Editing Development of Halo: Combat Evolved

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==Early story and setting drafts==
==Early story and setting drafts==
[[File:HCE EarliestFlood Concept.jpg|thumb|The earliest known concept art of the Flood, by Robert McLees in roughly 1997 during the RTS days of the game's development.<ref name="AOH52">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 52''</ref> The full resolution was lost during the shuffle of years at Bungie, and the colour resembles human skin more due to McLees' colour-blindness.{{Ref/Reuse|feast}}]]
[[File:HCE EarliestFlood Concept.jpg|thumb|The earliest known concept art of the Flood, by Robert McLees in roughly 1997 during the RTS days of the game's development.<ref name="AOH52">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 52''</ref> The full resolution was lost during the shuffle of years at Bungie, and the colour resembles human skin more due to McLees' colour-blindness.{{Ref/Reuse|feast}}]]
When developing games prior to ''Halo'', Bungie's method of development was to develop their engine, then make their multiplayer gameplay feel good. This was only followed then by campaign as the final element to take place.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/pressscans/display.html?scan=cgw1199 ''halo.bungie.org: Computer Gaming World 1999 scan'']</ref> The development of ''Halo'' was no exception, as the rough story for the game didn't even begin to take shape until mid-1999, following the Macworld trailer premiere. The first seeds of the franchise were sown following [[Robert McLees]]' creation of the then-"future soldier" (the predecessor to the Master Chief) and the Warthog vehicle, at which point he began to place himself in the year 2500, with the player at war with alien factions.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} In the early stages of the game's development, the game's setting of a "fortress world" was to be a hollowed-out planet, though this soon evolved into a [[dyson sphere]] and later the titular ringworld.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH73}}<ref name="jones">[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=6 ''Bungie.net: Jason Jones Interviewed By You'']</ref> This planet was to have been named "Solipsis", one of the names suggested as the game's title during development.{{Ref/Reuse|IGNhistory}} The evolution of the setting to the ringworld, however, inspired Paul Russel to come up with the name ''Halo'', which was then applied to the ring itself.{{Citation needed}} The earliest drafts of the structure that would later become the [[Portal at Voi]] were concepted by [[Marcus Lehto]]<ref>[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/1088274744456159232 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''These are the oldest drawings of the Ark. Started playing around with this idea during Halo CE development''</ref> and implemented into an early build by around 1998.<ref name="LehtoWireframe">[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/1198285568712441858?s=19 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''This is the very first Warthog I designed for Halo back in 1998. Old pc build only runs in wireframe now. Master Chief could go prone, crouch and drive this somewhat unwieldy vehicle around the map. Even had an early Forerunner Ark in the background! #warthog #halo #cybertruck''</ref><ref group="Note" name="Ark">This concept would later be considered for inclusion in ''Halo 2'' as the Ark, before later being relegated to ''Halo 3'' as the Voi portal.</ref>
When developing games prior to ''Halo'', Bungie's method of development was to develop their engine, then make their multiplayer gameplay feel good. This was only followed then by campaign as the final element to take place.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/pressscans/display.html?scan=cgw1199 ''halo.bungie.org: Computer Gaming World 1999 scan'']</ref> The development of ''Halo'' was no exception, as the rough story for the game didn't even begin to take shape until mid-199, following the Macworld trailer premiere. The first seeds of the franchise were sown following [[Robert McLees]]' creation of the then-"future soldier" (the predecessor to the Master Chief) and the Warthog vehicle, at which point he began to place himself in the year 2500, with the player at war with alien factions.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} In the early stages of the game's development, the game's setting of a "fortress world" was to be a hollowed-out planet, though this soon evolved into a [[dyson sphere]] and later the titular ringworld.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH73}}<ref name="jones">[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=6 ''Bungie.net: Jason Jones Interviewed By You'']</ref> This planet was to have been named "Solipsis", one of the names suggested as the game's title during development.{{Ref/Reuse|IGNhistory}} The evolution of the setting to the ringworld, however, inspired Paul Russel to come up with the name ''Halo'', which was then applied to the ring itself.{{Citation needed}} The earliest drafts of the structure that would later become the [[Portal at Voi]] were concepted by [[Marcus Lehto]]<ref>[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/1088274744456159232 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''These are the oldest drawings of the Ark. Started playing around with this idea during Halo CE development''</ref> and implemented into an early build by around 1998.<ref name="LehtoWireframe">[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/1198285568712441858?s=19 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''This is the very first Warthog I designed for Halo back in 1998. Old pc build only runs in wireframe now. Master Chief could go prone, crouch and drive this somewhat unwieldy vehicle around the map. Even had an early Forerunner Ark in the background! #warthog #halo #cybertruck''</ref><ref group="Note" name="Ark">This concept would later be considered for inclusion in ''Halo 2'' as the Ark, before later being relegated to ''Halo 3'' as the Voi portal.</ref>


By 1997/1998, the [[Flood]] were already being concepted, and story ideas circulating about their role alongside the Covenant. The Flood had been designed by Jason Jones purely for gameplay, and McLees was the first to truly think about what the Flood was in the fiction. His first idea was to have the Flood be a bioweapon engineered by the Covenant, designed as a "living minefield" with which the Covenant would seed planets on their borders, in case anyone tried to make landfall. At the time the game was to be set on a planet, the concept of the [[UNSC]] did not exist yet, simply named the "Empire", later reflected in some of the earliest marketing materials published about the game's story. The story beats of what would become ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' were in place, though still undefined. In this early draft, the player and their ship would crash on a planet populated by humans not part of the Empire, with the player's technology from 2552 and the native technology from the 1950s. The player's goal would be to train the indigenous population for when the Covenant arrived. They would combat the natives in the early levels, and the Covenant later on.<ref name="feast">[http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Feast_of_Bones ''Bungie.net: Feast of Bones'']</ref>
By 1997/1998, the [[Flood]] were already being concepted, and story ideas circulating about their role alongside the Covenant. The Flood had been designed by Jason Jones purely for gameplay, and McLees was the first to truly think about what the Flood was in the fiction. His first idea was to have the Flood be a bioweapon engineered by the Covenant, designed as a "living minefield" with which the Covenant would seed planets on their borders, in case anyone tried to make landfall. At the time the game was to be set on a planet, the concept of the [[UNSC]] did not exist yet, simply named the "Empire", later reflected in some of the earliest marketing materials published about the game's story. The story beats of what would become ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' were in place, though still undefined. In this early draft, the player and their ship would crash on a planet populated by humans not part of the Empire, with the player's technology from 2552 and the native technology from the 1950s. The player's goal would be to train the indigenous population for when the Covenant arrived. They would combat the natives in the early levels, and the Covenant later on.<ref name="feast">[http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Feast_of_Bones ''Bungie.net: Feast of Bones'']</ref>

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