BY JOHNATHAN ZHU
VN SPECIAL WRITER
James Coyle, a senior at the University of Detroit Mercy, makes Call of Duty maps in his spare time.
So far, he has made three maps: one replicating the McNichols campus and its fraternity houses, one of a shopping mall and one remake of an older Call of Duty map. He is most proud of the map he made of the McNichols campus.
“Each map is a continuous work-in-progress,” said Coyle, “and they each take about three months to make.”
As for the accuracy of the McNichols map, Coyle said he looked at schematics for the buildings and used Google Maps, so it is quite precise.
“Making maps isn’t too complicated,” said Coyle, a computer science major. “It’s just like doing CAD work on your computer.” (CAD stands for Computer Aided Design.)
“Studying computer science has helped a bit as well. I don’t really have to think about how can I do something on the computer, I just do it,” he said.
Coyle makes his maps available to be played for free on the Steam community forum. The maps can be played as long as you own Call of Duty Black Ops III for PC.
Coyle’s feedback has been positive overall, although no one seems to know what the McNichols campus map is referencing.
However, other students have tried playing the McNichols map with positive reactions.
Nick Waters, a close friend of Coyle, said, “I think it’s really cool what James is doing. I never thought I would be able to see the school in such an apocalyptic light, much less shoot zombies on it. It’s crazy how accurate he made those maps.”
Joey Lopiccolo, another friend, agrees.
“His maps are so dope!” he said. “We had a video game hang-out with all our friends and everyone was lined up to take turns playing (Call of Duty) Zombies on the McNichols campus map.”
Coyle chose to include many details that he says have been overlooked by other map makers on other maps.
He spends extra time on placing lighting and textures in the map so not only are they mapped accurately, they also feel like the real thing, too.
“It’s so awesome to see people react to the maps I’ve made,” he said. “I especially love the look on people’s faces when they see that I’ve mapped out the quads completely with the tunnels and everything.”
Coyle said he doesn’t regret all the time he spent on these maps because he loves the reactions he gets from people when they kill zombies on their own campus.
“I do get frustrated and feel like quitting sometimes when I run into bugs and have to troubleshoot them,” he noted. “But I know I will eventually find a solution to those problems when I’m not trying so hard.”
As for the future?
“I have plans on making a couple new maps,” he said. “One is a remake of another older Call of Duty map. People will hopefully like it because it hasn’t been done before.”
Coyle hopes that more people will see his maps and play them.
“I just do it for fun,” he said. “I don’t care how much time it takes me.”
