BTS: Anniversary Multiplayer

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BTS: Anniversary Multiplayer is a 343 Industries Behind-the-Scenes documentary video that offers a look at the developmental process of the multiplayer of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. It was first released on YouTube and Halo Waypoint on August 27, 2011. The video features exclusive interviews with 343 Industries employees explaining how and why they have chosen which specific maps should be remade for Halo: Anniversary, as well as the development process for the maps themselves. Integration with Halo: Reach's multiplayer component is also discussed.

Transcript

X BEGINNING OF TRANSMISSION

• Max Hoberman: "There's always been an aspect of Halo 1 multiplayer that was really strong, Halo 1 had this incredibly diverse set of maps. It really was this focused experience. It had this beautiful simplicity."

• David Ellis: "It's not often that a game addicts me like that, were I just have to keep playing."

• Greg Hermann: "It was amazing for me to see our entire art team would just go down for entire evenings at a time, until 4 o'clock until 10 o'clock, to just play Halo multiplayer."

The Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and BTS's logo appear.

• Dan Ayoub: "It wasn't that easy to just go through and say 'here are the maps that shipped with the original and this is what we're gonna do' because we wanted to do something bigger around the tenth anniversary."

• Frank O'Connor: "We also had to think about the existing Reach player-base. And didn't want to fragment it."

• Bill Fox: "Looking at it from the player's perspective in the current day, with the current abilities; how would I play this level and what do I think is missing?"

• Frank O'Connor: "We look at maps from the Halo series in entire including Halo: CE, Halo PC and even Halo 2; and we thought which of the maps are people's favorites that work well with the Reach engine and gameplay."

Beaver Creek

Main article: Battle Canyon

• Chad Armstrong: "One of the things we came back to was we wanted people to take a look at the map and immediately think 'Oh yeah, I loved that map'!"

• Adam Crist: "Beaver Creek was actually the map that started the discussion of are we going to enhance the map or are we just going to make pure remakes."

• David Pout: "For each of the maps we're doing two modes, we're doing a classic mode which stays as true to the classic map layout as possible and we're doing a tweaked and refined mode."

• Frank O'Connor: "Because you have things like sprint and jet pack, we took the opportunity to put in some new spaces and new routes, tunnels and areas so that you can keep the gameplay moving so that it's not such a dead end once you reach the end of the canyon."

• David Ellis: "It's still a small map, but it feels bigger than it is."

• Dan Ayoub: "You don't feel as isolated, you very much feel like your in a world that is alive and influx."

• Adam Crist: "We want you to feel the pain of nostalgia every time you look at the map."

Timberland

Main article: Ridgeline

• Frank O'Connor: "We chose Timberland because it was kind of an unsung classic."

• Chad Armstrong: "Probably one of the best vehicle maps; we spent a lot of time in custom servers on Halo PC playing Team Slayer on it."

• Adam Crist: "The map itself is actually now 20% smaller that what it used to be."

• David Pout: "On the art side, we've added a lot more tree cover; there's a big canopy of trees which makes the player space more interesting."

• Bill Fox: "We'd like to think of this as Central Park, New York city; there's this beautiful landscape but right on the edge is a city off around them."

• Frank O'Connor: "There's so many tight turns that there are lots of places for you to get hung up on and grenaded. Fun stuff happens.

• Max Hoberman: "What other FPS do you get to put colorful flowers and green grass on your map?"

Prisoner

Main article: Solitary

• Chad Armstrong: "Another example of a map that was grey walls all the way through."

• David Ellis: "You feel like you're in a box with ramps."

• Max Hoberman: "We wanted to make it feel like a prison by putting it a place which couldn't be accessed."

• Adam Crist: "There's a lot of walls and windows; we've even added glass to the floor."

• Chad Armstrong: "It's an interesting challenge to add navigation or even add new pathways that aren't dominated by jet packs on a purely vertical map. We've added bridges to change the flow of the map; we don't want to overdo it because if there's too much noise in a confined space then the map just gets frustrating to navigate."

• Dan Ayoub: "The game play is still the same, but it makes you feel like you're in a much more dynamic world."

Damnation

Main article: Penance

• Bill Fox: "Damnation is a really good example of just purple walls, and that's what represented the Covenant theme."

• Chad Armstrong: "We kind of left it to Certain Affinity to think about whether they cam give this map a context. I think they started in the room with the waterfalls."

• Max Hoberman: "We really wanted to give people a sense that they are in this water-processing plant of this facility which had to deal with these natural elements."

• David Ellis: "At the bottom of the waterfall, there used to be a space where you would have to jump through spaces, but now there is just a single walk-way."

• Bill Fox: "You didn't realize it the first time you played it in the original, but now there's all these ledges and different opportunities to get around your opponent and flank them that weren't there before."

• Adam Crist: "I think with our additions including jet packs so you don't fall to your death all of the time, the map has really changed a lot; just the general flow and it's a of fun to play."

Installation 04

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