Monthly Archives: October 2012

Just a reminder, Forward Unto Dawn mini-series starts tomorrow!

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Forward Unto Dawn, the live-action mini-series from 343 starts tomorrow and can be viewed both on Halowaypoint.com as well a Machinima‘s channel on YouTube.

This highly anticipated live-action series takes place roughly 20 years before the events of Halo 4. It stars a character by the name of Thomas Lasky in his days as a recruit a the Corbulo Academy of Military Science (CAMS).

Lasky is a character in Halo 4 that we as players will have some interaction with, both in campaign, a well as Spartan Ops.

-Sal

One of my last two goals in reached in Halo Reach!

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For the past 5 weeks I’ve been diligently working on the Small Arms commendation (Mutliplayer) in Reach. I started off the month of September needing just over 1000 kills with small arms weapons. By Oct 1st I had that down to just a couple hundred.

Today I needed 86. I played a game of Living Dead then jumped in a party with one of my friends and later her brother for some Swat Magnums.

I’m happy to report I hit the goal of ranking that commendation up to GOLD. So now every commendation I have is either Onyx or Gold. I know I won’t be able to rank up any more before Halo 4 comes out, so this is where they will forever remain.

First the percentage DID go up to 97%. Well on Waypoint. Strangely it still shows up as 96% on LIVE.

Now no haters on the 81 BPR. That is artificially low as I played a lot of Griffball games where I was going for kills and lost… (Rolls eyes)

Here next is what I’m proud of in the sense of gaming accomplishment.

Most of those Onyx are MAX as you can tell by the flames on them. So ends my commendation progress in Reach.

Now for my one remaining goal. That is to have 50 million credits in the “bank,” by the time Halo 4 comes out. I’m up to 46.6 million now. (This does not include the close to 10 million already spent on Armory items.)

I should be able to make this goal as well, though New York Comicon will interfere with that for a few days. (I think I can make that sacrifice, LOL.)

You can view my whole service record here.

My two biggest goals in Reach where to make Inheritor, which I did in July of 2011 (yes, last year), as well as get all of the achievements, which I completed as well.

So what goals do you folks have for yourselves in Reach before Halo 4 comes out?

-Sal

IGN: Halo 4 Flood Multiplayer Mode Walkthrough

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IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey interviews Keen Franklin, lead multiplayer designer, of 343 regarding Flood mode in multiplayer.

First, check out the map. This is the cleanest we’ve seen Solace so far and it looks AMAZING! A fantastic mix of foliage and Forerunner items.

Now as for Flood mode, I have to say I’m actually looking forward to this. I wasn’t much of a fan of Infection/Living Dead in Halo 3 or Reach, though I’ve played it in both. In Halo 3 it gained popularity by being a double XP weekend playlist from time to time. Since it was always available in Reach I just kind of ignored it, until that is I needed to work on my small arms commendation. (Of which I’m less than 120 kills away from that being Gold!)

Anyway, Flood mode is a huge step forward in that your infected Spartan actually CHANGES. Okay, no animated change, but it’s not the same ol’ spartan with recolored armor. No, now you play as a specially skinned flood infected spartan. Note in the video above when a person is infected there are thin tendrils coming into the HUD from the outer edges of the visor. Also, did you notice the pig-like squeal when a Flood died? LOL

It really looks like 343 too the time to research what fans were playing and what they would likely want to see returning in Halo 4.

Thanks 343!

-Sal

IGN Previews Halo 4 map “Abandon.”

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IGN takes a look at all 10 mutliplayer maps in Halo 4. Ryan McCaffrey, Executive Editor, IGN speaks with Kynan Pearon, Lead Multiplayer Level Designer, Halo 4 about the mao “Abandon.”

What I like about this map are it’s close quarter opportunities as well as it’s verticality.  It’s not a symmetrical map so different strategies will need to be employed by opposing teams.

The lighting is superb as everything else has been that I’ve seen so far. Lots of light and very dark areas. Asa well, I like the blue effects on some of the trees.

Having multiple ways to access key areas are going to make this map fun and frustrating. Fun in that you have options and can flank opponents. Frustrating in that if you’re trying to hold an area, it will be hard. But that will make it competitive.

I can’t wait to play on it. I hope for some explanation of the creatures briefly seen in the clip. I’ll be asking about that at New York Comicon if it hasn’t been revealed by then.

Jesse Snyder, Lead Designer on Halo 4 at 343 answers Halo questions.

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Woot, he picked mine for the first to be answered!

HaloFanForLife

@thejessesnyder What stresses are there living up to a storied franchise in Halo? As well, talk about your being the first dev/lead at 343.

The “stress” question comes up quite a bit. I cut my teeth on Call of Duty, one of the largest franchises known to mankind. Having the opportunity to work on CoD taught me about the realities of making AAA games. While there are always surprises, having done it enough times it’s easier to know what to look out for and to avoid mistakes. You learn about what typical problems arise, you get a sense of what is possible to make or what an idea costs to make real, you can identify when something is good and when to push that idea or feature forward (or kill it) and so on. Halo is no different. While the Halo and CoD are very different games in many ways, the way they are developed is not completely dissimilar.

That’s the career side of things anyway. Having enough experience to enjoy the confidence of dealing with problems, and having enough experience to identify when you’ve struck gold.

Then there’s the more personal angle. Designing games comes naturally to me and it doesn’t stress me out to make them. When I was a young child, my mother and I used to take old Atari programs that were printed in books, type them into the computer by hand, and get them to run, then change them. I grew up on making games and made mods and map packs for Marathon when I was in middle school that many people played at the time. I love tinkering and I love making games out of pretty much everything in life. When I go to lunch, I invent games out of the sugar packets and silverware.

I literally have one of the best jobs in the world, and I’m pretty happy to work on shooters especially. There are always new problems to solve when making games and solving those problems out only nets me more experience, and makes me a better designer.

As a result, I have a pretty reserved, laid back attitude when it comes to making games. I’ve had other people tell me during a project “You should be freaking out right now!” which is always hilarious to me. Since when did that ever do any good for anyone? Maybe if someone is breaking into my house with an axe, but not when it comes to making video games. Everyone deals with stress differently.

As for being the first dev lead, I actually wasn’t the first dev, or lead at 343. I was the first designer hired at 343 (it wasn’t called 343 back then, it had no name). There were other designers there before me, but they were internal to Microsoft. They left pretty early on once we started hiring folks and building the 343 team. Technically, Ryan Payton would be the first “designer” hired (he left and Josh Holmes, the current creative director took his place), but I typically don’t count creative directors as designers since they oversee many departments (including design). I don’t see them as a designer, per se. Giving them a title of “designer” would also mean they should be given the title of “artist” and a “composer,” since they oversee the art and audio departments. It’s like saying the manager of a sports team is also a quarterback.

Also “dev” is a title thrown around a lot, but means different things at different studios. “Dev” can mean someone who specifically writes code, or someone just working on a game. In some places a producer would be considered a dev, while in other studios, not. But someone who writes code for a game is almost always considered a dev at any studio. They’re total squares, man (a square is considered a rectangle and a square, but not oh never mind).

For all the questions and answers go here.

-Sal