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LAS VEGAS — Zombies in Call of Duty never should have happened.
Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia recounted how zombies gradually infected the company’s culture during the development of 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War in his 2015 DICE Summit talk this morning. He says that the secret project taught the studio that there’s always room to innovate.
Treyarch was still in the middle of a turbulent time as the studio was evolving and changing. Lamia says that cultures were clashing on incredibly short dev cycles while it was struggling to find voice and identity in the Call of Duty franchise. That’s why Lamia was surprised to find that some internal teams were secretly prototyping a version of the cooperative mode that featured Nazi zombies.
Treyarch was behind schedule, fully crunched in its work on the next release in one of the biggest game franchises of all time, and some teams were staying late on unplanned, unapproved work. Up against business expectations for what was supposed to be the best-selling game of the season, some teams were working beyond their 12 hour-to-14 hour work days to make this zombie subgame.
Lamia almost cancelled the project. He was concerned that zombies were completely off brand and that work on it could jeopardize development. “That would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career,” he admits.
He calmed down just enough to play it — he didn’t want to make an emotional decision. Lamia was surprised to find just how fun it was, even at this early state.
“It didn’t take long to see why everyone was so excited.” he says. “It begged you to play it again — you were sure you could get to the next level if you could play it again.”
After visiting a programmer’s desk to try it out, Lamia decided that Call of Duty players would love this new experience.
“Against every project manager fiber I had in my body, I let it go. I wanted players to have this,” Lamia said. “I was infected, too, at that point”
From the decision to continue work on it, news spread across the studio, through the team, and eventually up to management. While not everyone was fully onboard with such a departure to Call of Duty: World at War, the zombies mode was quietly included as a postgame reward. Interestingly, Treyarch avoided any kind of marketing, letting the fans find the mode for themselves. It was hugely popular with fans, which had zombies coming back in a bigger way with their next franchise game, Call of Duty: Black Ops.
The decision to embrace this side project was important for Treyarch. Lamia says that it taught them to follow the fun and passion, and to bet on a dedicated and talented team. It also taught them that there’s room for innovation even in the one of the most established franchises in games.
Lamia advises other developers to be open to these opportunities: “If you have something special, even if it’s risky, go for it.”
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