Destiny 2: Heresy

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: February 4th, 2025

Tools

Overview

Destiny 2: Heresy is the third and final release in the episodic style for the game. I served as feature owner and activity designer for the exotic pursuit and mission. I was responsible for the feature from start to end including pitching the initial concept based on feature requirements, scripting encounters and mission flow, designing a unique puzzle mechanic, coordinating with other departments on requests and dependencies, and ensuring a high-quality end product. In addition, I provided support to the community puzzle by designing and prototyping the player interaction and layout for the chess board.

Responsibilities

Served as feature owner:

  • Pitched and created a large-scale pursuit and exotic mission
  • 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
  • Implemented encounters and puzzles in other activities and legacy freeroam spaces
  • Designed and implemented a unique puzzle mechanic and associated puzzles
  • 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 create a new space designed specifically for the mission
  • 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

My primary responsibility during Destiny 2: Heresy production was the exotic pursuit and mission: The Taken Path and Derealize. The questline leads the player through an investigation with Commander Sloane's help into a mysterious power aboard the dreadnaught. Players pursue their line of inquiry across the system, encountering horrors and the puzzles meant to keep them hidden along the way.

In addition to my work on the exotic features I also assisted with the community puzzle. I designed and prototyped the layout and player interaction for the chessboard ensuring players could quickly and easily manipulate pieces using familiar Destiny verbs.

The Taken Path - Exotic Pursuit

The Taken Path exotic pursuit start was a secret built into The Nether, a repeatable activity on the Dreadnaught. It would appear in one of the areas selected by the activity as long as someone in the fireteam had not started the pursuit. Creating a secret start that appeared in a guaranteed manner encouraged an unexpected and organic discovery which added significant value to the pursuit for players. It also served as a tutorial for the teleporter puzzle mechanic used throughout the pursuit and in the associated mission.

From there the pursuit led players around legacy destinations in the game to complete puzzles and challenges. The player first traveled to two lost sectors each containing a teleporter puzzle and Taken enemies teaching them more about the puzzle mechanic and providing them with Taken Osseus Fragments. They then were asked to break several curses by accepting the curse then feeding it enough kills to empower it before being consumed. Each of the curses had a unique balance of kills required for empowerment and time before it consumed the player. Breaking each one enabled players to head back to The Nether and summon, then kill named combatants to earn Taken Osseous Fragments. Once they had all three of these fragments the exotic mission Derealize was unlocked.

Once players completed Derealize and earned the exotic weapon (Barrow-Dyad) they were able to earn the intrinsics and catalysts for the weapon. The mission for the intrinsics involved unlocking ritual loop upgrades and finding more Taken Osseous Fragments in The Nether. The catalyst pursuits were unlocked through secrets or by playing content using the exotic weapon. Each of the catalyst pursuits then challenged the player to complete difficult content using specific, thematic loadouts.

Derealize - Exotic Mission

During the Derealize exotic mission players head deep into the Dreadnaught to locate the source of the Taken power they've been investigating. Along the way they come up against a Dread commander also intent on finding the power first. However, the commander has been corrupted and turns on its own forces. Once the player defeats this obstacle they find their way into an unexplored section of the Dreadnaught and locate the source of the Taken power.

This mission is shorter than many other exotic missions to allow for the larger exotic pursuit experience. It also reuses spaces from both The Nether and Court of Blades while focusing heavily on additive visual elements to communicate the narrative about a mysterious Taken power. The hanger space leading up to the final boss was created specifically for the mission and shows off the blending of Taken energy and Hive architecture while serving as unique and challenging traversal puzzle.

Community Puzzle

I performed prototyping and early design work for the chess board space in the community puzzle. Players used various actions to solve a series of chess style puzzles creating checkmate scenarios. This led to a community driven meta puzzle collecting chess boards revealed to players and solving a final puzzle. That solution was entered into the chess board unlocking rewards and a teaser cinematic. My work focused on the layout of the space, the actions available to players, the way players interacted with the chess board, and associated feedback. (Puzzle begins at 18:57)