Developing the Game: Beyond Single Player, Multiplayer and Live

Beyond Single Player, Multiplayer and Live is a documentary film on Halo 2 multiplayer and Xbox Live, released by Bungie on the Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition bonus disc under its Developing the Game section. The video was later uploaded to Bungie's YouTube channel on April 15, 2010.

Transcript

• David Candland: I think the days are gone where the guys say, you know, "Honey, I'm going over to Jeff's house to go play cards." Now it's, "Honey, I'm headed over to Jeff's house to go play Halo."

• Charlie Gough: Multiplayer is a little different 'cause it's more like a sport in that you're—you know, yes, the game is there, but it's basically helping you compete against your friends. You essentially get to rage against each other in this crazy combat world.

• David Candland: It's always fresh, your opponents are always new, and they are always adapting.

• Frank O'Connor: Super addictive. We played it every single night for one year.

• David Candland: We actually kind of went out on a limb with Halo 2.

• Max Hoberman: We designed each one of our multiplayer maps so they fit within the single-player settings, um, so you could look at any of our maps and you could say, "Wait, I—I know that location."

• Chris Carney: Probably the most popular team game type is Capture the Flag. On almost every Halo 1 map, we had two bases that were pretty identical, and at the beginning of Halo 2, we were trying to think of different ways where we can make our maps more asymmetrical. It's fun to play as the attacker, and then it's fun to play as the defender.

• Max Hoberman: You can never completely defend the base. Maybe there's two guys defending, but there's three ways in. You're always having to make these choices.

• Chris Carney: So the attackers start on the beach, and we give the attacker a Warthog and two Ghosts. Then we don't give the defender anything except the rocket launcher. And the beach is separated from the main complex by the sea wall, so it gives the attackers a home, and then the defenders also have their base, which is their home, and then the vehicles have to come in through this one gate. The rocket launcher guy usually likes to get into position to attack that gate.

• David Candland: The HUD is the heads-up display. Let's say I'm in a firefight and I'm firing my weapon, and if I'm taking damage, the indicator turns red, so I can instantly see if my teammates are in trouble. And if one of them was to die—my friend there is dead—he shows up with a big red X over his head. Now, there's been many times I've been in a game and I'll be following my buddies right into go get the flag, and then all of a sudden I'll see all these red X's appear on my screen. I'll go, "You know, maybe now is not a good time to run through that door."

• David Candland: Everybody likes to go to their buddy's house and, you know, order pizza and get something to drink and wipe the Cheetos off your hands and jabbing each other and calling them names. What we wanted to do was take that whole situation and bring it to Xbox Live, and so we tried to create what we call a "virtual couch." We tried something completely new, which is this party system, where you and your friends kind of combine together online and you can jump from game to game to game to game ...and you and your friends will always be together.

• Jason Jones: It was really amazing to get online for the first time when there were a bunch of people online and just press the button that said, "I want to play. Go find me some other people that want to play," and choose a game type. It's pretty cool, and... "Just stick me in it as fast as you can." And to have that process happen in like five seconds was really—it was really incredible.

• David Candland: Proximity voice: you can get close to somebody in a game and talk to them, and only that person can hear you.

• Chris Butcher: Proximity voice is going to make us gods. There's nothing like running up to somebody and killing them with the energy sword and then two minutes later they kill you, and then they're standing over your body saying, "Eat it! How did you like that? See, this is my sword!"

• Max Hoberman: You're just an anonymous nobody unless we build ways for you to create an identity for yourself there.

• David Candland: We allow them to customize their color, their player emblem, so that when they go online, I'm the little red smiley face. And so people see my red smiley face and they go, "Hey, I remember that guy."

• David Candland: My clan is a group of guys that form a team. And we may practice, we may, uh, join one of these matchmaking playlists.

• Jason Jones: It's hard to play with people that are lower skill level than you, even if you really like them, because you're probably going to lose more often and you're not going to have as much fun. If I play with Chris, the two of us are ranked together as a—as a team, and if he's not as good as me, then that's going to take down your rank. The point is, Chris sucks.

• Frank O'Connor: One of the cool things we're working on is integrating the live functionality of the game with the website, and they're kind of going to be a—a starting point for your Halo 2 bragging rights.

• Harold Ryan: Other really cool things about map analysis or statistics on kills and weapons killed with, that we may or may not get to depending on how tired I get between now and September.

• Chris Butcher: If we do this right, if we are able to really pull off the engine and Xbox Live and the social community, it's going to destroy everything else that's out there.

• David Candland: There is something somewhat magic. It's like being an athlete in a sporting event. The rush that you get when you're about to win and your heart starts going boom-boom, boom-boom—and you know you're going to just almost get it to score... and then somebody snipes you from the corner, and you jump up and scream and throw your controller down and... you hate it, but you love it. You got to play again.