Battleground: Conduit

  • First Person PVE Shooter + Action MMO

  • Playable in Singleplayer or Coop

  • Created as a Senior Level Designer for Bungie / Playstation

  • Available on Steam, PC, PS5, XBOX

  • Developed over 3+ Months

  • Tiger Engine

  • Small Team

  • 15 minute runtime

This Level appears as part of the Destiny 2 Episode: Echoes release.

Not long after the Guardians began probing the crust of Nessus, they uncover structures that lead deeper into the planet and the unknown.

Level Flow

(1) Delve into Nessus

(4) Hack the Conflux

(2) Eliminate Vex

(5) Defend Ghost

(3) Follow the Radiolaria

(6) Eliminate Kamarian, Radial Overseer

Production

One of my tasks on Destiny 2 was to create a Battlegrounds Level for the Episode: Echoes. This entailed working with my Feature Lead, Producer, Creative Director, and Feature Director to come up with a concept that fit the overall high level narrative and gameplay goals of the Episode.

I concepted and pitched a subterranean sewer world, filled with mechanical pumps and structures meant for the control and manipulation of a key resource we’d introduce in the Episode, Radiolaria. I created top down maps, performed example blockouts with existing assets + kits, and coordinated with all disciplines needed to create lists of eventual needs to pull off the level in proposed bronze, silver, and gold states.

I worked with my Feature Lead to understand and twist the framework for Battlegrounds Levels to fit the Conduit level. I also designed a final boss whose mechanic felt novel and fresh for the Destiny 2 experience. I iterated on the level’s design with a handful of environment artists, worked with narrative to put in the hooks needed for key dialogue, and implemented the systems needed to run all of the combat encounters and pickups.

As always, I couldn’t have done either of these as effectively without the help of my teammates.

> Destiny 2 - Episode: Echoes

Exploration

Players are rewarded for exploring the crevices and optional side paths in the Battlegrounds spaces with their discovery of resource drops and interactables in the environment. These directly tie into side quests and progression that is available to players in the H.E.L.M. and encourage players to engage in our core game loops.

I populated the environment with enticing corridors and openings that pushed and pulled players towards these bits of content.

I also used my experience with narrative scripting and understanding of the tools to create scripted moments where fodder enemies would, upon turning a corner, be seen going to an area not yet explored.

Combat

Players are treated to the same level of polish and engagement during combat that they’re used to in other areas of Destiny 2. Special attention was given to create spaces that acted as competently designed combat arenas and guided the player into unique and interesting power positions.

As the only Designer on this level, I did the implementation of enemy spawning, ties into the objective system to bookend encounters with the correct logic, and any kind of special behaviors that helped enemies fully utilize their environments:

  • Flanking

  • Staggered Spawns

  • Retreat and Advance behavior

  • Setups for combatant infighting

I also created custom versions of our standardized encounter objects that allowed for the three main encounters the player runs into (outside the boss): Waves, Point Defense, and Survival.

Traversal

Traversal paths had to create a strong central path through the level, while also providing compelling optional paths for players who wanted to see what was around that next corner.

I worked with Narrative to make sure we had ample time and pacing for lore and dialogue while moving between combat spaces. And I pulled my own weight making sure traversal paths showed players as much of the beautiful art that was made.

Combatants

The player fights against Cabal and Vex separately and together at several action packed points through the level.

Cabal encounters keep the player grounded, encouraging constant movement, use of cover, and an understanding of who is the priority target is in a room full of enemies.

Vex encounters brought the players attention towards the walls and ceilings of spaces. Use of Vex fliers, artillery, and heavily shielded hydras forced players to jump, dodge, and switch weapons in a manner that promoted Destiny’s build crafting gameplay on the fly

Cabal and Vex combatants were brought together in a handful of combat spaces to tell a story of the Cabal tunneling into Nessus alongside the Guardians. Their infighting could be interrupted by the player for a challenge. Or, players could wait for one side to win out to mop up the stragglers (and xp).

Kamarian, the Radial Overseer

The Concept behind Kamarian was for a “foreman” that is controlling the level they’re in. Eventually it evolved into a kind of “queen bee being protected by their hive” type battle that looped between defense, mechanic, and damage phases.

Gameplay

Encounters

Defense Phase

The Defense Phase kicks off the spawning of many mobs in very specific places to draw them throughout the Arena. When enough of the spawns are dispatched the defense phase ends and the mechanic phase begins.

Mechanic Phase

Each mechanic phase generates continuously respawning enemies and Confluxes behind the boss in a random pattern. These Confluxes phase in and out on a timer. If the player shoots all of the Confluxes before they disapparate, the mechanic phase ends and the damage phase begins.

Damage Phase

During the damage phase, Kamarian teleports and spawns enemies that are protected by shields he places. This incentivizes players to spend the damage phase time dealing with him directly. After a certain amount of time, the phase ends and transitions to the defense phase.

Video Walkthrough