Who makes the final call on campaign design?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I was curious about this. I know that game design is much more dictated by the content being created than a novel or a comic for example. So I wasn’t sure how much control Brian Reed or any other writer would have on the constraints within which they tell the story.

So, for example, who on the game development team would have made the decision about how many Chief/Locke missions there would be? Is that even a writers decision to make or a developers? Who would decide to add the fireteams (I think this was the guy they got from Republic Commando actually)?

I mean I don’t think its quite fair to hold a single writer responsible in the same way as a book author. For example, I blame GRRM for the Meereenese Knot resulting in the show overtaking the books despite an 11+ year lead and resulting in a stagnant plot for two books. But then George had absolute control over what he was producing and so its reasonable to make that accusation. Can it be the same for a video game?

2

The way the final product came out it was evident that there where to many Chefs in the kitchen. Probably a combination of ms and 343 project teams.

3

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> The way the final product came out it was evident that there where to many Chefs in the kitchen. Probably a combination of ms and 343 project teams.

But isn’t the Coalition (Gears of War?) also ran as a subsidiary (creature/tentacle) of Microsoft? I mean aside from Judgement the Gears franchise has been very solid. I am assuming 343 was set up on a similar basis and with similar expectations? Or is the Coalition more independent?

4

Its not that simple.

Creative and content oversight is managed from a whole range of people. Ideas, concepts and designs are brought in from all over the place.

In the case of the Chief/Locke split, I highly doubt that was a creative decision. More likely choices having to be made for resource allocation