Bungie Podcast

The Bungie Podcast was initiated on September 22, 2006. It is available on iTunes, and is the most popular podcast on the internet (According to the fifteenth episode of the podcast). It currently consists of sixteen episodes, with a new episode coming out periodically. Note: The first link after each podcast title is the direct link to downloading it, and the second link is a direct link to the Bungie page for that podcast, which is another place where you can download it from.

Availability
On this page, underneath each episode title there are links for downloading the show. Also you can head here where you can download the past podcasts as well as each one as they are released and where there is information on each podcast thus far.

Episode I


Show Date: September 22, 2006

Run Time 55:00

The first episode of the show featured Frank O'Connor and Brian Jarrard, also known as Ske7ch, in a fairly formatted and planned out show. Guest stars included Jay Weinland and a man named Bob, who read the Bungie Whambulance.

"The very first Bungie podcast featuring news and insights into Halo 2 for Windows Vista, Halo 3 and future Halo 2 Xbox Live matchmaking updates. In addition we have an interview with Audio Lead Jay Weinland and the return of the Bungie "Whambulance" reader mail segment." - From Bungie.net

Episode II


Show Date: July 11, 2007

Run Time 35:36

The second episode again featured Frank O'Connor and Ske7ch, the regular hosts, but they were also joined by Luke Smith, who has gone on to become the third regular host of the show. They were joined by their guest, Lars Bakken, and they talked about multiplayer, as well as E3 2007.

"After nearly a year (who really is to blame?), the Bungie Podcast has left the nest and spread its wings. Instead of a bird, it's a fierce dragon and the below download is your seat on the fire-breathing winged beast's back. Joining me this week in the studio are podcast veterans Brian Jarrard and Frank O'Connor, with special guest star Multiplayer Designer Lars Bakken rounding out the four-part harmony. We talk about some of the studio's preparations for E3, Bungie's Technical Lead Chris Butcher stops in for a few minutes and finally, a very special guest phones in to the Bungie Teen Support Line. All of this and more on the Bungie Podcast." - From Bungie.net

Episode III


Show Date: July 23, 2007

Run Time 1:07:40

The third episode of the Bungie Podcast featured the main three hosts, as well as Bungie writer Joseph Staten, who became the guest after Paul Bertone, the lead Campaign Designer for Halo 3 didn't show up. The show was released after E3 2007, and so Frank and Ske7ch talked about doing demos for press people at E3, while everyone talked about Joe going to Comicon the following weekend.

"Joseph Staten, the man of many alien voices joins Brian, Frankie and I in this week's episode of The Bungie Podcast. Joseph fields some of your questions, we drop a few informational pieces of Halo 3-related chum into the water and recap what Joseph calls "the greatest saved film ever" and I call "bug-infused BS" in grisly detail." - From Bungie.net

Episode IV


Show Date: August 1, 2007

Run Time 49:19

The fourth show, which pushed the show into being 'hilariously regular', featured Jamie Evans, the Test Manager, talking about testers working on Halo 3. They noted that the number of people working on the game is a huge amount, and that testing games is not as easy as it sounds.

"Somehow, we pried a supremely busy Jamie Evans away from overseeing the fleet of testers running Halo 3 through the ringer and tricked him into chatting with Ske7ch, Frankie and I on the latest episode of the Bungie Podcast. We take a few of your questions and talk about the latest news -- |yep, that news -- on this episode of the Bungie Podcast." - From Bungie.net

Episode V


Show Date: August 10, 2007

Run Time 1:03:19

The fifth show featured Dan Miller, or DMiller, talking about Campaign Mission Design. In this show, the name of the second mission of the game was revealed to be 'Crows Nest'. It was also revealed that Dan Miller was the designer for the second and final missions of the game. Also, Ske7ch wasn't present in this episode, because he was doing promotional events.

"On this week's episode of the Bungie Podcast, Mission Designer Dan Miller joins Frankie and Luke in the crow's nest studio. With Sketch away on business, Dan Miller has to step it up . He does." - From Bungie.net

Episode VI


Show Date: August 16, 2007

Run Time 1:02:34

In the sixth episode of the show, Luke Smith and Ske7ch hosted while Frankie was out of the office, and they had Damian Isla, AI lead on Halo 3, as their special guest. The three of them talked about AI in Halo 3, specifically how much smarter and fun it was to fight against as well as the impact that equipment had on the AI programming and scripting.

"The “If, then” show: AI Programmer Damian Isla is welcomed aboard this week’s Bungie Podcast. On this week’s show, Damian explains how the AI in Halo 3 works, how Equipment changed his job and how Halo 3’s AI has changed from Halo 2 to Halo 3." - From Bungie.net

Episode VII


Show Date: August 28, 2007

Run Time 42:21

The seventh episode of the show again featured all three hosts, this time with two special guests. Lars Bakken returned to co-host for the second time, alongside Tyson Green, another multiplayer designer. The group of five talked about Forge, Halo 3's multiplayer map editor, discussing how fun it was, how easy it was to use, and what kind of impact it had on gameplay, as well as how the Halo 3 multiplayer community would potentially use Forge to create completely unforeseeable content for the game.

"This week's (we fudged the "weekly release" a little bit) episode of the Bungie Studios Podcast has Lars Bakken and Tyson Green join Frankie and Luke in the studio for a frank discussion on Forge, Halo 3's multiplayer customization tool." - From Bungie.net

Episode VIII


Show Date: September 4, 2007 (Released September 11, 2007)

Run Time 58:08

The eighth episode of the Bungie Podcast featured Paul Bertone, the Campaign Design Lead who skipped out on being the guest in the third episode of the Podcast. They talked about the Campaign mode of the game, and how it was no longer a single player experience, it was much more of a Campaign mode that could be played with up to four players at once. They also talked about Campaign Scoring, and the impact that that made on personal bragging rights.

"The travel-delayed eighth episode of the Bungie Studios Podcast is finally available for download. This week's show, in addition to a faux-hawk bet involving the National Football League, welcomes the long-awaited appearance of Campaign Mission Design Lead, Paul Bertone." - From Bungie.net

Episode IX


Show Date: September 20, 2007

Run Time 1:47:39

Released on September 20, 2007, just five days before the release of Halo 3, this nearly two hour long episode was highlighted by a visit from Marty O'Donnell to talk about the Halo 3: Original Soundtrack. Joe Staten stopped by again to talk about his book Halo: Contact Harvest and Chris Gossett, the Web Development Lead, stopped by to talk about the upcoming changes to Bungie.net. It is also the one year anniversary of the podcast, although it isn't mentioned on the actual show.

'''"While we don't acknowledge it on the show, this Podcast is actually the year anniversary of the Bungie Podcast. To unknowingly commemorate that feat, Marty O'Donnell, Joe Staten and Web Dev Lead Chris Gossett take a turn on the mic. Chris talks extensively about the new Bungie.net and its robust feature set. Marty talks about the Halo 3 Soundtrack and Joe Staten catches us up on his book "Contact Harvest" and what he was doing in New Zealand last week.

Because it's the last show before Halo 3 launches, we made it super long, nearly two hours of chatter this week -- just think, that's two hours closer to actually buying Halo 3."''' - From Bungie.net

Episode X


Show Date: October 8, 2007

Run Time 53:19

The tenth episode of the Bungie Podcast, the first episode to be released after the release of Halo 3, featured the main hosts of the show as well as the Executive Producer of Bungie Studios, Jonty Barnes. Throughout the course of the hour, the four men talked about Halo 3 ranks, as well as Jonty's past in the video game industry, which included work at Lionhead Studios and Bullfrog Studios before that. Also, the group continued the feature now called the NFL Minute, in which they talk about that week's football action. This version of the NFL Minute was unique in the fact that during its course they proceeded to make fun of Jonty, who is British, and his faithfulness to English 'football', known in the states as soccer.

'''"What makes a good producer? What does being a producer entail? Frank obviously has his take on it, but when we ask veteran producer and one of Bungie's leaders, Jonty Barnes he has a different take than our Scottish treat. With Paul Bertone off the grid in meetings, Jonty fills in (sort of) in a very special, and ne'er to be repeated version of the NFL Minute.

Special note: This show was recorded well before the announcement regarding Bungie Studios and our relationship with Microsoft. We'll talk about that on an upcoming show!"''' - From Bungie.net

Episode XI


Show Date: October 23, 2007

Run Time 1:16:47

The eleventh episode of the Bungie Podcast guest starred Bungie's Dave Dunn, who told all about events in Bungie History from ten years ago to today. In it, Alex Seropian is bashed, Chris Carney is mocked, and many other interesting stories are told, but overall, the Halo 3 news was very minimal, if non-existent. Paul Bertone did return to host the NFL Minute. During that, the results of Luke Smith's and Bertone's first match of Smith's 'Beat The Designer' Challenge were discussed.

"This episode of the Bungie Studios Podcast includes a mountain of guests, and by mountain we mean 2. It's the last pre-Sketch and Frankie on vacation show, and the two of them go out with a long one. Environment Artist Lead Dave Dunn joins the crew and spins a whole mess of tales from some of Bungie's history. Podcast semi-regular Paul Bertone joins the fellas in the show waning moments to talk football and talk about beating me into a pulp in Campaign Scoring." - From Bungie.net

Episode XII


Show Date: December 6, 2007

Run Time 50:55

The twelfth episode of the Bungie Podcast was released after a lengthy delay and featured Chris Barrett, another one of Bungie's art directors. He talked at length with the three main hosts about how he got his job at Bungie, which was through creating multiplayer maps for Myth II, and then they spent a great deal of time talking about the (then) recently announced and released downloadable content maps.

"Long has it been, friends! Vacations have come and went (for Brian and Frankie) and the crew finally reconvened with special guest Christopher Barrett to talk about Halo 3's Heroic Map Pack, how he started at Bungie, what he's worked on and what's been canned." - From Bungie.net

Episode XIII


Show Date: December 12, 2007

Run Time 1:05:34

The thirteenth episode of the Bungie Podcast featured Frank and Luke talking to Marty O'Donnell for an hour. They talked about the recent release of the Halo 3: Original Soundtrack, as well as the early days of Bungie, including Marty's time as a contractor working on Myth and Myth II with Jason Jones and Alex Seropian before the sale to Microsoft. He also talks about how Microsoft bought Bungie ten days after Marty was officially hired as part of the Bungie team. They also touch briefly on audio setups and how the original Xbox was the only last generation console to feature real-time 5.1 Dolby Digital Decoding. In addition, Marty brings up the fact that he still possesses the audio files from the cutscenes for the originally planned ending for Halo 2. They announce a preliminary plan to have a special Podcast in which the files will be aired.

"Without Sketch's wit and inquiring mind, the Podcast ship stayed afloat thanks to water wings and the smooth sonic tones of Bungie Audio Lead Marty O'Donnell. Marty talks a bit about his own Bungie origin story in addition to providing some detailed memories about Bungie in the Windy City." - From Bungie.net

Episode XIV


Show Date: January 18, 2008

Run Time 57:11

The fourteenth episode of the podcast featured long awaited guest Harold Ryan, formerly a Test Manager at Microsoft Game Studios and currently the Studio Manager of Bungie Studios. They talked about the differences between operating under Microsoft and free from Microsoft's rule, as well as the future of Bungie Studios as a whole, although few details were revealed. They also talked about Harold's past Everquest addiction and his love for MMORPG's. There was also a slight discussion about Frank's creation of a World of Warcraft character named "Man Chowder" who was banned for breaking the game before he had gotten past Level One.

After awhile, Harold got back to work and Paul Bertone was once again welcomed onto the Podcast where they discussed Luke's hairdo, which was done up in such a way as to pay up for a bet made on the eighth episode of the show. They also talked at length about sports, specifically playoff football, before the show finally ended just under an hour after it began.

"Bungie's equivalent of Xerxes, Studio Manager Harold Ryan, joins Sketch, Frank and Luke on this episode of the Bungie Podcast. He talks about his lengthy career in games, all manners of games he likes (he's a recovering EQ addict) and what may or may not be in store for Halo 3's future." - From Bungie.net

Episode XV


Show Date: February 4, 2008

Run Time: 44:37

The fifteenth episode of the podcast featured Christian Allen, a new hire at Bungie, who is the Design Lead on their next game. He is not working on any sort of DLC, he is actually working on their next, completely original game. Throughout the forty-five minute show, the boys talk about Christian's start in the video game industry, which spread from his days in the military and then his interest in modding Rainbow Six. The boys also talk about the annual Winter Pentathlon and the events that the studio participates in, including Pictionary, Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band (for which you can be awarded 'Flair' points), and the teams annual Halo tournament. They briefly talk about the NFL, all of them saying that they wish for the New England Patriots not to win the Super Bowl (This was recorded before the Super Bowl) and also they talk about Christian's football watching habits, which include standing in the corner and not paying attention.

"Christian Allen, a recently hired Lead Designer at Bungie, gets in bed with the threesome for a memory-filled jaunt through his path into the game industry." - From Bungie.net

Episode XVI


Show Date: February 19, 2008

Run Time: 55:46

The sixteenth episode of the show featured 'the guys' (Frank, Luke, and Ske7ch) as well as Luke Timmins (aka Froman), an engineer at Bungie who's nickname stems from the movie |Ferris Buellers Day Off. 'Camp Froman' on Zanzibar is named after Luke, who spent time camping there with the sniper rifle during testing for Halo 2. During the course of the hour the boys talk about problems with Halo 3 multiplayer and bandwidth issues and the sort of bending and universe alteration that comes about from lag. Luke T. also touches on how non-glorious network programming is compared to other types of programming going on that studio, and he also mentions jobs and says that Bungie is always looking for engineers. They also talk about Luke T.'s checkered past and his run in with the law concerning hacking and looking at confidential information.

'''"The "other" (and by "other," I mean the older, smarter and better at Halo version of) Luke sits in for a raucous and rated-M for Mature version of the Bungie Podcast. Luke Timmins, an engineer at Bungie (specifically, he works on Networking code), talks about his seedy past, how he fought the law (and the law won) and how to get a job as an Engineer at Bungie.

'''Warning: This really does contain adult language. "''' - From Bungie.net

Credits
The Bungie Podcast is hosted by Frank O'Connor, Brian Jarrard, and Luke Smith, is mixed and mastered by Steve Lopez, and is Produced by Tom Gioconda and Chris Gossett.