BTS: Halo Waypoint

be5Dq2GysoU

The BTS: Halo Waypoint is a behind-the-scenes look at the development and features of Halo Waypoint. It was first released on YouTube and Halo Waypoint on December 17, 2011. The video features exclusive interviews with 343 Industries staff.

Transcript

 * David Mcmahon: "One of the great things about the Halo universe is how deep it is. And Waypoint exposes a lot of that."


 * Jessica Shea: "You log-in and its your character, its your helmet, it's you; it's you and your stuff. It's that unified experience."


 * CJ Saretto: "We tried to make it easier for users to actually find the different things that they're interested in and find the connections between them."


 * Kyle Pointer: "I'm really excited about finding new ways to customize and personalize the experiences even deeper."


 * Jerry Hook: "And now as we look across devices and into new titles, both the number of users and the franchise is growing as well."


 * Doug Herbenthal: "It's really exiting for the Halo universe because this is a place were we can do all things Halo."

The video's title is presented.


 * Doug Herbenthal: "In like 2008, we started having conversations about how do we have a presence across all devices. We first primarily introduced Waypoint as primarily as web product and console product. We eventually brought it out on a phone app which allowed comparisons between your friends. Like your pocket companion for how you are doing in Halo. The creshendo is on November, 15, we released stats, and fiction and all of you Halo career across all of our screens."


 * CJ Saretto: "Now we're just releasing the iOS and the Android version versions."


 * Justin Harrison: "Now you can to Waypoint from the web, from any tablet, from any mobile device."


 * David Mcmahon: "It's really important for us that a lot of the designs carried across from mobile, to web, to console."


 * Kyle Pointer: "So there's three major things that we wanted to put forward. One was a presence of yourself."


 * Jessica Shea: "You are the star."


 * David Mcmahon: "Your online persona shines throughout all of the different screens."


 * Kyle Pointer: "Two was still highlighting the content, really letting the fans take hold of some that immediately."


 * CJ Saretto: "So that it's clear that some things are actually Halo canon, and then there's things that the community has contributed to. Things like Red vs Blue."


 * Kyle Pointer: "And finally with the news and social feeds."


 * Jessica Shea: "We now have a submit news button. So if you make something, whether it's Machinima, a montage, or cookies in the shape of Master Chief's helmet. There are people on that website who will absolutely love it."


 * David Mcmahon: "When you see Waypoint on the console, you'll see something we call the wonder-wall. And on the wonder-wall, you'll see some of the key things our fans are interested in. Things like latest videos, latest galleries, your player cards, your friend's player cards, links directly into the universe."


 * CJ Saretto: "Tell me about the characters, tell me about the factions, the weapons, all of these things."


 * David Mcmahon: "It's a place where on one screen, you can really get access to all the content that's available within Halo Waypoint."


 * Justin Harrison: "I think that it's easier to find and understand this information than it has ever been before. You can now view your stats on one page and easily pivet based on game type, based on map, based on difficulty."


 * CJ Saretto: "And then, the Halo career itself consolidates all of the achievements across every Halo game that has existed on Xbox 360.


 * Doug Herbenthal: "You're looking at twenty terabytes worth of data, stats, data-tracking and over twenty hours worth of videos. That's a lot of information we're trying to process."


 * CJ Saretto: "A large feature we built this time around was custom challenges for Halo: Reach."


 * Humberto Castenda: "We thought what is we gave the users the ability to create their own challenges."


 * CJ Saretto: "Then you can invite up to seven of your friends to attempt to complete that challenge with you.


 * Doug Herbenthal: "See who can complete the challenge first. Kill 200 Grunts before I do. We'll see how that works."


 * Humberto Castenda: "The more difficult a challenge, the more credits they can earn."


 * Doug Herbenthal: "Halo is a great example of a place where I can have an experience inside of my console. But we didn't really have a connection to either devices in real-time. So we thought of this notion of Atlas."


 * CJ Saretto: "Atlas started as a Map pack. We thought it would be extremely cool if the map pack was actually connected to the game."


 * Mark Vayman: "Your Xbox sends a heart beat, telling us what you're doing at that point in the game."


 * Justin Harrison: "You can see where all of your team mates are. We'll put the current game score, who's on what team, you can see where all of the weapons and vehicles are on Custom game.


 * Humberto Castenda: "We're super excited about how people are going to use it. Is it to combine their forces and focus on a strategy, or are they going to have a companion sitting next to them. Sort of a co-driver."


 * Justin Harrison: "And it's just the beginning of what we're doing with this technology.


 * David Mcmahon: "One of the important things about this release for us is that it gives us a solid foundation for Waypoint moving forward."