Bungie Weekly Update/01-20-01

This is the Bungie Weekly Update for January 20, 2001, written by Matt Soell.

Bungie Update
Wow! Over a month since the last written Halo Update. It's nice to get back into the swing of these.


 * As I type these words the Second Annual Bungie Pentathlon has drawn to a close. The Halo team took first, followed closely by the Phoenix team in second, and the Oni and Sin-O-MatiXXX/Online Coalition tying for third. As soon as the collective Bungie Blood Alcohol Level dips a bit, everyone will head over to the celebratory dinner. So now seems like the perfect time to write up a Halo Update. Unfortunately there's not much to talk about this week, but hey...sometimes it's just a slow week.
 * This week has largely been a cleanup week; the programmers fixed bugs in the engine and editor for the artists, and the artists took advantage of the fixes to get things done. If any of it was earthshaking I'd report it here. Much of it is labor-intensive, detail-oriented stuff.
 * Work continues on unit variations. It's a different alien unit this week, with a nifty energy shield.
 * Matt Segur started work on Halo's scripting system.
 * Chucky performed some sort of bizarre coding miracle that allowed vehicles to navigate indoors, which they were not able to do previously. He demonstrated this to me by driving the jeep into a building, down several flights of stairs, and ultimately into a portion of the level known as The Shaft. Watching the sucker flip and spin as it plummeted to the bottom made my day.