Bungie discusses "Minecraft-like" Project Phoenix, "ridiculous" RPG project
Bungie once prototyped a game with Minecraft-style construction mechanics, co-founder Jason Jones has revealed in an interview series with IGN. The developer also built a number of smaller games to "test out some ideas" alongside work on the Halo series, including an untitled role-playing effort. "A long time ago we built an RPG, just to test out some ideas and learn things that we didn't know and think about what disciplines on the design team we needed to hire for that we didn't already have in the studio," the seldom-heard Jones told the site. "We built a number of little games. They were pretty fun."
Bungie never intended to release any of these games, he added. "Yeah, no, absolutely not. We built ridiculous little projects. They were sort of cool."
Jones went onto discuss Project Phoenix, which was in development at the same time as Halo: Combat Evolved - to its detriment, alas. "There was a lot that was really interesting about it, even back in Chicago, before the [Microsoft] acquisition.
"It was a game that was based on a technology that was sort of Minecraft-like, in that it could render... You could build castles out of blocks, for example, and then knock them down. Ultimately the reason the game never saw the light of day was because of Halo. The team got scavenged a number of times, both on Halo 1 and Halo 2, to finish Halo."
Technological similarities to Minecraft aside, Project Phoenix was to be a mixture of real-time strategy and... something else. "It was cool. There were big castles and you could knock them down with trebuchets. Knocking holes in the wall, and dudes would come out." CastleStorm wants a word, Jones.
"It's hard to even describe," he confessed. "It was trying to find out what it was, and it hadn't. It made it very clear at several junctures, 'Well, should we put all the resources on the team behind Halo, or should we keep working on this game?' Eventually we made the decision that it was Halo. The team just went away, or the project went away. The people are still here."
Bungie's got its hands full with Destiny nowadays, of course. Would you like them to resurrect Phoenix regardless? The choice of title does seem to invite it. While we're talking games-that-were, an older draft of the studio's contract with Activision to produce Destiny makes mention of a Marathon reboot.
Source: OXM[SUP][1][/SUP]
[h=3]References[/h]
Thanks to: Rheena.com
Bungie once prototyped a game with Minecraft-style construction mechanics, co-founder Jason Jones has revealed in an interview series with IGN. The developer also built a number of smaller games to "test out some ideas" alongside work on the Halo series, including an untitled role-playing effort. "A long time ago we built an RPG, just to test out some ideas and learn things that we didn't know and think about what disciplines on the design team we needed to hire for that we didn't already have in the studio," the seldom-heard Jones told the site. "We built a number of little games. They were pretty fun."
Bungie never intended to release any of these games, he added. "Yeah, no, absolutely not. We built ridiculous little projects. They were sort of cool."
Jones went onto discuss Project Phoenix, which was in development at the same time as Halo: Combat Evolved - to its detriment, alas. "There was a lot that was really interesting about it, even back in Chicago, before the [Microsoft] acquisition.
"It was a game that was based on a technology that was sort of Minecraft-like, in that it could render... You could build castles out of blocks, for example, and then knock them down. Ultimately the reason the game never saw the light of day was because of Halo. The team got scavenged a number of times, both on Halo 1 and Halo 2, to finish Halo."
Technological similarities to Minecraft aside, Project Phoenix was to be a mixture of real-time strategy and... something else. "It was cool. There were big castles and you could knock them down with trebuchets. Knocking holes in the wall, and dudes would come out." CastleStorm wants a word, Jones.
"It's hard to even describe," he confessed. "It was trying to find out what it was, and it hadn't. It made it very clear at several junctures, 'Well, should we put all the resources on the team behind Halo, or should we keep working on this game?' Eventually we made the decision that it was Halo. The team just went away, or the project went away. The people are still here."
Bungie's got its hands full with Destiny nowadays, of course. Would you like them to resurrect Phoenix regardless? The choice of title does seem to invite it. While we're talking games-that-were, an older draft of the studio's contract with Activision to produce Destiny makes mention of a Marathon reboot.
Source: OXM[SUP][1][/SUP]
[h=3]References[/h]
- [SUP]^[/SUP] Source: OXM (www.oxm.co.uk)
Thanks to: Rheena.com