at IW. Treyarch also did the in-game playable flashbacks at the end of Blood Brothers, by following the outline in the same mission pitch.

Blood Brothers:

As for the new and reconstructing Infinity Ward, there were moments of ups and downs. We started fast and set the standard but then struggled for a bit. The next several missions after Mind the Gap were particularly challenging for us on the design side. It was difficult to consistently achieve great design across multiple missions and deliver on the very high expectations set by MW2. But we pushed through and solved our issues, while new and talented developers joined the studio. It would take relentless iteration, an unwavering work ethic and sheer will for us to rise up and deliver on the promise of the premise. For the single-player campaign, we would go on to develop the missions: Mind the Gap, Goalpost, Iron Lady, Eye of the Storm, Blood Brothers and Down the Rabbit Hole. Infinity Ward also had a new multiplayer design team that led the charge and created most all of the multiplayer content as well as the COOP Survival mode for MW3.

Iron Lady:

One aspect that we tried to carry over from Modern Warfare 2 was the shock factor. We took a shot at it with the Davis Family Vacation in-game cinematic. However, I felt like that came off as heavy-handed and predictable. Yet, the mission Blood Brothers, that culminated with the death of Soap MacTavish, really hit the mark. The in-game playable flashbacks at the end of that mission were also very well received. They put the player back in the most pivotal and iconic Modern Warfare events but from a completely different perspective. At one point, we tried going too far by discussing the death of Captain Price but ultimately decided against that idea, especially after getting an email from one of the original IW team producers, Pete Blumel. Pete made his case on why we should not kill Price, which made a lot of sense and sealed that decision.

Death of Soap:

We were proud of what we achieved, specially considering the circumstances we were in and the unprecedented challenge of multi-studio development on such a pivotal project. We borrowed a lot from the past, taking successful concepts and putting our own twist on them. We leaned heavily on the staple of Call of Duty intensity, without enough restraint and pacing balance. As a team, we celebrated our successes and took note of the shortcomings. But the overall lesson that we took away from this experience is, as someone said: “Making games is fuckin’ hard!!”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released on November of 2011. It set all-time sales records at the time and earned overall positive reviews. It currently stands with almost 31 million copies sold worldwide and counting.