Editing Development of Halo: Combat Evolved
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==Early story and setting drafts== | ==Early story and setting drafts== | ||
[[File:HCE EarliestFlood Concept.jpg|thumb|The earliest known concept art of the Flood, by Robert McLees in roughly 1997 during the RTS days of the game's development.<ref name="AOH52">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 52''</ref> The full resolution was lost during the shuffle of years at Bungie, and the colour resembles human skin more due to McLees' colour-blindness.{{Ref/Reuse|feast}}]] | [[File:HCE EarliestFlood Concept.jpg|thumb|The earliest known concept art of the Flood, by Robert McLees in roughly 1997 during the RTS days of the game's development.<ref name="AOH52">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 52''</ref> The full resolution was lost during the shuffle of years at Bungie, and the colour resembles human skin more due to McLees' colour-blindness.{{Ref/Reuse|feast}}]] | ||
When developing games prior to ''Halo'', Bungie's method of development was to develop their engine, then make their multiplayer gameplay feel good. This was only followed then by campaign as the final element to take place.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/pressscans/display.html?scan=cgw1199 ''halo.bungie.org: Computer Gaming World 1999 scan'']</ref> The development of ''Halo'' was no exception, as the rough story for the game didn't even begin to take shape until mid- | When developing games prior to ''Halo'', Bungie's method of development was to develop their engine, then make their multiplayer gameplay feel good. This was only followed then by campaign as the final element to take place.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.org/pressscans/display.html?scan=cgw1199 ''halo.bungie.org: Computer Gaming World 1999 scan'']</ref> The development of ''Halo'' was no exception, as the rough story for the game didn't even begin to take shape until mid-199, following the Macworld trailer premiere. The first seeds of the franchise were sown following [[Robert McLees]]' creation of the then-"future soldier" (the predecessor to the Master Chief) and the Warthog vehicle, at which point he began to place himself in the year 2500, with the player at war with alien factions.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} In the early stages of the game's development, the game's setting of a "fortress world" was to be a hollowed-out planet, though this soon evolved into a [[dyson sphere]] and later the titular ringworld.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH73}}<ref name="jones">[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=6 ''Bungie.net: Jason Jones Interviewed By You'']</ref> This planet was to have been named "Solipsis", one of the names suggested as the game's title during development.{{Ref/Reuse|IGNhistory}} The evolution of the setting to the ringworld, however, inspired Paul Russel to come up with the name ''Halo'', which was then applied to the ring itself.{{Citation needed}} The earliest drafts of the structure that would later become the [[Portal at Voi]] were concepted by [[Marcus Lehto]]<ref>[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/1088274744456159232 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''These are the oldest drawings of the Ark. Started playing around with this idea during Halo CE development''</ref> and implemented into an early build by around 1998.<ref name="LehtoWireframe">[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/1198285568712441858?s=19 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''This is the very first Warthog I designed for Halo back in 1998. Old pc build only runs in wireframe now. Master Chief could go prone, crouch and drive this somewhat unwieldy vehicle around the map. Even had an early Forerunner Ark in the background! #warthog #halo #cybertruck''</ref><ref group="Note" name="Ark">This concept would later be considered for inclusion in ''Halo 2'' as the Ark, before later being relegated to ''Halo 3'' as the Voi portal.</ref> | ||
By 1997/1998, the [[Flood]] were already being concepted, and story ideas circulating about their role alongside the Covenant. The Flood had been designed by Jason Jones purely for gameplay, and McLees was the first to truly think about what the Flood was in the fiction. His first idea was to have the Flood be a bioweapon engineered by the Covenant, designed as a "living minefield" with which the Covenant would seed planets on their borders, in case anyone tried to make landfall. At the time the game was to be set on a planet, the concept of the [[UNSC]] did not exist yet, simply named the "Empire", later reflected in some of the earliest marketing materials published about the game's story. The story beats of what would become ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' were in place, though still undefined. In this early draft, the player and their ship would crash on a planet populated by humans not part of the Empire, with the player's technology from 2552 and the native technology from the 1950s. The player's goal would be to train the indigenous population for when the Covenant arrived. They would combat the natives in the early levels, and the Covenant later on.<ref name="feast">[http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Feast_of_Bones ''Bungie.net: Feast of Bones'']</ref> | By 1997/1998, the [[Flood]] were already being concepted, and story ideas circulating about their role alongside the Covenant. The Flood had been designed by Jason Jones purely for gameplay, and McLees was the first to truly think about what the Flood was in the fiction. His first idea was to have the Flood be a bioweapon engineered by the Covenant, designed as a "living minefield" with which the Covenant would seed planets on their borders, in case anyone tried to make landfall. At the time the game was to be set on a planet, the concept of the [[UNSC]] did not exist yet, simply named the "Empire", later reflected in some of the earliest marketing materials published about the game's story. The story beats of what would become ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' were in place, though still undefined. In this early draft, the player and their ship would crash on a planet populated by humans not part of the Empire, with the player's technology from 2552 and the native technology from the 1950s. The player's goal would be to train the indigenous population for when the Covenant arrived. They would combat the natives in the early levels, and the Covenant later on.<ref name="feast">[http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Feast_of_Bones ''Bungie.net: Feast of Bones'']</ref> | ||
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Another Flood origin, written by Griesemer, would have the Flood as a meningitis-like disease that made a life form more aggressive and more intelligent. The natives would use the Flood as a rite of passage, throwing males of-age into a mass grave in which they'd climb back out smarter and looking for a fight.{{Ref/Reuse|feast}}<ref group="Note">This origin is remarkably similar to the origins of the Flood and its effects on [[Pheru]] later described in ''[[Halo: Cryptum]]'' and its sequels.</ref> Another idea to emerge in the pre-Microsoft era of ''Halo''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s development was [[Cortana]]. The idea for Cortana came about based on Durandal, an AI companion in Bungie's previous game ''[[Marathon]]'' named after a famous literary French sword. Three words stood out as a "three-pack" - Durandal, Cortana and Joyeuse. Durandal was taken and Joyeuse sounded "lame", so Cortana was chosen to be the AI companion for the Master Chief.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} Character artist Chris Hughes modeled Cortana's face based off the Egyptian queen [[Wikipedia:Nefertiti|Nefertiti]],<ref>[http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive9.pl?read=241110 ''halo.bungie.org: Cortana's face was modeled after an Egyptian queen'']</ref> with an early version of the Cortana character model having symbols on the character's face and featuring green eyes, later removed from the final in-game model. Actress [[Jen Taylor]] was hired to be the voice of Cortana as she and Joseph Staten had been in college together. Cortana was originally slated to have a British accent, but Taylor's previous role in ''No One Lives Forever'' sounded too similar, and Cortana was changed to be American - though some lines such as ''"sod off!"'' and "''toady about"'' remained in the final script.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} One early story draft involved the Master Chief returning to the Control Room of Halo, only to find Cortana had gone mad with power and now wanted to take over the universe - a storyline notably similar to the later premise of ''[[Halo 5: Guardians]]''.{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} | Another Flood origin, written by Griesemer, would have the Flood as a meningitis-like disease that made a life form more aggressive and more intelligent. The natives would use the Flood as a rite of passage, throwing males of-age into a mass grave in which they'd climb back out smarter and looking for a fight.{{Ref/Reuse|feast}}<ref group="Note">This origin is remarkably similar to the origins of the Flood and its effects on [[Pheru]] later described in ''[[Halo: Cryptum]]'' and its sequels.</ref> Another idea to emerge in the pre-Microsoft era of ''Halo''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s development was [[Cortana]]. The idea for Cortana came about based on Durandal, an AI companion in Bungie's previous game ''[[Marathon]]'' named after a famous literary French sword. Three words stood out as a "three-pack" - Durandal, Cortana and Joyeuse. Durandal was taken and Joyeuse sounded "lame", so Cortana was chosen to be the AI companion for the Master Chief.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} Character artist Chris Hughes modeled Cortana's face based off the Egyptian queen [[Wikipedia:Nefertiti|Nefertiti]],<ref>[http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive9.pl?read=241110 ''halo.bungie.org: Cortana's face was modeled after an Egyptian queen'']</ref> with an early version of the Cortana character model having symbols on the character's face and featuring green eyes, later removed from the final in-game model. Actress [[Jen Taylor]] was hired to be the voice of Cortana as she and Joseph Staten had been in college together. Cortana was originally slated to have a British accent, but Taylor's previous role in ''No One Lives Forever'' sounded too similar, and Cortana was changed to be American - though some lines such as ''"sod off!"'' and "''toady about"'' remained in the final script.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} One early story draft involved the Master Chief returning to the Control Room of Halo, only to find Cortana had gone mad with power and now wanted to take over the universe - a storyline notably similar to the later premise of ''[[Halo 5: Guardians]]''.{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} | ||
Sergeant Major [[Avery Johnson]] was another character in the game who emerged early on, as an "caricature unashamedly lifted from ''[[List of references to Aliens in the Halo series|Aliens]]''". Johnson was originally designed to just be a random Marine, but voice actor [[David Scully]]'s improvisation and line delivery impressed people so much he eventually became a larger character in the later games. One suggestion from Marty O'Donnel would involve Johnson ending up on the ship at the end of the game with the player shouting "good to see you, Chief!", though this idea was shot down by Staten as he didn't believe anyone would care about the Marine NPCs.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} Marcus Lehto wanted the marines to look as realistic as possible, and thus watched war movies for reference, but ultimately had to be videotaped by his wife running around with a two-by-four pretending to be a soldier so he could gain more animation reference.<ref name="AOH12">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 12''</ref> | Sergeant Major [[Avery Johnson]] was another character in the game who emerged early on, as an "caricature unashamedly lifted from ''[[List of references to Aliens in the Halo series|Aliens]]''". Johnson was originally designed to just be a random Marine, but voice actor [[David Scully]]'s improvisation and line delivery impressed people so much he eventually became a larger character in the later games. One suggestion from Marty O'Donnel would involve Johnson ending up on the ship at the end of the game with the player shouting "good to see you, Chief!", though this idea was shot down by Staten as he didn't believe anyone would care about the Marine NPCs.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} Marcus Lehto wanted the marines to look as realistic as possible, and thus watched war movies for reference, but ultimately had to be videotaped by his wife running around with a two-by-four pretending to be a soldier so he could gain more animation reference.<ref name="AOH12">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 12''</ref> | ||
The main character of the game, [[John-117]] - The Master Chief - emerged as the "future soldier" in the RTS days of the game's development. During this time, the future soldier was just one of several types of unit available to the player. As development evolved, production became more and more centered on the player and the character they control. The name of "John" was conceived by ''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' writer [[Eric Nylund]],{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} while the "117" was created by [[Eric Trautmann]] as a [[List of references to religion in the Halo series|reference]] to 1:17, Revelation of St. John the Divide - ''"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead."''<ref name="trautmann117">[https://twitter.com/mercuryeric/status/883832744936996864 ''Twitter: Eric Trautmann Twitter thread on the origins of John-117 and Halsey'']</ref> These names recieved pushback from Bungie, who didn't want to call their main character "John" in the game. A meeting with Griesemer, Jones, McLees and Staten turned out the suggestion from McLees to name him after a military rank, with Griesemer suggesting Sergeant. McLees pointed out John would be in the [[UNSC Navy|Navy]], so a Naval rank would be appropriate. Griesemer instead suggested Commander, similar to ''[[Wikipedia:James Bond|James Bond]]'', though McLees also countered that Commander would be too high a rank for someone being sent into battle like the player does. The team then looked at real world military rank structures, and found "Master Chief Petty Officer" as the highest non-commissioned officer rank in the Navy, and gave that name to the Master Chief. Many people in the team didn't like the name, but it stuck.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} At one point, Microsoft urged the team to change the name from Master Chief to "The Commando" to better reflect the tone of the game.<ref>[http://halo.xbox.com/Content/assets/en-us/Podcast/343Sparkast_006.mp3 ''343 Sparkast #6''] (Archived copy available [https://web.archive.org/web/20120201111637/http://halo.xbox.com/Content/assets/en-us/Podcast/343Sparkast_006.mp3 here]</ref> | The main character of the game, [[John-117]] - The Master Chief - emerged as the "future soldier" in the RTS days of the game's development. During this time, the future soldier was just one of several types of unit available to the player. As development evolved, production became more and more centered on the player and the character they control. The name of "John" was conceived by ''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' writer [[Eric Nylund]],{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} while the "117" was created by [[Eric Trautmann]] as a [[List of references to religion in the Halo series|reference]] to 1:17, Revelation of St. John the Divide - ''"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead."''<ref name="trautmann117">[https://twitter.com/mercuryeric/status/883832744936996864 ''Twitter: Eric Trautmann Twitter thread on the origins of John-117 and Halsey'']</ref> These names recieved pushback from Bungie, who didn't want to call their main character "John" in the game. A meeting with Griesemer, Jones, McLees and Staten turned out the suggestion from McLees to name him after a military rank, with Griesemer suggesting Sergeant. McLees pointed out John would be in the [[UNSC Navy|Navy]], so a Naval rank would be appropriate. Griesemer instead suggested Commander, similar to ''[[Wikipedia:James Bond|James Bond]]'', though McLees also countered that Commander would be too high a rank for someone being sent into battle like the player does. The team then looked at real world military rank structures, and found "Master Chief Petty Officer" as the highest non-commissioned officer rank in the Navy, and gave that name to the Master Chief. Many people in the team didn't like the name, but it stuck.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} At one point, Microsoft urged the team to change the name from Master Chief to "The Commando" to better reflect the tone of the game.<ref>[http://halo.xbox.com/Content/assets/en-us/Podcast/343Sparkast_006.mp3 ''343 Sparkast #6''] (Archived copy available [https://web.archive.org/web/20120201111637/http://halo.xbox.com/Content/assets/en-us/Podcast/343Sparkast_006.mp3 here]</ref> | ||
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==Campaign== | ==Campaign== | ||
In planning out the game's campaign, Marcus Lehto built a number and letter system on 3x5 index cards pinned to a board. There were around 40 of these cards, with numbers and letters such as A10, A20, A30 and so forth. The mission "[[Halo (Halo: Combat Evolved level)|Halo]]" had the name A30, while "Truth and Reconciliation" had the name A50. A40 was the name given to an eventually cut mission, possibly one referenced to be set near a volcano involving "heavy machinery. | In planning out the game's campaign, Marcus Lehto built a number and letter system on 3x5 index cards pinned to a board. There were around 40 of these cards, with numbers and letters such as A10, A20, A30 and so forth. The mission "[[Halo (Halo: Combat Evolved level)|Halo]]" had the name A30, while "Truth and Reconciliation" had the name A50. A40 was the name given to an eventually cut mission, possibly one referenced to be set near a volcano involving "heavy machinery".{{Ref/Reuse|campaigndecember}} Later on, twenty five missions were planned in total, but only ten made the final cut - with heavy asset and layout reuse included.<ref>[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/better-than-halo-the-making-of-halo-2-article?page=4 ''Eurogamer: Better Than Halo: The Making of Halo 2''] - ''Page 4''</ref> | ||
The first level developed for the game was B30 - The Silent Cartographer. B30 began as a test map for the developers at Bungie to test weapons, models, textures, effects and other aspects of development on.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH79}} This terrain was rebuilt several times over the course of development,{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} and was later used for early demonstrations of the game. This mission was the one in which the Forerunner art style was truly developed by artist Paul Russel.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH80}} The mission's original objective was to feature the player hunting down and assassinating a Covenant [[Prophet]] who was trying to find the Silent Cartographer, an idea later reused in ''Halo 2''. The swaying of the dropship in the mission's intro was done just to "look cool", while the marine sat opposite the player in the Pelican in the intro sequence would originally stare forward at the player rather than look out of the drop bay. A level was originally supposed to take place between The Silent Cartographer and the following level "[[Assault on the Control Room]]", but the level was cut and instead replaced by the cutscene of the Pelican descending into the ring's depths through the structure in the center of the Silent Cartographer island. The Pelican did not actually fit inside the structure, and the cutscene never shows the Pelican going through the hole but instead clips between the Pelican on either side to give the illusion of doing so. Despite this, Assault on the Control Room retains the name B40. The decision was made to send the Pelican underground due to lack of matte painting resources available to show the ship flying from a tropical island to a snowy canyon.{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} | The first level developed for the game was B30 - The Silent Cartographer. B30 began as a test map for the developers at Bungie to test weapons, models, textures, effects and other aspects of development on.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH79}} This terrain was rebuilt several times over the course of development,{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} and was later used for early demonstrations of the game. This mission was the one in which the Forerunner art style was truly developed by artist Paul Russel.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH80}} The mission's original objective was to feature the player hunting down and assassinating a Covenant [[Prophet]] who was trying to find the Silent Cartographer, an idea later reused in ''Halo 2''. The swaying of the dropship in the mission's intro was done just to "look cool", while the marine sat opposite the player in the Pelican in the intro sequence would originally stare forward at the player rather than look out of the drop bay. A level was originally supposed to take place between The Silent Cartographer and the following level "[[Assault on the Control Room]]", but the level was cut and instead replaced by the cutscene of the Pelican descending into the ring's depths through the structure in the center of the Silent Cartographer island. The Pelican did not actually fit inside the structure, and the cutscene never shows the Pelican going through the hole but instead clips between the Pelican on either side to give the illusion of doing so. Despite this, Assault on the Control Room retains the name B40. The decision was made to send the Pelican underground due to lack of matte painting resources available to show the ship flying from a tropical island to a snowy canyon.{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} | ||
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[[File:MarcusLehto PreCE Halo sketch.jpg|thumb|200px|An early sketch of the ring's mechanics prior to the in-game model being created.<ref>[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/707762473122680834 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''Sketch before building the first #Halo ring. Was my math way off for a 1.5hr rotation to provide Earth-like gravity?''</ref>]] | [[File:MarcusLehto PreCE Halo sketch.jpg|thumb|200px|An early sketch of the ring's mechanics prior to the in-game model being created.<ref>[https://twitter.com/game_fabricator/status/707762473122680834 ''Marcus Lehto on Twitter:''] ''Sketch before building the first #Halo ring. Was my math way off for a 1.5hr rotation to provide Earth-like gravity?''</ref>]] | ||
[[File:PreXbox Ring.jpg|thumb|200px|In the 1999 builds, the ring had the appearance of being broken or unfinished, a concept later reused for [[Installation 08]] in ''[[Halo 3]]''.]] | [[File:PreXbox Ring.jpg|thumb|200px|In the 1999 builds, the ring had the appearance of being broken or unfinished, a concept later reused for [[Installation 08]] in ''[[Halo 3]]''.]] | ||
One of the early distinctions made about ''Halo'' in development was for there to be a clear distinction between The UNSC and Covenant design aesthetic, with the UNSC employing traditional ammuninition-based weaponry to differentiate from the aliens' high-tech [[plasma weaponry|plasma weapons]]. Artist [[Shi Kai Wang]] was employed to define the look of the Covenant, taking curvilinear forms from sea creatures, shells and iridescent textures from a horseshoe crab carapace, eventually defining the Covenant with a blue, purple and green colour scheme.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} This direction took the form of the three "design schools" of ''Halo''; the aforementioned human and Covenant, and the Forerunners with large cavernous and mysterious structures. This idea was spearheaded by Paul Russel.<ref name="AOH71">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 71''</ref> The Covenant environments were primarily showcased in the level "[[The Truth and Reconciliation]]", with the original plan for the level involving a ramp the player would walk up to access the ship, intended to be low to the ground. However, the art team didn't want to have the player be able to inspect the ship up-close due to the low resolution of the in-game asset, so the [[gravity lift]] technology was conceived to to help provide the player with a way of entering the ship while keeping the vessel airborne. This idea proved to be more visually interesting that the level was structured around the gravity | One of the early distinctions made about ''Halo'' in development was for there to be a clear distinction between The UNSC and Covenant design aesthetic, with the UNSC employing traditional ammuninition-based weaponry to differentiate from the aliens' high-tech [[plasma weaponry|plasma weapons]]. Artist [[Shi Kai Wang]] was employed to define the look of the Covenant, taking curvilinear forms from sea creatures, shells and iridescent textures from a horseshoe crab carapace, eventually defining the Covenant with a blue, purple and green colour scheme.{{Ref/Reuse|untold}} This direction took the form of the three "design schools" of ''Halo''; the aforementioned human and Covenant, and the Forerunners with large cavernous and mysterious structures. This idea was spearheaded by Paul Russel.<ref name="AOH71">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 71''</ref> The Covenant environments were primarily showcased in the level "[[The Truth and Reconciliation]]", with the original plan for the level involving a ramp the player would walk up to access the ship, intended to be low to the ground. However, the art team didn't want to have the player be able to inspect the ship up-close due to the low resolution of the in-game asset, so the [[gravity lift]] technology was conceived to to help provide the player with a way of entering the ship while keeping the vessel airborne. This idea proved to be more visually interesting that the level was structured around the gravity <ref name="AOH85">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 85''</ref> | ||
To develop the characteristic feel of the Forerunners, Marcus Lehto treated the setting of [[Installation 04]] as a character or entity unto itself - the team started with an idea of the ring's scale and function, and from there began to develop the Forerunner visual language. The ring's external surface and internal landmasses were created by concept painter [[Craig Mullins]], who created a series of images showing the ring in various | To develop the characteristic feel of the Forerunners, Marcus Lehto treated the setting of [[Installation 04]] as a character or entity unto itself - the team started with an idea of the ring's scale and function, and from there began to develop the Forerunner visual language. The ring's external surface and internal landmasses were created by concept painter [[Craig Mullins]], who created a series of images showing the ring in various tages of dissamebly with one pristine and new, one damaged and one on fire and coming apart. The ring's surface texture was gleaned from these paintings and later applied to the in-game 3D model.<ref name="AOH77">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 77''</ref> Lehto felt that the structures on the surface of the ring were simply the tip of the iceberg, with each structure unique and filled with increasingly complex machinery beneath the surface. The Forerunner architecture was created through a process of trial and error, with the original style concepted in the old Chicago office a mix of Aztec and Louis B. Sullivan. The style was broken through with roughly five months before the game reached "content complete" status due to concept art created by Eddie Smith, who would produce several pieces of art depicting Forerunner structures.<ref name="AOH79">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 79''</ref> Smith had little mandate or direction when he first started doing sketches of the Forerunner environments, but wanted to give the environment art team a starting point to begin their work on the levels. There was a vague notion of how things ''could'' look but nothing concrete, so Smith began to sketch based on the story synopsis, trying to differentiate from the existing Human and Covenant environments in a style he referred to as "streamlined industrial".<ref name="AOH80">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 80''</ref> | ||
For Russel, the Forerunner visual language solidified during the production of the level "[[The Silent Cartographer]]", during building the segments in which Master Chief descends into the interior of the map room. During development, Russel found the architecture beginning to evolve the deeper he went, and he kept improving and refining the formula as he continued on the level until he reached the bottom.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH80}} The swamps of Installation 04 found in the later level "[[343 Guilty Spark (level)|343 Guilty Spark]]" were designed with lots of fog in the level for both mood and atmosphere reasons, but also to hide level geometry and save performance.<ref>[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/126782/343_Industries_OConnor_Speaks_Out_On_Halo_Anniversarys_New_Visuals.php#comments ''Gamasutra: 343 Industries' O'Connor Speaks Out On Halo: Anniversary's New Visuals'']</ref> During the production of the level, artist [[Michael Wu]] spent a lot of time working on one of the signature mangrove trees in the level's start, characteristically referred to as the "evil tree".<ref name="AOH82">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 82''</ref> Late in production, Griesemer worked on the level, placing the blood decals and Covenant barricades around.{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} | For Russel, the Forerunner visual language solidified during the production of the level "[[The Silent Cartographer]]", during building the segments in which Master Chief descends into the interior of the map room. During development, Russel found the architecture beginning to evolve the deeper he went, and he kept improving and refining the formula as he continued on the level until he reached the bottom.{{Ref/Reuse|AOH80}} The swamps of Installation 04 found in the later level "[[343 Guilty Spark (level)|343 Guilty Spark]]" were designed with lots of fog in the level for both mood and atmosphere reasons, but also to hide level geometry and save performance.<ref>[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/126782/343_Industries_OConnor_Speaks_Out_On_Halo_Anniversarys_New_Visuals.php#comments ''Gamasutra: 343 Industries' O'Connor Speaks Out On Halo: Anniversary's New Visuals'']</ref> During the production of the level, artist [[Michael Wu]] spent a lot of time working on one of the signature mangrove trees in the level's start, characteristically referred to as the "evil tree".<ref name="AOH82">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 82''</ref> Late in production, Griesemer worked on the level, placing the blood decals and Covenant barricades around.{{Ref/Reuse|commentary}} | ||
The human aesthetic - primarily that of the interiors of the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} - was driven by Paul Russel's inspiration from the works of the artist Ron Cobb, who had done a number of instrumental work on developing the look of the ''Nostromo'' in ''[[Wikipedia:Alien|Alien]]'' and the colony in ''[[Wikipedia:Aliens|Aliens]]''. The interior of the vessel was designed to look believable and interesting, with drink vending machines, [[bulletin board]]s, and | The human aesthetic - primarily that of the interiors of the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} - was driven by Paul Russel's inspiration from the works of the artist Ron Cobb, who had done a number of instrumental work on developing the look of the ''Nostromo'' in ''[[Wikipedia:Alien|Alien]]'' and the colony in ''[[Wikipedia:Aliens|Aliens]]''. The interior of the vessel was designed to look believable and interesting, with drink vending machines, [[bulletin board]]s, and signed denoting various areas of the ship for the crew and the player. Paul tried to take the industrial look developed by Cobb for ''Alien'' and riff on that without turning into a blatant copy, wanting to show things in a functional way that looked like it fit together. The final result was a design direction which looked like it had been built by human hands.<ref name="AOH75">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 75''</ref> Smith also provided concept artwork for the interior of the ''Autumn'', with [[Lorraine McLees]] developing some of the exterior look. McLees' involvement in the game's production was primarily to do with visual branding and marketing and began working on the ship as everyone else on the team was too busy to do so. Griesemer and Lehto specified they wanted the vessel to look distinctly human, but the only human designs in the game at that point in time were the Warthog, weapons and a now-cut boat. McLees did a handful of sketches, and the team was drawn to one reminiscent of the shape of the assault rifle. At the request of Lehto, the ship was lengthened about three hundred percent to make it longer than tall.<ref name="AOH125">''The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World'' - ''p. 125''</ref> | ||
===Weapons=== | ===Weapons=== | ||
