This article is a reblog from\u00a0game informer<\/b>…<\/p>\n
With the release of\u00a0Halo: The Master Chief Collection, we’ve all got Master Chief’s Bungie adventures on our minds and on our TVs. I had a chance to chat with Tim Dadabo, who played 343 Guilty Spark in the Halo games, and I asked him about what it was like to work on Halo before it was the franchise we know today. I also asked what sort of insight he could offer on working with Bungie on a floating A.I. robot character, much like Peter Dinklage did recently in Destiny.<\/p>\n
How long did you work on the original Halo?<\/b><\/p>\n
Tim Dadabo:<\/b>\u00a0I\u2019m not quite sure. You\u2019re in and out of the studio so very much. They may add, take away, or change a scene and want you to come back and forth to the studio. Usually, it\u2019s about a year or two from start date until the time you see it in stores. It could be as much as a couple of trips into the studio or it could be as long as a year, if you\u2019re a major character in the game. [Bungie] were kind of braille-ing their way around to see what scenes worked and what scenes didn\u2019t, like in any game. [The developer] might have you change your character mid-game.<\/p>\n
Halo 2 and Halo 3 were probably a little bit more set by the time you got involved \u2013 less experimentation.<\/b><\/p>\n
They directed me to get a little deeper with [Guilty Spark] \u2013 a little darker, even. We were coming to this big crescendo in the game, if you will, so that part changed. Especially as we realized that Guilty Spark actually had a laser for an eye [Laughs].<\/p>\n
Did Bungie show you anything for the original Halo \u2013 what Guilty Spark looked like, even \u2013 before you went in to start recording voice-over work?<\/b><\/p>\n
No, they did not. I think they do that a lot because A) they might not have too much to show yet \u2013 developers often animate to your voice \u2013 and B) they don\u2019t want to let anything slip. Unfortunately, people are blabbermouths. Sometimes, if the developer shows somebody artwork or scenes or something really cool, it could slip and give away the whole ticket. Most actors don\u2019t really care about that. I happen to be a gamer. I don\u2019t know how many actors actually sit down and play video games \u2013 though I\u2019m sure dozens do, especially in Los Angeles \u2013 but I\u2019m one of the few who I know actually plays the games, too. So it might not matter to other actors. They\u2019re more invested in who the character is, how deep they should get, what\u2019s the character\u2019s age range, all of that stuff.<\/p>\n
So what did you have? Just a script?<\/b><\/p>\n
I did. They basically gave me a script and said, “Ok. This is 343 Guilty Spark. He\u2019s called the monitor. He is a flying orb and he incredibly intelligent. He is an A.I. You are basically a very nice C3P0 with a maniacal mission. You don\u2019t know this yet but he\u2019s going to get very very dark.” So in the back of your mind you always have to have this dark mission, but you have to sound very friendly.<\/p>\n
After you recorded, did you have any idea of what Halo would become? What were your expectations?<\/b><\/p>\n
We had no idea. Jen Taylor who plays Cortana said it best in a panel we were on together. She said, \u201cYou know, I just thought I was doing another gig.\u201d When you do this full time, like Jen and I both do, you think it\u2019s just another gig. You walk in and you\u2019re like, \u201cOk, I\u2019ve got this character and let\u2019s flesh him out.\u201d Metal him out, since he\u2019s all metal. That\u2019s basically all it was. I had no idea where this was going. Steve Downes has a wonderful story about the first time he realized how big Halo was. My first realization was when I was in another state and they were talking about Halo, and then another country and they were talking about Halo. I started to realize the street cred of being in Halo. I was like, \u201cWow. This is pretty crazy. This is big.\u201d By Halo 2, we knew it was big.<\/p>\n