Iris

"Look for the signs, keepers of the flame. They will lead you to war, and perhaps, to victory."

- Iris Email

Iris was a Halo 3 viral marketing and public relations campaign; more specifically, an ARG or Alternate Reality Game designed to give people more information on how the great conflict behind the Halo franchise began, and the climactic conclusion.

Overview
A part of Halo 3's marketing campaign, Iris was an alternate reality game, which involved cross-media interactions and player participation. It was designed to give people more information on how the great conflict behind the Halo franchise all began, as it builds up to the climactic conclusion of the series on September 25, 2007, the release date of Halo 3.

It began on June 11, 2007, with the mysterious AI Adjutant Reflex posting on the Bungie.net forums, and officially ended on August 23, 2007, with short communications from the Adjutant Reflex account on Bungie.net till September 18, 2007.

Episodes
Iris had five episodes during the campaign period, and a short post-episode epilogue that connected to Halo 3's Terminal narrative. Each episode was bookended by the Bounce Path Control and a Server that expanded the theme of the episode.

Episode 1 - The Unknown Helper
Beginning on June 11, 2007, the first episode began with the mystery of Adjutant Reflex and several mystery events on Earth, with Adjutant warning something was coming, and that it could not stop it. Due to the mysterious events, this caught the attention of the Society of the Ancients (SOTA) a conspiracy group dedicated to the many unexplained. There was also the discovery of the Cradle of Life comic, a parallel path to the SOTA one that lead people to the first server. During those events Adjutant Reflex was then taken over by the entity it warned the community about leading to a mystery of what that entity wanted to tell us. Before the first server was unlocked the mysterious entity spoke giving people "keys" to unlock the server. The first server detailed the firing of the Halo Array, and a log that gave the hope that someone would hear the warning.

Episode 2 - Flood Control
The second episode of Iris began with mysterious postings on several job listing sites and MSN, leading to the discovery that a group named Flood Containment Control was hiding data about something on several kiosks behind a "false menu item". The information on these kiosks lead to the discovery of a report named "Report 206" which assisted people in finding the second server. The second server detailed the Flood, revealing information about the initial thoughts the Forerunners had about them.

Episode 3 - Echoes Through Time
The third episode quickly began with a piece of audio from the second server that revealed an image. MSN released Iris-themed items, that featured imagery that looked like the image revealed from the second server's audio. When the audio was played on a hidden screen on Halo3.com, an animation played leading people to the third server. The third server detailed the problems the Forerunners faced while trying to deal with the Flood, while also giving a direct message from the mysterious entity.

Episode 4 - The Great Connection
The fourth episode began with a strange equation from the third server, and a strange poem was posted onto Halo3.com by a mysterious entity called "When We Two Parted". This poem was modified to read "CASTAWAYTHEORYVOLMAN" which lead users to find a book named The Castaway Theory with the equation matching the one from the third server. In the book's forums, a close friend of the author indicated that the author went missing a while back, and over the next several days the friend indicated the author had returned and had given a way for people to talk to him. This led the author to link to the fourth server. The fourth server went over the Conservation Measure and pondered the mystery of the Flood's origins.

Episode 5 - The Artifact
The fifth episode began with people putting together star images from all of the servers, revealing the phrase "The Artifact Location". This led people to a website that directed them to locations in New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles. At those locations, the final server link was revealed. The fifth server detailed the mystery of Earth, how Humans may answer the Forerunners' own mysteries, and revealed the identity of the mysterious entity who hijacked Adjutant Reflex as "MB05032" and that they will be waiting on the Ark.

Epilogue
On September 13 to 18, "MB05032", still hijacking Adjutant Reflex, communicated with people, prepping them for Halo 3's release by having it countdown to the minute, and having it leave the Adjutant Reflex body as it was too small to contain itself.

Credits
Iris was written by Frank O'Connor, with help from community manager Brian Jarrard and artist Aaron LeMay.

AKQA was involved with the project also, dealing with the Flash elements of the ARG.

Artist Garson Kwan helped created several design elements for the Iris campaign such as the primary symbol used throughout the campaign.

Matthew Law was put in charge of the environments the server sites were housed in and also the videos that accompanied them. The videos were edited with "Final Cut Pro" and tweaked, colored, and effected in "After Effects", with assets that couldn't be bought as stock footage or shot locally being done in "Maya".

Reception
In 2008, Iris was nominated for a Webby Award.