Editing Development of Halo: Combat Evolved

{{Status|RealWorld}}
{{Series/Cut/HCE}}
''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'' was '''developed''' by [[Bungie]] between 1997 and released in [[2011#November|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==
In [[1997 (real world)|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".<ref name="Armor">[http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive.pl?read=10986 ''halo.bungie.org'' - ''RE: Armor'']</ref> This project was at least in progress by the time the "Armor" trademark was filed on September 24, 1997.<ref>[https://inventively.com/trademarks/armor/bungie-software-products-corporation/75362042 ''Armor trademark'']</ref> 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,<ref name="untold">[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwqjg3/the-complete-untold-history-of-halo-an-oral-history#ulf-1 ''VICE - The Complete, Untold History of Halo'']</ref> and was later referred to as "basically ''[[Myth]]'' in a sci-fi universe."<ref name="bungiehistory">[http://bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?section=History&subsection=Main&page=6 ''Bungie.net: Inside Bungie: History''] (Archived copy [https://web.archive.org/web/20041216074133/https://www.bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?section=History&subsection=Main&page=6 here])</ref> 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".{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} The trademarks for "Blam.net" and "Blam.org" were filed in March 1998.<ref>[http://marathon.bungie.org/story/bungiedomreginfo.html ''Blam.net and Blam.org trademarks'']</ref>

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.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} These RTS versions of the game had no story and were purely designed for multiplayer,{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} though by late [[1998]]/ early [[1999 (real world)|1999]], the game had fully morphed into a third person shooter.<ref name="OriginOfHalo">[https://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=630 ''Bungie.net: The Origin of Halo'']</ref> [[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 [[Slayer|4v4 deathmatch mode]], and the staff would often stop development at 4pm every day and play for the evening.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}{{Ref/Reuse|GI}} 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.{{Ref/Reuse|GI}}

==Macworld and official unveiling==
On July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs announced that ''Halo'' would be released for Mac OS and Windows simultaneously.<ref>[http://pc.ign.com/articles/068/068975p1.html ''IGN: Heavenly "Halo"'']</ref> Before this public announcement, game industry journalists under a non-disclosure agreement had previewed the game in a private showing during [[Electronic Entertainment Expo|E3 1999]] - mid-May of that year - and were reportedly amazed.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/pressscans/display.html?scan=pcgamerusoct99 ''PC Gamer: Your first look at... "Halo"'']</ref> 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{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} including:
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-2}}
*The Santa Machine{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}
*The Crystal Palace{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}
*Solipsis{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}<ref name="solipsis" group="Note">Solipsis was the original name for the planet the ring orbited, now known in canon as [[Threshold]].</ref>
*Hard Vacuum{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}
*Starshield{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}
*Star Maker{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}
*Age of Aquarius{{Ref/Reuse|OriginOfHalo}}
*Red Queen{{Ref/Twitter|docabominable|1545261821078142978|Paul Russel|Quote=No idea. It was on the initial list of names. Along with others like Solipsis (which is a current game title), Red Queen and maybe 20 more that I forgot.|D=10|M=07|Y=2022}}
*Red Shift.<ref name="AOH73">''[[The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World]]'' - ''p. 73''</ref> (preferred by Jason Jones){{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
{{Col-2}}
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.{{Ref/Twitter|docabominable|1545265216371544064|Paul Russel|Quote=I had a printout (the whiteboard was faked for the video), each title had a short definition. The sheet, (@Jimmy_McQ might’ve lost it) was from meeting 2, Halo was “a 3 dimensional orbit near one of three Lagrange points…”. My “ring in space the Covenant worship” didn’t inspire.|D=10|M=07|Y=2022}}
*Resonance{{Ref/YouTube|Id=7steps|HlMQI97L5ww|Halo Archiver|Halo 3 Essential Disc 2: "7 Steps To World Domination/Cortana Chronicles".VOB|Time=400}}
*Pulse{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
*Provocation{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
*Free Fall{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
*K3{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
*Hostile Environment{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
*Flare{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
*Chaos{{Ref/Reuse|7steps}}
{{Col-end}}

However, the name the team ultimately settled on was "Covenant", and this name was given several logo treatments.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} However, one artist - [[Paul Russel]] - thought the name was "stupid" and came up with five or six other names,{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} including "Project: Halo".{{Ref/Reuse|AOH73}} 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.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}{{Ref/Reuse|AOH73}} 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.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} 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{{Ref/Twitter|docabominable|1537926016961720320|Paul Russel|Quote=I’ve done lots of logo design and the quick spitballin’ phase is the most fun because you get to put to paper all the ridiculous stuff. You can see which parts of some of those designs Lorraine pulled together for the final logo. My thought was runes, unrecognizable as English.|D=10|M=07|Y=2022}}, 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.{{Ref/Reuse|RusselLogos}}{{Ref/Twitter|docabominable|1538051273697681408|Paul Russel|Quote=I only got a glance at them, there were maybe 30 ideas and I thumbed through them really fast. Seeing them is how I found out they chose Halo as the name, so I was also kind of stunned about that, too. I thought they hated it.|D=10|M=07|Y=2022}}
<gallery>
File:HCE Logos Concept.jpg|Sketches for the game's logo by Paul Russel.{{Ref/Twitter|Id=RusselLogos|docabominable|1537923763932495879|Paul Russel|Quote=Random sketchbook dump 1999: After Halo was picked as a title and the logo design}}
File:HCE EarlyBadLogo 1.jpg|An early logo produced by a marketing agency.{{Ref/Site|Id=H2bday|URL=http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=7139|Site=Bungie.net|Page=Halo 2: One Year Later|D=20|M=01|Y=2013}}
File:HCE EarlyBadLogo 2.jpg|An early logo produced by a marketing agency.{{Ref/Reuse|H2bday}}
File:HCE EarlyBadLogo 3.jpg|An early logo produced by Paul Russel.{{Ref/Reuse|H2bday}}
File:HCE EarlyBadLogo 4.jpg|A near-final logo produced by Lorraine McLees.{{Ref/Reuse|H2bday}}
</gallery>

Bungie also teased fans with a Blam! mention on their webcam,<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/bborgarch/bborg_072199/e3.html ''halo.bungie.org - E3 Shenanigans'']</ref> and on May 20 a ''Myth II'' fan site was suddenly updated with what would become the Blam! project's final name - ''Halo''.<ref name="MBO">[http://marathon.bungie.org/story/blam.html ''marathon.bungie.org - Blam!'']</ref> The trademark for ''Halo'' was filed in February 1999.<ref>[https://inventively.com/trademarks/halo/microsoft-corporation/75638523 ''Halo trademark'']</ref>

Prior to the 1999 Macworld conference, however, then-executive vice president of Bungie Peter Tamte joined the company due to a wish to help an entreprenueurial company grow following Bungie's setbacks in 1998 and the disastrous release of ''Myth II''. Tamte was a former-Apple employee, and one of his first actions was calling his old boss - Steve Jobs - to ask him to introduce ''Halo'' to the world. [[Joseph Staten]], Jason Jones and Tamte went to the Apple HQ to pitch the demo to Jobs - with Jones presenting and Staten there in case the demo didn't work.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} The OpenGL technology used on the soon-to-be Mac didn't work yet, and the demo was shown to Jobs on a PC just twelve days before the game was set to be announced for a Mac release at Macworld conference.<ref name="MBOjones">[http://marathon.bungie.org/story/jjonestranscript.html ''marathon.bungie.org: Transcript of Miguel Chavez's "The Jason Jones Macworld Expo NY Interview movie".'']</ref> By the Friday before the Macworld showing, it became clear that the studio wouldn't be able to get sound working on the Mac, and thus [[Martin O'Donnell]] was tasked with creating a soundtrack that could be played from a CD. The instructions given to him by Staten on the Saturday before the conference were the words "Ancient. Epic. Mysterious.", and Marty began brainstorming melodies, settling on the now-famous [[Halo Theme|gregorian chant]]. The piece was recorded on the following Monday and burned onto a CD for presentation in New York the following day,<ref name="bravenew">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtG6--4r_qk ''YouTube: O Brave New World'']</ref><ref name="H2A">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9-Wk_R3SPw ''Youtube: Remaking the Legend - Halo 2: Anniversary''] - ''3:10''</ref> before someone promptly stepped on and broke the CD in New York. Luckily, Marty had a backup.<ref name="bitner">[http://halo.bungie.org/misc/interviews/halonews.nbitner.092599/ ''halo.bungie.org: The Nathan Bitner Interview'']</ref>

The Macworld demo was still being created on the hour-and-a-half flight from Chicago to New York, completely in-engine.{{Ref/Reuse|bitner}} On Tuesday, July 21, Jason Jones went on stage with Steve Jobs to show off the long-awaited ''Halo'' demo to the world, visibly nervous due to a fatal bug that could appear and crash the game on startup.{{Ref/Reuse|H2A}} Luckily, the demo went off as planned and ''Halo'' was unveiled to the world as intended.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eZ2yvWl9nQ ''Youtube: Halo - Macworld Unveiling'']</ref> The creation of this trailer would ultimately sow the seeds of what would become the ''Halo'' universe, bringing the Master Chief character to life and giving the Covenant a reason for existing.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} The same day, Bungie officially announced the game with the following synopsis;<ref name="rampancy">[http://rampancy.net/info/articles/halo_brings_action_gamers_a_world_without_end ''Rampancy.net:  Halo Brings Action Gamers A World Without End'']</ref>
{{Article quote|''The player is a military recon unit of the human race's fledgling planetary empire. Pursued by alien warships to a massive and ancient ring construct deep in the void, the player must single-handedly improvise a guerilla war over land, sea and air, using the arsenals and vehicles of three distinct cultures. Using everything from composite swords to orbital bombardment, driving everything from giant tanks to agile combat aircraft, players wage intense warfare over and under the surface of this world.''}}

Despite this, the primary issue remained that the gameplay footage seen at the Macworld conference was almost everything the studio had working at the time.<ref name="GI">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqb3Mgc_T0M ''Youtube: GI Show: The Halo Spectacular (Feat. 343i, Jaime Griesemer, Marty O'Donnell)''] - (Interview begins at 56:04)</ref> At the time, the game promised a seamless world without levels or loading screens, open terrain, fauna, flora, weather, celestial events and more.{{Ref/Reuse|rampancy}} Ultimately, many of these features would be cut for various reasons, but the large expansive levels and seamless transitions from indoor to outdoor environments - considered revolutionary at the time{{Ref/Reuse|GI}} - would remain in the final release.

==Microsoft acquisition==
Despite the hype surrounding ''Halo'' and Bungie's success in announcing it, the company was undergoing financial struggles due to the less-than-successful launch of ''Myth II''<ref name="seropian">[http://halo.bungie.org/misc/interviews/img.seropian.061900/ ''halo.bungie.org: Interview: Bungie's Alexander Seropian'']</ref> - the game had an installer bug that forced Bungie to recall copies of the game so it could be fixed. A month following the Macworld unveiling of ''Halo'', on August 13, Bungie announced they were entering into a publishing partnership with Take Two Interactive, and would begin to see their games published on consoles - where before Bungie had primarily been a PC game developer. Bungie would handle publishing in North America through Take Two's framework, while the two would co-publish games in Europe and Asia.<ref name="mac">[https://www.macobserver.com/news/99/august/990813/bungietaketwo.html ''The Mac Observer: Bungie Software Brings In Distribution Partner, May Head Into Console Market'']</ref> Around this time, Microsoft had begun work on the [[Xbox]], and then-Microsoft Game Studios head Ed Fries was tasked with building up a portfolio of games for the console's launch in fall [[2001]]. When he received a call from Peter Tamte about Bungie's financial situation, he was extremely interested. Take Two invited two of their leading studios - Bungie and Rockstar Games - to meet with Microsoft in January [[2000]].{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}{{Ref/Reuse|seropian}} Alex Seropian and Tamte later agreed that joining Microsoft would be good,{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} particularly as Seropian believed that if Bungie was going to lose their independence - as was the case with Take Two - they may as well fully merge so they can try and have as much a say as possible.{{Ref/Reuse|seropian}} 

However, Bungie was still in a deal with Take Two, and thus Microsoft and Bungie negotiated that Take Two would retain the rights to Bungie's previous properties and the other game being developed by Bungie, ''Oni'', while Microsoft would keep Bungie itself and ''Halo''.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} Microsoft announced their Xbox console at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in March 2000, to which Bungie later stated their interest in working on the platform.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1141 ''halo.bungie.org'':] "X-Box is a prime example of a console entering the market at the leading edge of technology, which is where we want our games to be"''</ref><ref name="gamestar">[http://rampancy.net/info/articles/translation_of_the_gamestar_may_2000_halo_preview ''Rampancy.net: Translation of the GameStar May 2000 Halo Preview'']</ref> At this time, the Microsoft acquisition was still not complete, and speculation remained that ''Halo'' would be ported to other consoles such as the Playstation 2.,<ref>[https://uk.ign.com/articles/2000/05/12/halo-5 ''IGN: Halo - Bungie's ambitious first-person shooter is coming...'']</ref> though Bungie later said ''"We never got it running on PS2 anyway"''.{{Ref/Reuse|bungiehistory}} The buyout was announced on June 19, 2000; Microsoft had acquired Bungie for around $30 million and ''Halo'' would become an exclusive for the upcoming Xbox console - much to the dismay of PC and Mac fans. Bungie began a restructuring, moving their officers to Redmond and designer Joseph Staten joining the cinematics team.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1756 ''halo.bungie.org: Joseph Staten to head fourth development team at Bungie'']</ref>

==Continued development==
Even amidst the negotiations to move to Xbox, Bungie once more showed off ''Halo'' at E3 in May 2000, showing off a [[Halo E3 2000 trailer|new trailer]] showcasing a deployment of Marines on the titular ringworld. Like the Macworld conference, the demo was finished at the 11th hour, with Marty O'Donnell finishing the music and burning the DVD just two hours before departing for the conference.<ref name="matrydiscuss">[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1840 ''halo.bungie.org: Marty O'Donnell discusses Halo's sound'']</ref> This trailer would mark the appearance of several new vehicles and equipment; the [[Sangheili|Elites]], [[D77 Pelican|Pelican dropship]], a sniper rifle, the [[Type-1 energy sword|energy sword]] and the first appearance of the Master Chief. Previous builds of the game had featured multiple SPARTAN supersoldiers as merely one type of infantry, but now the Master Chief was a singular character. The Master Chief shown in the E3 2000 build would also bear armour much closer to resembling the [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark V|MJOLNIR Mark V]] found in the final game, albeit with a small antenna and other slight differences. The trailer would also mark the first appearances of the Covenant [[Zurdo-pattern Wraith|Wraith]] tank and the [[Wuzum-pattern Spectre|"Spectre"]], the latter of which would later be cut from the final game. The Warthog additionally featured a mounted rocket launcher later reminiscent in design of the [[M12G1 Gauss Warthog|Gauss Warthog]] featured in ''[[Halo 2]]'' and the [[M12A Rocket Warthog|Rocket Warthog]] later featured in the ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' [[Halo: Combat Evolved (PC port)|PC port]].<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgUfN7x7BSA ''Youtube: Halo: Combat Evolved E3 2000 trailer'']</ref> A press kit handed out at E3 2000 estimated the game was "60% complete",<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1429 ''halo.bungie.org: Press kit says Halo 60% done'']</ref> while a later article claimed that the only components now missing were mission design and AI.{{Ref/Reuse|gamestar}} At this time, the team did have code to generate geometry on the fly as the player explored the world, and "stupidly" discussed this aspect of the game to magazines at E3 with the map being set in an archipelago created in an ancient asteroid strike. As the game later began to evolve into a linear shooter, this style of open world was ditched as it was deemed too RPG-like and the team wanted the player to spend less time exploring and more on shooting.{{Ref/Reuse|jones}}

The game organically evolved to become about the man behind the gun, though the team didn't know precisely ''who'' that was yet. As the game currently stood, the third-person camera felt too removed from the player, and thus the decision was made to bring the game into first-person. Jaime Greisemer began properly delving into how to build a first-person control set for console controllers, and ultimately implemented aim assist and the ability to only carry two weapons but switch between them with one button - features standard in shooters now but revolutionary in 2000. This was easier on both the controller, due to having fewer buttons, and on the console, as not as many models and textures would need to be loaded in.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} By May 26, 2000, the team was investigating first-person though hadn't committed to it yet.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1555 ''halo.bungie.org: Halo 1st person view mode undecided as yet'']</ref> Jason Jones had previously opposed the switch to first-person when engineer Charlie Gough attached a camera to the tank's turret in the RTS days of the game's development, after his experience with creating first person games six years prior. Luckily, graphics technology had advanced enough that he was sold on the idea, and Halo's format switched once again from third to first person shooter.<ref name="IGNhistory">[https://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/11/16/the-history-of-halo?page=2 ''IGN: The History of Halo'']</ref>

Over the month following the Microsoft acquisition, Bungie moved campus to Redmond. To make sure they left Chicago with a bang, Seropian and Jones went back to the first Bungie office, an old basement apartment, and offered the now-current tenant $1000 to let them have a farewell party there.{{Ref/Reuse|bungiehistory}} With the switch to working on Xbox, Bungie now had an arduous task of bringing the game they'd developed so far for PC and Mac to work on the Xbox. This was a blessing and a curse, as it meant the team only had one hardware platform to worry about making the game for, but the Xbox devkits had not been given to Bungie yet and the timescale for the game's development had been rushed, with a little under a year to make the game. The switch to first-person and the Xbox platform would force a radical crunch period on the studio, with "90% of the game" being made in just nine months prior to ship.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}<ref name="crunch">[https://twitter.com/Dr_Abominable/status/1061172229990481920 ''Paul Russel on Twitter'':] ''It's always going to be CE. We made 90% of the game in 9 months. I worked, that entire time, from January until early October  2001, 16-20 hours a day 6 days a week and from home on Sunday. It wrecked me for months after ship. Halo 2 had more studio strife, though.''</ref> By September 2000, Bungie still hadn't started work on the campaign of ''Halo''.<ref name="campaigndelay">[http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive2.pl?read=42414 ''halo.bungie.org: Re: That reminds me...'']</ref>

==Combat Evolved==
Over the summer following E3, little info was released about ''Halo'', though some tidbits of information emerged such as a screenshot of the [[Mgalekgolo|Hunter]] enemy, the then-unnamed (and later cut) [[Huragok|Engineer]] and repeated assurance by Microsoft and Bungie that ''Halo'' would come to Mac and PC.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1901 ''halo.bungie.org: Halo WILL ship for the Mac'']</ref><ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=1906 ''halo.bungie.org: Microsoft says Mac and PC... of course!'']</ref> Eventually, [[Matt Soell]] began posting weekly community updates to keep track of progress on the game. revealing that campaign brainstorming began in December.<ref name="campaigndecember">[http://rampancy.net/info/weekly_updates/december_1_2000_originally_at_halo_bungie_org ''Rampancy.net: 1/12/2000 Bungie update'']</ref> The Redmond studio in which Bungie was now located was designed by Microsoft to be programmer-centric, with closed offices and such that the Bungie team hated, preferring a more open and collaborative working environment, leading to the Redmond studio having the walls and dividers ripped out. This led to tensions between Bungie and some of the other Microsoft teams working there.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}{{Ref/Reuse|bravenew}} Eventually, Bungie mandated that regular Microsoft keycards in the building wouldn't grant access to the studio to ensure the development could move smoothly.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}}

During this time, Microsoft hired a marketing company to talk to the senior Bungie staff, with a trailer cut together featuring fast cuts, action and heavy metal. The takeaway the company and Microsoft executives wanted was for Bungie to change the name "Halo", list