Jeffrey Kaplan
Lead Technical Game Designer at High Moon Studios- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Anthony Morton
When I joined Sony, Jeff (Or Kap, as most called him) was already a designer on the team. While our studio was a good size of about 40 developers the design team was quite small as we only had 4 of us for the majority of our development cycle. Considering the amount of work we had to get done, it was every designers responsibility to dive in and wear as many hats as possible and this is where Kap excelled. For most of us we were put on a single project and we had the opportunity to run with it, but Kap was moved back and forth between a couple games and he always hit the ground running. It didn't matter how different the styles of games were, he always found something in the game that he was passionate about and used it to fuel his ability to get stuff done. While I could write about how dependable, resourceful, or consistent Kap was, it wouldn't focus on his most valuable quality, which is his ability to roll with the punches and solve the problem at hand. If you're working on a single game that has a myriad of systems that need to be designed, or if you're working on multiple games where you need someone to roll back and forth to cover the basis Kap is the designer who will get it done.
Anthony Morton
When I joined Sony, Jeff (Or Kap, as most called him) was already a designer on the team. While our studio was a good size of about 40 developers the design team was quite small as we only had 4 of us for the majority of our development cycle. Considering the amount of work we had to get done, it was every designers responsibility to dive in and wear as many hats as possible and this is where Kap excelled. For most of us we were put on a single project and we had the opportunity to run with it, but Kap was moved back and forth between a couple games and he always hit the ground running. It didn't matter how different the styles of games were, he always found something in the game that he was passionate about and used it to fuel his ability to get stuff done. While I could write about how dependable, resourceful, or consistent Kap was, it wouldn't focus on his most valuable quality, which is his ability to roll with the punches and solve the problem at hand. If you're working on a single game that has a myriad of systems that need to be designed, or if you're working on multiple games where you need someone to roll back and forth to cover the basis Kap is the designer who will get it done.
Anthony Morton
When I joined Sony, Jeff (Or Kap, as most called him) was already a designer on the team. While our studio was a good size of about 40 developers the design team was quite small as we only had 4 of us for the majority of our development cycle. Considering the amount of work we had to get done, it was every designers responsibility to dive in and wear as many hats as possible and this is where Kap excelled. For most of us we were put on a single project and we had the opportunity to run with it, but Kap was moved back and forth between a couple games and he always hit the ground running. It didn't matter how different the styles of games were, he always found something in the game that he was passionate about and used it to fuel his ability to get stuff done. While I could write about how dependable, resourceful, or consistent Kap was, it wouldn't focus on his most valuable quality, which is his ability to roll with the punches and solve the problem at hand. If you're working on a single game that has a myriad of systems that need to be designed, or if you're working on multiple games where you need someone to roll back and forth to cover the basis Kap is the designer who will get it done.
Anthony Morton
When I joined Sony, Jeff (Or Kap, as most called him) was already a designer on the team. While our studio was a good size of about 40 developers the design team was quite small as we only had 4 of us for the majority of our development cycle. Considering the amount of work we had to get done, it was every designers responsibility to dive in and wear as many hats as possible and this is where Kap excelled. For most of us we were put on a single project and we had the opportunity to run with it, but Kap was moved back and forth between a couple games and he always hit the ground running. It didn't matter how different the styles of games were, he always found something in the game that he was passionate about and used it to fuel his ability to get stuff done. While I could write about how dependable, resourceful, or consistent Kap was, it wouldn't focus on his most valuable quality, which is his ability to roll with the punches and solve the problem at hand. If you're working on a single game that has a myriad of systems that need to be designed, or if you're working on multiple games where you need someone to roll back and forth to cover the basis Kap is the designer who will get it done.
Experience
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High Moon Studios
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United States
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Computer Games
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100 - 200 Employee
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Lead Technical Game Designer
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Mar 2023 - Present
Leading a team of 6 Technical Designers helping to create seasonal content for Warzone. We help create mechanics for the seasonal content and manage/improve the gameplay systems for Call of Duty and Warzone. My team also works with the creative direction team to come up with these ideas and from paper design the mechanics we take from prototype to ship. We work closely with engineers, level designers, producers, and artists throughout this process.
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Senior Technical Game Designer
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Feb 2017 - Mar 2023
Destiny 2: The Forsaken• Worked on the Mechanics and Combatants team• Worked in Bonobo and Grognog• Brainstormed ideas with the team, created paper designs, prototyped to prove out concept, and then worked with engineering and art to polish into a finished product• I was responsible for the Rifleman, the Mindbender, the Rider, and the Mad Bomber, and the Trickster adventure barons• I was also responsible for the Machinist boss fight from the story mission• I worked closely with animation to implement intros for each of the barons• I gray-boxed completely new arenas for the Mad Bomber and the Machinist barons and worked closely with environment art on each of these to bring them up to a polished state• I prototyped a moving conveyor belt boss fight and chase sequence for the Machinist baron but it was cut due to scoping• I prototyped and tuned weapon variants for both AI combatants and the playerCall of Duty Black Ops 4: Zombies• Worked as a designer for the Classified, Alpha Omega, and Tag Der Toten DLC maps in Zombies• Worked in Radiant and did a lot of GSC/CSC scripting • We were a small design team for this content (2 designers to start which eventually became 5)• I helped onboard and train the other designers as they transitioned over• Since all of these maps were remakes of already shipped content we started with the original map as a starting point and built from there• I didn’t specialize in in any one thing, instead I was much more of a generalist and was able to pick up any task with confidence• I implemented and built up base systems (spawning, traversals, zones, door buys, magic boxes, weapons buys, etc)• I prototyped new trap types, fasttravel ideas, and player weapons• I brainstormed, prototyped, and implemented new easter eggs into the game• I gray-boxed new areas of the map and worked closely with environment art to bring it up to a polished state• Set up Gauntlet and Rush game modes for Classified Show less
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
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United States
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Entertainment Providers
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700 & Above Employee
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Associate Game Designer
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Sep 2010 - Nov 2016
I worked for the SD Studio Internal team as a Designer. Below is a breakdown of the titles that I worked on during this period and the work I did on each: Kill Strain (2013 - Nov, 2016) - Helped mold Kill Strain through very early iterations into what it is now - Worked on early high level systems designs and created the first 3 playable characters in the game - Advised on live design of this product, helping plan responses to our data and community feedback on the fly Unannounced Free-to-Play Title (June, 2014 - Nov, 2016) - Built this completely new IP from the ground up with one other designer - Took on most of the combat, gameplay, and progression designs as well as all game tuning/balance - The designs I am most proud of would be the two boss encounters I designed as well as a few of the heroes I came up with - Helped map the UI/UX design for the entire game (Visio) - Created the entire GDD with the other designer (kept them up to date as well) - Helped run community nights and focus testing (with both adults and kids 8-13) to gather feedback and observe gameplay habits Game Jam (2013) - Came up with 3 game concepts and pitched them to the team - Led design on 4 prototypes during the prototype phase - Led the design on one of the selected games Warrior's Lair (2012 - 2013) - Led the design rework on major game systems as we re-worked the GDD Little Big Planet Karting (2011 - 2012) - Helped finish out the design of two game missions that weren't working properly and then fixed any bugs that popped up on other missions Modnation Racers: Road Trip (2010 - 2012) - Led internal studio QA team - Built half of the tracks for career mode - Helped with design of combat and gameplay systems Show less
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Nelson Connects
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United States
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Staffing and Recruiting
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500 - 600 Employee
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Quality Assurance Analyst
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Jun 2007 - Sep 2010
- During this time I gained extensive knowledge about a video game's development process and became familiar with ESRB, legal clearances, and PS3/4 technical requirements (TRC) - I was a Team Leader through the entire God of War 3 test cycle as well as on PAIN for multiple downloadable content releases working closely with the development teams - I worked closely with the internal developers & producers on MLB The Show (Baseball) for multiple years - I learned about post-release title management by working with the OLS (Online Support) team and gained extensive knowledge of both DevTest and DevTrack (database systems used by SCEA for bug tracking) Show less
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Education
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2002 - 2008
San Diego State University-California State University
Bachelor's degree, Computer Science
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