I was trying to get part 2 finished in time for the 15th anniversary of the European launch, which was Tuesday the 14th. I missed. But it's done now! And it's big. Over 4,500 words, a 20 minute read according to Medium. It's the final part and covers from January 2000 until the release of the game for the Xbox. Some snippets:
In March, at the annual Game Developers Conference, Microsoft finally confirmed the worst kept secret in gaming: they were joining the console market with the Xbox. Bungie was among the developers who made it known that they were interested in the new machine. In an exclusive preview in the May issue of German magazine Gamestar, the idea was floated of porting Halo to the new console. It was yet another in the line of rumored ports, along with the rumored Playstation 2 and Dreamcast ones. Unbeknownst to Gamestar (presumably) and the general public, Bungie had already met with Microsoft in late January. Xbox team members Seamus Blackley and Kevin Bachus had gone on a tour of game publishers to pitch them on the Xbox and a couple Bungie guys had tagged along with their Take Two partners. Co-founders Jason Jones and Alex Seropian sensed an opportunity.
Bungie also used the occasion to reveal that the game would include cooperative multiplayer for the campaign. But the competitive multiplayer side was trickier. Jason Jones had approached Hardy Lebel and Michael Evans, who had just come over from the Oni team, and told them that multiplayer might have to be cut. They protested and offered to take it on, as Jones had hoped they would. While there were two people working full time on it, Bungie couldn't actually promise that it would even make the game, at least the Xbox version. The studio as a whole was focused on getting the campaign working and up to their standards. Combined with the murkiness of the Xbox's network capabilities at the time, this kept the competitive multiplayer in limbo.
The Making of Halo: How Combat Evolved from Blam! Part 2
And if you missed part 1:
The Making of Halo: How Combat Evolved from Blam! Part 1
Also included:
- Footage of a grunt from a 1999 build.
- More on Microsoft buying Bungie.
- How the acquisition affected the game.
- Information on the switch to first person.
- How precarious the multiplayer situation was.
- A ton of videos, including a playthrough of the first couple levels from a build of the game from late August or early September 2001.
- Details of the game's poor showing at E3 2001
Part 2 is so big, that I cut a couple of the less interesting notes at the end:
* From the E3 2001 FanFest footage of Silent Cartographer: there's an unmanned Wraith on the beach, no engine sounds for the Warthog, Jackal's shields hang around after they die, and the Plasma Rifle has an overcharge.
* As a casual speed runner, this line from a weekly update gets me: ”You can actually grenade hop in Halo, though I don't think you'll ever need to and I doubt you'll ever want to."
* Briefly seen in the FanFest footage of Silent Cartographer is a level select screen with two levels visible: ”Manufacturing Facility" and ”?????? Quarantine." I'm guessing those are the placeholder or work-in-progress names for two levels brought to E3, ”Halo" and ”Silent Cartographer," respectively.
Part I has also been spruced up a tad. A small gallery of concept art circa 1998 from Marcus Lehto has been added (above is some experimenting for a Forerunner tank... from 1998), and a couple additional notes are now at the end:
* In the Incite video, there is mention made the Covenant being playable in multiplayer, including trying to make them play differently from the humans.
* Designer Jaime Griesemer, who ran a Myth fan site before joining Bungie, managed to get Marty O'Donnell to reveal in an interview that Myth II was in production before Bungie had announced it. To keep him from blabbing, Marty offered to take Jaime on a tour of Bungie. He wasn't allowed in the room where Blam! was being worked on.
* The Halo theme was inspired by ”Yesterday" by the Beatles.
* Marcus Lehto apparently still has a couple old builds of Halo. He posted some stuff from them on Twitter, including a super jump and a gigantic rock worm.
