{"id":1926,"date":"2012-06-20T18:06:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T23:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2012-06-20T18:06:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T23:06:27","slug":"interview-frank-oconnor-on-why-343-industries-changed-halo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=1926","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Frank O\u2019Connor on why 343 Industries changed Halo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reposted from venturebeat.com, by Rus McLaughlin:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2012\/06\/10\/interview-frank-oconnor-on-why-343-industries-changed-halo\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Or read the full text here:<\/p>\n

\"Interview:<\/p>\n

If you want to see continuity as the Halo franchise moves from original developer Bungie to 343 Industries, Microsoft\u2019s in-house studio, look to Frank O\u2019Connor. Right from Halo\u2019s very beginning, he\u2019s served as the keeper of the keys, in many cases creating the very secrets he holds. When it comes to the Master Chief, Cortana, and the universe they live in, O\u2019Connor knows everything. He\u2019s just not allowed to tell you much.<\/p>\n

Now, as Franchise Development Director, O\u2019Connor\u2019s in charge of launching a new chapter of the saga with Halo 4\u2026a new setting, a new threat, a new perspective on the central characters. So when I sat down with O\u2019Connor in a secluded corner of the Microsoft booth in the middle of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, I opened with a fairly obvious first question.<\/p>\n

If this is a new beginning for Halo, why bring the Covenant back?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0The Covenant are honestly an important part of the Halo sandbox and the fiction, and in our fiction, the Covenant is still a huge problem for humanity. We reached a semi-stable peace with them at the end of Halo 3, but it wasn\u2019t built on a very strong premise. They\u2019ve lost their religion, they\u2019ve lost a war, they\u2019ve lost their leadership, and they\u2019re doing what any nation in chaos would do\u2026they\u2019re splintering and falling into factions. The Covenant you\u2019re fighting in the game is one of those factions, and in some ways they\u2019re a more dangerous aspect of that former Covenant.<\/p>\n

So where do the new bad guys fit in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0The Promethians make up the bulk of your encounters. There\u2019s a limit to what I can say, but ostensibly, they\u2019re the warrior sect of the long-vanished Forerunner society. The ones that you encounter appear to be artificial and remotely controlled. We\u2019ve seen the Crawlers, these fast-moving pack creatures\u2026they\u2019re pretty easy to kill on their own, but they do swarm and cause you significant difficulties. But it\u2019s definitely worth it for the rare time where you get to assassinate one and ride it like a bucking bronco before you pop its head off.<\/p>\n

The Knights are the main foe, but Knights can also spawn Watchers, which are a tactical assistance units, shielding and respawning and even generating new enemies onto the field. It\u2019s incredibly important that when you enter into a big encounter that you pick the right targets and deal with them in a very specific order, depending on your play style.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got a really good high-res picture of a Knight. It looks like there\u2019s a small organic creature locked into a huge set of armor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0Promethian Knights have existed \u2014 and will continue to exist \u2014 in our fiction in a huge variety of forms. There are different types of Knights, but I can\u2019t say more than that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Will the Halo 4 campaign be a complete story unto itself? One of the first things we see in the campaign is the USNC\u00a0Infinity<\/em>\u00a0crashing into the planet Requiem. But six months later, when the fiction for [co-op multiplayer mode] Spartan Ops takes place, it\u2019s back up in the sky. And isn\u2019t that a little spoilery?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0a little spoilery, and it\u2019s a necessary spoiler. But the game will end with the universe having changed pretty dramatically. It\u2019ll be a satisfying ending, and you\u2019ll have achieved a lot, but you\u2019ll lose stuff, too. We\u2019re trying to tell a much more emotionally resonant story this time.<\/p>\n

What prompted that move to delve deeper into the Master Chief as a character? Isn\u2019t it a little risky messing with an icon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0He was always kind of an interesting mix. And people missed him, right? They didn\u2019t say \u2018I miss\u00a0being<\/em>\u00a0the Master Chief,\u2019 they said \u2018I miss the Master Chief.\u2019 He always had a bit of a personality \u2014 he\u2019s stoic, and brave, and a great leader. I think sometimes people think of him as a vehicle for their own heroism, and so they miss that, too. We\u2019re not suddenly going to have the Master Chief spouting long monologues. Most of the storytelling and depth is going to happen contextually. He\u2019s still going to be stoic, brave, and heroic, and actually fairly quiet. The events around him will define what you learn about him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You guys also made a very specific decision to add narrative to the multiplayer. It\u2019s never really needed one before\u2026why do it now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0We made a philosophical decision to make everything count, to make everything matter. The [player-vs-player multiplayer mode] War Games fictional wrapper is a really simple conceit\u2026you\u2019re training in a simulator for live-fire ops that you\u2019re gonna do in [the story-based] Spartan Ops, and that\u2019s why you\u2019re fighting other Spartans. And of course, it\u2019s not necessary, but it also ties directly into the fact that you\u2019re building a real career this time. You\u2019re not just customizing the appearance of your Spartan, but you also tune the way that he plays and feels for you as a player, which is connected across the different parts. If you unlock something in War Games, you can use it in Spartan Ops and vice versa. That\u2019s another reason to connect those dots.<\/p>\n

Given there\u2019s a lot of overlap in personnel, what unique factor does 343 Industries bring to Halo that differentiates that team from Bungie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0There\u2019s a few ex-Bungie people at 343, but the vast majority of people are new, but they\u2019re all old to Halo. Every single person came to the interview because they had some passion for Halo. Normally you can\u2019t chose your family, but in this case, we could. And they also bring in different cultural experiences, different technological experiences, different design ethics and visions. So we have this incredible melting pot of passionate Halo fans with incredible new ideas and brilliant new approaches.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aside from the Chief and Cortana, was there something you said absolutely had to be in Halo 4?<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0I think the number-one thing, and there was unanimous agreement in the studio, was that sense of exploration and awe and wonder that you had when you first tumbled out of the Bumblebee onto the surface of Halo in the first game. And it was deliberate, of course\u2026you\u2019d been playing this pretty awesome sci-fi shooter in a very claustrophobic starship, which is a pretty normal thing to do in a video game. And then you find yourself in this incredible alien place, and you look up in the sky, and you see the other side of the Halo, and you think, \u2018I want to go there.\u2019 That\u2019s what we wanted to bring back.<\/p>\n

As you were developing the game, did you have a\u00a0Hell Yeah!<\/em>\u00a0moment where you personally said to yourself \u201cThis is it. We nailed it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor:<\/strong>\u00a0A moment I remember very vividly\u2026it was just this one game of Slayer we were playing months ago, and it all\u00a0clicked<\/em>. Even my new control scheme. And I felt this is totally Halo. But the stuff that\u2019s new is perfectly attached, and it also feels like Halo. And we were planning it and building it, but it\u2019s not real yet, right? But the second it\u2019s real, and the second all the pieces are together, and you play a mission with real fiction in it, you\u2019re like, I get it. I get why this did this. This was the right call.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reposted from venturebeat.com, by Rus McLaughlin: http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2012\/06\/10\/interview-frank-oconnor-on-why-343-industries-changed-halo\/ Or read the full text here: If you want to see continuity as the Halo franchise moves from original developer Bungie to 343 Industries, Microsoft\u2019s in-house studio, look to Frank O\u2019Connor. Right from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}