User:BaconShelf/Sandbox9

Deleted material, cut content or "the cutting room floor" refers to content created during the development of a game, film, book or other media and ultimately removed from the product before release. This can be done for a variety of reasons including simple issues such as time and technical limitations or more niche reasons such as needs for page formatting - in the case of a book. This page covers a standard of guidelines for writing articles about cut content on Halopedia.

Does it need a page?

When creating a cut content article, first ask if the content in question needs a new page? Can it be covered in sufficient detail on an existing page's production notes section? For example, the article Guardian Forest discusses a lot of in-depth development information on the cut level, while a detail such as the Armalite logo found on an early rendition of the M392 DMR found in Halo: Reach can be easily surmised in a sentence or two on the page's production notes section.

Cut content vs. concept art

A common misconception that often arises in fanbases is the nature of cut content vs. concept art. In media production, thousands of conceptual images are produced by dozens of concept artists over a multi-year period. At the beginning of a production, many of these concepts are simply sketches or quick paintings done to establish art direction, mood, tone, atmosphere and convey key aspects of the game's visuals. In this stage, illustrations may feature armour, weapons, vehicles and characters which do not appear in the final game - it is important to distinguish these elements from actual cut content. In these cases, these elements were likely never intended to make it into the final product, and wouldn't count as cut content due to having never been cut.

In general, a good way to distinguish cut content is to consider whether any 3D assets, physical props, animations or footage exists of the content in question - or if it has been discussed in any capacity via interviews.