Pawn takes Pawn
As part of Animal Repair Shop, I contributed experiential design and writing to a massive, multi-platform ARG marketing campaign for Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War (2020).
Pawn Takes Pawn brought together Call of Duty players from four different games in the franchise over the course of several turbulent months in 2020.
In Warzone, COD Mobile, Black Ops 4, and the BO:CW open beta, players followed our trail of secrets to uncover early information about the new game, and unlock exclusive in-game collectibles.
Our website pawntakespawn.com provided players with directions and rewards throughout the campaign. It also included a fully playable version of Zork (1979), referencing the text adventure game’s inclusion as an easter egg in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010).
We added new content to our version of Zork (entirely new rooms and puzzles!) which players and influencers worked together to explore.
I had the opportunity to concept a new storyline in the Call of Duty universe for this campaign. I wrote copy for the assets we hid across the COD ecosystem, and helped design the gameplay that tied them all together.
