Halo: Reach Multiplayer Preview

“

Carney and crew get down on the Cage.

”

Halo: Reach Multiplayer Preview is a promotional video for Halo: Reach showcasing a multiplayer match on The Cage. It features commentary from Bungie staff members Chris Carney, Luke Smith, Derek Carroll, and Jon Cable. It was released on September 13, 2010.

Transcript

HALO: REACH

MULTIPLAYER PREVIEW WITH BUNGIE'S MULTIPLAYER DESIGNERS

• Chris Carney: We're going to look at The Cage, which is a map made in Forge. I'm Chris Carney. I was the multiplayer design lead on Reach. And with me today is...

• Derek Carroll: Hey, I'm Derek Carroll, multiplayer designer.

• Chris Carney: And then also providing fodder for this experience is Jon Cable. Jon was the engineer who really helped to make Forge World a reality. And then also in the corner getting his puppy love... is Luke Smith.

• Luke Smith: Hello.

• Chris Carney: And, Luke, what do you think of The Cage in general?

• Luke Smith: I actually really like The Cage. It's one of my favorite maps in Reach. Look at you down there, trying to scoop up a little treat. Tsk, tsk.

• Derek Carroll: Blue team's turning it on.

• Luke Smith: Carney, since he made the map, actually knows where all the weapons are, so you can just find him on an endless loop of trying to find bonus items.

• Chris Carney: I'm trying to really slow down my camera movement so it looks good on film.

• Luke Smith: I think if they're looking for something that looks good on film, they're going to go with a different perspective.

• Derek Carroll: Wait, somebody talk about the map.

• Luke Smith: Carney, you took this...

• Derek Carroll: Yeah, we had a map called Blockout that was great, but it wasn't great enough.

• Chris Carney: Thank you for "great."

• Derek Carroll: I mean, it was great. It was really great.

• Jon Cable: I liked Blockout.

• Luke Smith: It was special.

• Derek Carroll: It was funny.

• Chris Carney: It had some amazing—

• Derek Carroll: I had a lot of good times.

• Chris Carney: Mhm.

• Jon Cable: Like that? That was a good time.

• Derek Carroll: Alright.

• Luke Smith: Seriously, where are the weapons that I'm interested in?

• Chris Carney: And then, the location of Blockout in campaign disappeared. So, we took some of the basic elements of Blockout and moved that over to Forge World. And it actually only took maybe a week to block out The Cage and then start playing it.

• Jon Cable: Guy in the middle.

• Chris Carney: ...but there had been a lot of design work, just paper design work before that.

• Luke Smith: Oh my god, sit down.

• Chris Carney: And then we spent about a month polishing it—revamping it—which is very easy to do in Forge. And if people don't like it or don't like certain parts of it, they can just go into Forge and change it around, which is also very easy to do. And, again, it's asymmetrical 4v4, great for SWAT, Team Slayer, even asymmetrical CTF. So, we floated The Cage up in the air because, well, similar to Lockout, we wanted to get... first of all, let the cliff provide some orientation on the map, 'cause it gets a little confusing with all the Forge pieces. Players who move around the map well would be successful.

• Derek Carroll: I just got fooled by a hologram. I feel terrible.

• Chris Carney: Part of the intent of The Cage and Paradiso was to create new, sweet maps 100% in Forge. So, we used Forge to build this. We didn't use any internal special tools or anything like that. And, what is great about that is both those maps, The Cage and Paradiso, are great examples of how to use Forge. So if you want to know how to set up spawns or how weapon respawn times work or, how to set up a game of CTF, you can just load The Cage up in Forge and look at it as an example. And we're going to have actually lessons on how to use Forge, maybe some videos.

• Luke Smith: Are you going to be hosting those? Are you going to be—

• Derek Carroll: I definitely vote for that.

• Luke Smith: I think I just—I like your voice. It's very baritone.

• Derek Carroll: Yeah, it's soothing.

• Chris Carney: I think this is an opportunity for someone else at Bungie to really stretch their wings vocally. Derek, what's your favorite aspect of Forge?

• Derek Carroll: Let's see... Forge, I guess, definitely the physics options—being able to phase stuff in easily, trivially. And definitely coordinate manipulation, just getting—I get that kind of crazy OCD of being able to line stuff up exactly, precisely. Oh, and rotation snap.

• Chris Carney: Mhm.

• Derek Carroll: Being able to snap stuff, again, precisely. Feels much better.

• Jon Cable: Yeah, some of those camera changes came in really late, but I'm really glad we got them in.

• Derek Carroll: Yeah, picking up a piece and not moving it is key.

• Chris Carney: Yeah, and even little things like clicking down on the left stick to adjust geometry is also really sweet and very helpful.

• Luke Smith: So, Carney, if people feel like they can jetpack too high in this map, Forge will let them lower that.

• Chris Carney: Correct. You can change your safe zone, which essentially is the boundary that you define as the playable area on the map, right? And you could lower the ceiling so you'd get the out-of-bounds warning if you went too high. Is that something you'll probably do on "Luke Cage"?

• Jon Cable: I think he'll probably remove it.

• Luke Smith: I probably would just not have...

• Chris Carney: Oh, what?!

• Luke Smith: Yeah, L2P. I'll probably just not have jetpack as an option. I want people to use the runways you've created and the map as you've designed it, rather than finding their own unique twist and hovering around like a bunch of little Apache helicopters.

• Jon Cable: How do you feel about that spawn, Carney?

• Chris Carney: That was good. I'm really happy with Paul Lewellen's work on the spawning system.

• Luke Smith: Wow. Wow.

• Chris Carney: No, I love Paul Llewellen.

• Luke Smith: He's not here to defend himself. He's like 17.

• Chris Carney: And I was the one who set up the spawns in the map, I mean...

• Luke Smith: Cable's visiting a little place called the "zone" right now.

• Jon Cable: I don't think I've not gotten a Double Kill.

• Chris Carney: Why are you hugging Cable so hard right now, Luke Smith?

• Luke Smith: Cable's good. Cable's a great player.

• Chris Carney: What about Luke Smith? I thought he was good at this game.

• Luke Smith: Luke Smith was a great man, but that was another life.

• Derek Carroll: Oh God.

• Luke Smith: You are awful.

• Derek Carroll: You got a puppy?

• Luke Smith: Yeah. Yeah.

• Derek Carroll: Before he got weak.

• Chris Carney: So, why'd you get a puppy?

• Luke Smith: Why?

• Chris Carney: Yeah.

• Luke Smith: Just... 'cause I don't feel like a cat would give me enough love and affection.

• Chris Carney: You need more love and affection in your life? Is that what we're going on?

• Luke Smith: Yeah.

• Chris Carney: Okay.

• Luke Smith: It's an empty—it's an empty, hollow place.

• Chris Carney: So, that is The Cage. So if you are interested in making your own Forge creations, Halo: Reach comes out September 14th.

• Luke Smith: 9/14. Reach. The swan song. Farewell.

• Chris Carney: It is.

• Luke Smith: Hasta la bye-bye.

• Chris Carney: It is.

• Luke Smith: And I hope people like it... Stats were not good.

• Chris Carney: Actually, the stats are great.

• Derek Carroll: Let's check those out.

• Luke Smith: Carney, with massive odds in your favor, not even able to pull a plus one.

• Chris Carney: I was talking the whole time.