Reel off a list of the best game designers working at the moment. Go on... (pause for thought). Done? How many of you have Jason Jones on that list? 'Fess up, which one of you said "who"? Would the creator of the classic (albeit Mac) Marathon games, the engineer and designer of Myth, and mind behind the stunning Halo engine be worthy of a place? Probably, but the publicity shy founder of Bungie has avoided the spotlight of game designer fame. however, with the buzz that's surrounding Halo, started at last year's E3, and further enhanced by the demo given at this year's event (and available exclusively on The PC Gamer CD), we had to find out what was on the mind of the game's technical engineer and designer.
"We're all huge sci-fi fans here," says Jones, "and with a few notable exceptions, Hollywood has forgotten how to make a real sci-fi film. So a lot of our inspiration has come from literature."
Unlike cinema, which often blandly duplicates the success of former crowd-pleasures like Blade Runner, current sci-fi authors like Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash), Iain Banks (Consider Phlebas) and Peter Hamilton (The Neutronium Alchemist) provide the petrol that fuels the imagination of Halo's team. "In the way that Ian Banks is really hard sci-fi, we're trying to stay very realistic," says Jones. "Everything in the game should be realistic and believable, which is something that Banks does really well."
We've all seen some of the amazing screenshots of Halo, but even Jones admits that "everyone stops paying attention to what a game looks like after a couple of hours of playing it," he says. So why is Halo going to be more filling than just a bowl of icing? Jones claims that the single-player game, which many shooters have abandoned in recent months, is going to be as good as any game out there. "We thing we have a story that is so good," he says, "you could write a book about it and sell it as a sci-fi novel."
That's a bold claim, as a lot of games have fallen short of their literary aspirations. Furthermore, in the past few years, multiplayer online gaming, and the explosion of the mod community have upstaged the single-player experience. But Jones is just as confident that Halo will be a new standard in squad-based, multiplayer combat.
There will be a lot more to do than simple team deathmatch, as mods like Counter-Strike for Half-Life have shown that squad-level, class-based action can be a compelling experience. Jones is coy about the multiplayer features of Halo, but he promises us an experience more realistic and intense than you will find anywhere else.
The physics in Halo are quite simply stunning, with no detail overlooked -- from the realistic ejection of spent cartridges, to the contrails of a missile drifting away in the breeze. This kind of attention to detail is brought to the vehicles, too, which are one of the most intriguing aspects of Halo. Although other games have used crafts as part of combat, Jones says, boasting, "Our vehicles are going to be ten times better [than anyone else's]."
Look for some multiplayer battles to start with one side establishing air superiority before ground troops begin their assault. And don't think that only the swift and the strong will rule on the battlefield. There will be a lot to do besides shoot the bad guys, including driving the vehicles, sabotaging the enemy's installations, and other forms of indirect support.
The coming months are going to be crowded with squad-based online shooters, so Halo is going to have to do a lot to distinguish itself from games like Tribes 2 and Team Fortress 2, both of which have a proven track record as multiplayer games. So what is Halo doing to stand apart? Like many developers, Jones keeps his cards close to his vest because competitors could easily adopt the kind of gameplay innovations planned for Halo. "Things like [new technology] are easy to talk about." he says, "because they are hard to implement." But he promises that once the game is on our machines, we will be marveling not only at how it looks, but at how it plays.
Like Bungie's previous game Marathon (a technologically impressive first-person shooter originally released for the Mac), the story will involve the active participation of an AI life form. Just before the main character lands on the ring planet -- the halo-shaped world that gives the game its name -- the AI will download itself into his cybernetic matrix, and become a sort of unseen supporting character. "The AI is actually with you all the time," Jones says. "Instead of saying 'Hey, there's a sniper lined up on your head,' she'll say 'Hey, there's a sniper lined up on our head.' I think that is really powerful emotionally, and will give us lots of interesting possibilities as designers."
Just as interesting is Halo's emphasis on a variety of tactics. Jones feels that the best games are those that allow gamers to choose how they want to play. So in Halo, you can solve a problem with a sniper rifle, a tank, or even air power. But don't expect to hit the quick-save button before launching an attack. Jones regards the unceasing saving and reloading as a tiresome style that should be abandoned. "We have a lot of really good ideas that allow you to have the experience of being constantly near death but without punishing the player with constant reloading," he says.
But he also admits that the Halo team is still undecided on some areas of the game, such as camera placement. Sniping will be done in a first-person perspective because, "there's no other way to do it," he says. But the team is still debating the first/third-person issue. When driving a jeep, for instance, Jones is strongly committed to a third-person view. But won't that make it harder to run over the bad guys? "I don't think so," Jones says with a laugh. "It's sort of the same problem with parallel parking in real life; it's a lot easier to do in third-person. And running people over is the same thing. You have a much better idea of how big your car is and in what direction they are moving. But other players in the vehicle, like gunners, will be able to use a first-person view."
As in all team-based games, cooperation is going to be paramount, but Jones isn't rushing to embrace new technologies like voice-over-'net or the Powerplay protocol hyped by Valve but now conspicuously absent from the headlines. "One of the things that we are trying to do as much as possible," he says, "is eliminate the need for non-social communication in the game. The thing I am worried about is the modem player. Do you want your bandwidth taken up with some guy talking to you, or do you want your bandwidth to be used to line up your sniper shot?" If voice-over-'net makes sense, then "Halo will absolutely have it," but until then, he has adopted a wait and see attitude.
One thing that is certain about the game is that once it ships, you will be able to use Bungie's tools to create mods. Halo will come with a full-featured, C-based editor that will allow the mod community to take the game in different directions. Although the editor will most likely be pretty complicated -- it is coming from the folks at Bungie, after all -- casual coders will be able to reshape the game and perhaps do things even Jones never imagined.
As with most high-profile titles, the developers are reluctant to talk about release dates. Jones politely side steps the issue and assures us that it won't ship until it's done. That's fine, because it's games like Halo that make us buy shiny new rigs we can't afford and skip a day at work waiting for the DSL guy. This is one worth waiting for.
