“We had people who we hired who hated Halo because of ‘X,’” says O’Connor. “But what that really meant was, ‘I feel like this game could be awesome because of ‘Y input’ that I’m going to bring into it. I want to prove it, and I’m passionate about proving it.’ So we ended up with a bunch of people who were genuinely passionate about the product. That is a huge advantage, and that helped in hiring and forming our team.”
“It’s during that time you’re questioning yourself: 'How is this going to work, will it be as I envision it in my head?” says Holmes. For Halo 4 , he says there were a few epiphany moments that helped boost the morale of the team. One of the earlier ones that Holmes recalls was when the team completed a small piece of the Halo experience that he described as a “very traditional” Halo. User research showed that people thought it was a lot of fun, and it showed that the team was capable of making a Halo game that was true to what the series was about.
“343 scrapped it, Holmes says, as it was too traditional. But that first build showed the new team that this amalgamation of different studio cultures could work together and achieve a common goal.”
I know. It shows 343’s treating Halo like a typical corporate widget instead of an organic passion project. I specifically mentioned Halo 5 and how it looked like it was designed by the same focus group that helps design boy band’s hair styles or the packaging of women’s sanitary products.
Didn’t Colt or Rand say somewhere on Twitter (or anywhere else) that we could have something from Xbox at Geoff’s Kickoff? Something like this caught my eye few days ago.
I have no idea why you think diversity and inclusion are the reasons Halo 5’a story was mediocre.
This shows me that 343 wastes too much time with focus groups and stupid BS like that when talented people don’t need people to tell them how to make a good game.
This is also patently not true, focus groups are a tried and true way of getting feedback in early development. Don’t cherry pick.
