Development of Halo: Combat Evolved
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Halo: Combat Evolved was developed by Bungie between 1997 and released in November 2001. During this time, the game that would come to be known as Halo and the development team behind it went through many radical changes, with the game originating life as a real-time-strategy game, before evolving into a third-person shooter and finally, the first-person shooter known today. This page tracks the development of the game from its earliest origins to final release.
Early development[edit]
In 1997, Bungie had just finished Myth: The Fallen Lords and was beginning the development of Myth II. During this time, Bungie only had 12-15 employees in a small office in South Halsted, Chicago, when Marcus Lehto was brought on board to work with Jason Jones on a small "side project" then-known as "Armor".[1] This project was at least in progress by the time the "Armor" trademark was filed on September 24, 1997.[2] This side project was the origins of Halo: Combat Evolved, originating as an RTS due to thinking Myth would be better if it were science-fiction and Starcraft would be better without resource management. Due to Bungie's interest in physics to provide gameplay, they wanted the vehicles to feel like vehicles and move on 3D terrain. This integration would be based in the Myth engine,[3] and was later referred to as "basically Myth in a sci-fi universe."[4] This prototype would change name from "Armor" due to the need to avoid the game actually shipping with that title, and would be referred to internally as "Monkey Nuts" as to ensure the game would not actually ship with that title. "Monkey Nuts" was quickly changed to "Blam!" as Jones didn't want to tell his mother he was working on a game called "Monkey Nuts".[3] The trademarks for "Blam.net" and "Blam.org" were filed in March 1998.[5]
The initial RTS prototype was built with an isometric camera view, though experimentation with certain features allowed a third-person camera to be attached to units for control including the soon-to-be Warthog and Marines. The fun of using the Warthog vehicle led to the camera getting closer and closer. The initial revisions of what would become the Master Chief at this time were simple ~400-polygon models nicknamed something along the lines of the "future soldier", designed to be a supersoldier much like the final Master Chief, but deployable en-masse on the battlefield.[3] These RTS versions of the game had no story and were purely designed for multiplayer,[3] though by late 1998/ early 1999, the game had fully morphed into a third person shooter.[6] Jaime Griesemer was hired in mid-1998 at which point the Halo team was 8-9 people mostly working on the game engine. By this point, the game had one assault rifle that could fire grenades and a small boat called a "Doozy", though Griesemer soon began creation of the shotgun and sniper rifle. The multiplayer mode had a 4v4 deathmatch mode, and the staff would often stop development at 4pm every day and play for the evening.[3][7] As development progressed, Bungie would eventually move offices to the north side of Chicago to be in a nicer area and nearer to Marty O'Donnel's studio.[7]
Macworld and official unveiling[edit]
On July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Halo would be released for Mac OS and Windows simultaneously.[8] Before this public announcement, game industry journalists under a non-disclosure agreement had previewed the game in a private showing during E3 1999 - mid-May of that year - and were reportedly amazed.[3][9] However, the game was still nameless and thus Bungie hired a branding company to help them name the game. The company and Bungie generated hundreds of names[3] including:
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A number of names (including several of the previously-mentioned ones) were written down on a whiteboard and showcased on a replica whiteboard in the 7 Steps to World Domination documentary on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition disc 2. This board was a replica made for the purposes of showcase in the documentary, and it is unclear how many of the below were actually considered or whether they were simply made up for the documentary.[13] |
However, the name the team ultimately settled on was "Covenant", and this name was given several logo treatments.[3] However, one artist - Paul Russel - thought the name was "stupid" and came up with five or six other names,[3] including "Project: Halo".[11] Few people at the studio liked the name at first, as some thought it was too-religious and that it didn't particularly sound like an action game.[3][11] However, when Russel wrote down the name on the whiteboard in the studio, the name "clicked" in a way that was simple, and described the intent of the universe while maintaining a sense of mystery.[3] Russel later came up with a handful of quick concepts for the game logo based on the idea of the word "Halo" being comprised of barely-legible runes[14], which were sent to Lorraine McLees - who produced around thirty final logo treatments. The logos produced by McLees were the only way Russel found out that the name Halo had been chosen by Bungie, with Russel under the impression everyone on the team hated the name.[15][16]