Treyarch Next-Gen: Kenzie MacDougal
Hi, my name is Kenzie! I started in August 2024 as an Associate Technical User Interface Designer at Treyarch after interning during the summer of 2023. It's been an incredible experience filled with fascinating challenges, new friendships, and, of course, working on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. I feel so privileged to be working in this industry in any capacity.
Video games were an instrumental part of my childhood and are probably the reason I have terrible eyesight. Some of my favorite memories include gaming with my dad and sister, sneaking my Nintendo 3DS into my room to play before bed, and the annual struggle to fall asleep on Christmas Eve knowing that the latest Pokémon game might be waiting for me under the tree. Since then, games have empowered my creative endeavors and sustained my long-distance friendships for years. In retrospect, I'm surprised I didn't commit to pursuing a career in games sooner.
I graduated high school in 2020, during the early stages of the pandemic. Wanting to pursue something I knew I was good at—something safe—I entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a Biology major. Sophomore year was one of the most formative and difficult years of my life. A couple of health challenges forced me to recalibrate my goals and take an honest look inward. Ultimately, this led me to switch to the Linguistics and Computer Science major and become heavily involved with ACM Studio at UCLA, the game development subcommittee of Southern California's largest student-led computer science organization. Over the next year, I participated in over eight game jams (48–72-hour development competitions) and hunted relentlessly for opportunities to break into the gaming industry.
At Treyarch, it feels like anything is possible as long as I can communicate my ideas effectively enough to get others excited about them. In a project’s early stages of development, Technical UI Design can involve a lot of prototyping and experimentation. Later, we act as a support system for UI/UX artists, designers, and engineers. This could mean anything from bug-fixing in Lua (and other proprietary tools/scripting languages) to implementing design specifications in-game. I am often touching new parts of the code with each task: if you're eager to learn, there is always somebody here willingto teach you. I especially want to thank my manager, Scott Fredley, and teammate Jessica Wise for their patience and encouragement.
Finally, thank you to everybody at Treyarch for the warm welcome. I am so proud to be part of such a smart, creative, and friendly community. Cheers!