Project Tortuga

Date: 2017-06-09

Project Tortuga was a collaborative custom Zombies map concept for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, primarily developed by Dynamotivation at age 15. Originally conceived as a narrative experience built upon existing lore, the project and its cancellation served as an important milestone in the process of learning 3D game design, game scripting, and project management. While the full vision was not realized a lot of foundational work was finished.

Development

Development for Project Tortuga was a joint effort between Dynamotivation and another aspiring mapper from June 2017 onwards at age 15. This initial collaboration consisted of extensive brainstorming, resulting in an ambitious shared vision for the map. A core personal goal for Dynamotivation was to learn 3D environment design using the engines Radiant editor, and to grasp the GCS and CCS scripting languages for custom content.

However, due to the teammate's inability to continue development, Dynamotivation transitioned to solo development. Recognizing the immense scope of the original concept for one person the heavyhearted decision was made to discontinue the project.

Original Vision

The overarching narrative for Project Tortuga was intended to branch off the original Zombies lore following "Zetsubo No Shima".
The story envisioned the Zombies crew successfully capturing the Japanese ship in an alternate opening cutscene, avoiding destruction and stranding on a different island. This setting was supposed to draw architectural and environmental inspiration from Greek, Japanese, and potentially Gibraltarian aesthetics, becoming overrun with zombies upon the crew's arrival.

Conceptual Areas

• The shore
• Town areas:
  • A plaza/market
  • A stage
  • A bar
  • A winery
  • A Fachwerk (half-timbered) coast guard houses
  • Collapsed tunnels to implied additional town sections
• Military base
• A volcano

Conceptual Features

• Main and side easter egg quests
• Evolving environment:
  • A central thematic element involved a "mountain" in the map's center being revealed as a weaponized active volcano during the Easter Egg quest.
• Custom weapons:
  • The primary Easter Egg quest would involve collecting parts for different elemental staffs not seen in Origins or Der Eisendrache.
• Weapons from Call of Duty: WWII

Implemented Features

Even before the decision to discontinue the project, several foundational elements were already implemented:

• Environmental block outs:
  • Initial block outs were created for the shore and the crew's boat, serving as the maps starting areas.
• Architectural prefab:
  • A Fachwerk haus prefab was developed as a template for consistent architecture style in town sections.
• Third-party asset integration from the UGX and Modme forums:
  • Custom weapons
  • Mystery boxes
  • Custom perks
• Custom crafting and brewing system
• UI elements to reflect different systems

Challenges

Due to Project Tortuga premature cancellation it presented more than just technical challenges:

• Team dissolution:

  • The unexpected shift from a team project to a solo endeavor necessitated a re-evaluation and eventual cancellation of projects scope.

• Unfamiliar tooling:

  • Jumping from the Java Android App GerMemz straight into the, at the time, sparingly documented mod tools of a 3d game was too big of a jump.
  • Two similar programming languages in GCS and CCS.
  • Much discussion taking place across multiple different forums, some invite only.

• Project dependencies:

  • Integrating numerous custom assets (weapons, perks, mystery boxes) from community contributors that themselves were still under active development and had bugs.
  • Understanding their (in)compatibilities with each other.

• Game Scripting:

  • Partially learning GCS (Game Code Script) and CCS (Client Code Script) was required for implementing custom content.

Availability

Project Tortuga was not completed to its intended vision and was never publicly released. However one early version of the developed elements is preserved and has been recorded for easy preservation.

The walkthrough of an early block out with temporary textures is available on YouTube:

Regrettably, this is not anywhere near the final version or the point where development was cancelled, but it does include the Fachwerk house, bar with corridor to wine cellar, stage with guillotine and the smiths corner. Absent are the mystery box, wine cellar itself, military base and any of the finished vista models for the backdrop.

Lessons Learned

The whole process and hardship provided me with important insights into game development, 3D design, scripting, and most importantly project management:

• Collaboration:
  • Experienced the good and bad aspects of collaboration through working with a teammate.
  • Exchange with other modders and developers in the scene asking for and providing help.
  • Relying on dependencies such as the game and third-party assets instead of rolling everything ourselves.
  • Distributing tasks to the best fit team member.
• 3D Environment Development:
  • I gained hands-on experience with a professional-grade 3D level editor (Radiant).
  • Got to learn the fundamental concepts of environmental blocking, texturing, and asset placement within a game engine.
• Game Scripting Fundamentals:
  • Gained knowledge in game scripting (GCS/CCS) and a general understanding of how game modding differs from straight forward source code access.
• Project Management:
  • Understood the gap between an expansive creative vision and the practical execution.
  • Learned to account for consider unknown factors and uncertainties.
  • Discovered principles of agile development through daily talks and weekly meetups to discuss the project.
• Scope Assessment:
  • Learned a critical lesson in correctly (re)evaluating project scope.
  • Prevented falling for the sunken cost fallicy by accepting the cancellation.

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