Halo 4 Developer Frank O'Connor Interview

**MrRaverX** Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:18 pm

Halo 4 Developer Frank O'Connor Interview
David Lynch

343 Industries gives us the low down on everything Halo.
Published on Aug 5, 2011

Frank O’Connor knows Halo inside and out, and as
creative director at 343 Industries, is in charge of how it gets to you
in all its multimedia forms. We speak to him about 343 Industries latest
projects, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 4.

Is it weird to be working on a Halo game without Bungie? How has it changed the development process?

Bungie may have moved on to new things, but the legacy of their code
and talent is the heart beating at the core of Anniversary. We’ve added a
huge amount of love and attention in bringing it up-to-date visually
and aurally, and we’ve inserted some very cool new features. If you like
the way it looks now, and the cool features we’ve added, then hopefully
that will give you some optimism about what to expect from Halo 4.

How do you think Anniversary will hold up against this year’s biggest hitters, of which there are many?

Anniversary obviously isn’t designed to be one of this year’s
marketing-fuelled blockbusters – but we think there are enough Halo
fans, and folks curious about Halo who missed last-gen, to have it make a
splash. It’s a celebration and so we’re treating it as such. This will
sound odd, but it’s one of the games I am most looking forward to
playing through this year. I loved the original and it will be
mesmerizing to experience it again with next-gen everything.

Would you consider going through the same process for Halo 2?

We haven’t got any plans to do that at this time, but we’d give it
some thought. It’s a question we get asked a lot, but it would have to
be the right thing to do for that particular game. Halo Anniversary was
built to celebrate ten years of Halo.

Does 343 see this as a way of proving its worth to Halo’s fans and continue to look after the Halo franchise?

This is not designed as a debut, a test or training wheels, just a
celebratory way to relive one of the greatest FPS games of all time, as
it enjoys its tenth birthday. At 343 Industries we’re all very much
dedicated to Halo and celebrating this milestone with the fans.

Do you think a new Halo game can create a fresh experience on
the same hardware that saw both Halo 3 and Reach seemingly push the
360?

Pushing console hardware to its limits has been a part of gaming
since Activision stuck a DSP in Pitfall 2 for the Atari 2600. Even as a
kid, I remembered thinking that it was cool that my console could always
squeeze a few more tricks late into its life cycle. The 360 has been
incredibly successful in no small part thanks to its flexibility and
technical headroom. The thing is not tapped out yet, and I expect devs
to be coaxing marvels from it for years to come. Our team has great
experience with the hardware and will have a few surprises of its own.