The World Conquering Crew Of Halo 2
Joe Staten
Cinematics Director
"This is bull****!" barks Staten as he twitches in his chair. He isn't complaining about a bug in the code, he's reciting one of the 17,000 lines of dialog he wrote for Halo 2. (The script is 10 times longer than the first game's.) This particular outburst comes when a player's rocket launcher gets stolen by another player, who swaps it for a far wimpier weapon - a stunt you couldn't pull off in the original game.
Staten has a flair for the dramatic. He majored in theatre and briefly did improv after college. But he also knows a thing or two about commando behavior. He got a master's in military history at the University of Chicago and signed on for a two-year recruitement program with the CIA. Staten mined this experience to add secret-agent-ese and authentic spook tactics to the game. As for his flirtation with the government underworld, it didn't last. "The CIA didn't think I was enough of a son of a *****," he said.
Chris Carney
Environment Designer
As a Seattle architect during the dotcom boom years, Carney designed offices for fledgling startups. As Bungie, he's no less a builder. "In the past, I developed spaces that were intended as group offices, kitchens, and entry lobbies," he says. "Now I focus on spaces that provide good points of cover, create interesting tactical positions, and contain elevated sniper positions."
A big part of his job was to build online multiplayer environements - a new task for Bungie since the first game came out before the Xbox Live system was in place. In a deliberate shift away from the overfamiliar dungeons, Carney crafted Escher-like third dimensions with steep stairways for the Zanzibar level and vents fo traveling through the officer tower realm. Don't worry, there's plenty to explore here - all of Halo could fit into a single canyon in one of Halo 2's stages.
Lorraine and Rob McLees
Weapons Artists
They fell in love over assault rifles on an Indiana firing range. "We were out in the middle of nowhere," Lorraine recalls. "I got 6 out of 12 hits on the target with my SKS." These days, the McLeeses do most of their shooting over the networks at Bungie. Rob - who's been with the company since 1995, even before the prototype of Halo was known internally as Monkey Nuts - designs the weapons. Lorraine arranges the characters' pistol-packing poses. "Some cops commended me for how realistically the girl from Oni (an early Bungie game) holds her gun," she says proudly.
To make the game's arsenal just as believable, Rob hung out with special forces troopers and added realistic details like a saftey on the magnum and magazines that hold the correct amount of ammo. Best of all: no need to choose just one of the coll weapons. In the sequel, you can tote two at once.
Eric Arroyo
Vehicle Artist
Arroyo was born a carn nut. The son of a street racer, he grew up listening to his dad's stories about tearing up Long Island asphault. Now he's consumed by the vehicles in Halo 2.
The first game's garage housed gun-toting Warthog ATVs, extraterrestrial Pelican jets, and Ghost hovercrafts. For the sequel, Arroyo has added a squidlike ship that deposits Covenant minions onto other crafts. With new texturing tools on his palette, he detailed the existing machines with ice-encrusted snow treads and sea-salted rusty chassis. And taking advantage of a ravamped physics engine that allows for destructible environments, all of the vehicles break up on impact. "I've made sure there's plenty of candy under the wrapper," he says. To really appreciate Arroyo's handiwork, just aim a rocket launcher at a Warthog and let'er rip.
Marty O'Donnell
Audio Director
In the 1980's, O'Donnell was a mullet-topped lead singer in a prog rock band called the Digial Benders. When a buddy needed help with a children's vitamin campaign, he went coprorate and penned a wicked Dino ditty: We are Flintstones kids - 10 million strong, and growing!
Just as indelible are the ethereal chants he gave the choir of monks in Halo. He reprised the tune for Halo 2, adding some hellion guitar licks courtesy of Steve Vai. "If you get a melody that sticks in people's heads," he says, "you've won."
To make crushing a skull sound just right, O'Donnell recorded himself pulverizing a cantaloupe with a steel pipe; for a bird's wings, he flapped burlap. And with code that automatically alters the music's pitch according to each player's behavior, a gentle collision creates a much quieter noise than a ghost ship screaming full speed into a cliff
