Destiny 2: Echoes

General Information

Role: Senior Activity Designer

Genre: MMO, FPS, Live Service

Engine: Proprietary Bungie Engine

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Developer: Bungie, Inc.

Release Date: June 11th, 2024

Tools

Overview

Destiny 2: Echoes was the first release in the new episode style for the game and my responsibility for the episode, Arena: Breach Executable, was one of the first two activities to release. I served as the feature owner and an activity designer for the feature. During the production cycle I concepted the activity as a new mode, implemented the overall flow as well as several combat encounters, and coordinated multiple designers who implemented other encounters.

Responsibilities

Served as feature owner:

  • Created and pitched a new game mode concept
  • Wrote and maintained detailed documentation
  • Held and communicated vision for the feature
  • Coordinated and organized other designers working on the feature
  • Served as point of contact for the feature

Took encounters from concept to polished final product:

  • Designed, scripted, and iterated on activity flow
  • Designed, scripted, and iterated on combat encounters
  • Ran regular playtests to receive feedback and identify risks and issues
  • Polished features and fixed bugs

Collaborated with other disciplines:

  • Worked with the World Art team to modify existing spaces to best fit the combat and gameplay present
  • Coordinated with Tech Design, VFX, and Audio to request assets necessary to create the intended experience
  • Worked closely with the Test team to ensure a high level of quality
  • Collaborated with Production to plan features, cost tasks, and identify risks
  • Interfaced with leadership to pitch concepts, receive feedback, and address concerns

My Work

Arena: Breach Executable was a new mode with high replay value drawing inspiration from previous arena style game modes in Destiny 2. The activity featured players exploring the surface of Nessus and studying the changes and new formations caused by The Conductor and the Echo’s influence. It had significant variation and multiple levels of player selected difficulty.

Breach Executable - Activity Flow

The Arena: Breach Executable activity flow required the ability to create significant variation using a fixed set of primary and boss encounters. The structure of the activity included two primary encounters followed by a single boss encounter. At the start of each run the activity selected a preset combination of primary encounters from a list and a random boss encounter.

During each primary encounter players earn progress through completing objectives and bonus progress by depositing data. The encounter ends successfully once players reach the progress threshold which can be done more quickly by efficiently collecting and depositing data. If players run out of time the encounter completes unsuccessfully and players fail-forward to the next encounter.

On higher difficulties encounters completed successfully provide additional rewards. Compressed data nodes will also randomly drop from combatants granting the same bonus progress as depositing normal data as well as additional encounter time.

Breach Executable - Tree Encounter

The "Tree" encounter is one of the primary encounters seen in Arena: Breach Executable. During the encounter an interconnected ring of Vex radiolaria pods spawn from the central "tree" structure. In order to damage the pods players must stand in an energy well dropped by the Nursery Cyclops combatants. Once one pod is destroyed a chain is created and only the pods on the ends of the chain remain vulnerable enforcing an order they must be destroyed in. Killing the Nursery Cyclops and destroying sets of pods provide progress toward encounter success.

Breach Executable - Geysers Encounter

The "Geysers" encounter is another of the primary encounters seen in Arena: Breach Executable. During the encounter radiolaria geysers periodically erupt, serving both as an object of study for players as well as a hazard. Players must kill the Flow Director combatants, hack a Vex structure to track the flow of radiolaria, then analyze the geysers by standing on them for a set duration. Killing the Flow Director combatants and analyzing each set of geysers provide progress toward encounter success.