> We had numerous 343ers in attendance at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last week. While there, we presented a total of six different panels. “Halo Reborn: A Postmortem on the Creation of Halo 4” sparked a significant amount of feedback on our forums. I’ll let you check out what Josh has to say in his own words:
> The goal of my presentation was to discuss the many challenges that we faced when building a new team and taking on such a massive and high profile project, specifically for an audience of developers and creators going through similar situations. In preparing my talk, I was trying to encapsulate three years of development into a 45-minute presentation.
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> One of the things that I talked about was the desire to make Halo more accessible to players of all skill levels. What I did a poor job of articulating because of the nature of the intended audience is the importance of balancing the needs and desires of a hardcore Halo population that was born, bred and breathes prior Multiplayer philosophies, with an approachable and open-to-all design style. It’s been a delicate balance and one that we haven’t necessarily succeeded with but continue to work on. CSR, our partnership with top competitive players to build and refine Team Throwdown, adding pro options and arena-style maps to select playlists and our upcoming sandbox balances are a few of the things that we are working on for that particular part of our community on this title.
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> Since my GDC talk, I’ve received a ton of feedback from the competitive community. I want you to know that we hear you, we value you and we are going to continue to listen to your feedback and suggestions. We won’t be able to implement all of them; it’s just not possible with the given resources and time. But we are in this for the long haul, and you’ll see our continued commitment to this aspect of our experience reflected in future projects as well as in our sustain efforts for Halo 4.
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> /Josh
I find it difficult to understand a lot of this.
Yes, I agree with 343i to integrate Multiplayer into the Halo fiction (eg. Infinity) and evolve it’s gameplay mechanics to make itself fresh.
But like a lot of people out there, I disagree with introducing content that draws people away from the game. All 343 need to do is dissect the game to find out what draws people away from it the most and fix that problem or remove it.
I see two faces of 343 now.
One face likes to introduce new content regardless of community feedback to make it stand up to other shooters in the market. The Microsoft department and the ones who want to turn this game into a generic FPS are a good example of the people on this side.
The other face are the employers at 343 who listen to us and try to make the changes necessary to make the game better and soon as possible. They would be determined to bring back classic content that defines Halo as well as introducing new content that no other game already has. bs_angal, MLGBravo, and Certain Affinity are good examples of people on this side.
As you may of already guessed, the red bit is what we want less of, and the green bit is what we want more for.
343i. I know you are listening to us, but you need to prove it if you want us to listen to you. Maybe to a BTS of people fixing bugs or redesigning some of the gameplay mechanics just to prove that they are doing what we asked for.
These are just my ideas.
Discuss your views on this. 