New Life for Halo CE! Saturday, February 07, 2009 (14:47:49) Posted by a_madman Digg this article. One of the best video games in history is coming back to life this year because of the efforts of a small group of fans who are developing new maps of professional quality. This group of gamers, including Insidi0us and ChaosTheory, are utilizing many of the same programs and processes that Bungie used when originally developing Halo CE. There is, however, one big difference between these fan creators and the original creators: this new group is allowing the gaming community to help with the design and development of the maps by contributing ideas in an online discussion forum! This will allow for truly community created maps designed around the skills, tactics, and strategies years of playing the game has produced. Follow the jump for an exclusive interview with the lead map creator, Insidi0us! Can you give us a brief history of your relationship with Halo CE? When did you get into it? What events did you participate in? First of all, I was never a big gamer at all. I like tetris and chess, and Goldeneye was neat, but my brother was too good so I never wanted to play. I didn't even know about Halo until after my soccer buddies bought it. December 2001 is when I decided to check it out. My bro and I loved campaign, and we slowly worked our way into multiplayer. Not long after that, I found out we could play online through the Gamespy tunnel. We did that for a while, even beyond XBC's launch. My brother and I were pretty damn good off host, we thought alike and were a great team before people learned things like spawns, timing, doublesmack, quick camo, etc. We both had a good snipe and pistol, but remained pretty naive, not really being the type to look for glitches in video games. However, I still performed well enough on XBC to randomly get invited to "Halo Nationals" in February 2004, Philadelphia. Instead of going with the guy who asked me to team with him, I decided to bring my own team (we won some games, but basically got annihilated.) That's where we heard about timing. Like I said, I wasn't a big gamer, but out of my group of friends, I was the only one who thought timing was a good thing. From then on, I learned the rest of the tricks, and I stuck with the game. I met a few people on XBC, and ended up going to MLG Philly '05 with Nexy, who's now pretty much my best friend. I also went to Maryland Madness with Nexy, and Kush and Rufio from Alabama. Nexy and I made it 4 rounds deep in the FFA's, but we weren't a solid 4v4 team. Other than that, I didn't have the skill to rise up in any big tournaments, and still don't, so I remain relatively unknown. What's your favorite Halo CE memory? Oh man. Aside from meeting and lanning with people like DuG, Puckett, Dmaq, Quinn... or driving from NJ to Ohio with Puckett, Nexy, and Skillz... probably one of the best moments was at my brother's college in Rhode Island - it was a HUGE halo campus at the time, tournament flyers were posted everywhere. My brother was one of the best in his school, but he couldn't consistently beat a particularly cocky pair of kids. He invited me up specifically to beat them, and we humbled the hell out of 'em. I was learning spawns at the time, and I knew all the button glitches. These guys really didn't see it coming. I forget the scores, but one of the kids got up and left, cursing and pissed off. The other kid was nice enough to shake my hand. (I really wasn't even that good at the time, but it felt good to put them in their place.) What made you decide to tackle the task of creating new Halo CE maps? I was a part time architect in training after I quit college, because I always had an interest in 3d design. In early 2007 I took up 3dstudio max, following tutorials all the way through, and eventually created a new map and got it onto the xbox. I even brought it to the MLG office to lan it with Nexy, Puckett and Synide. But it had issues and I needed money, so after bouncing around a few IT jobs, I took up aviation. I've since gotten all my pilot's licenses, from private through commercial and instrument instructor. I'm back home now, trying to get a flying job, but Halo is never going away in my life. I wanted a few new places to have some seriously good 2v2's, so I figured since I could do it, why not?! How long have you been working on the project? If you don't count the few months of what was mostly learning, back in 2007, it's been less than 2 months. I decided to pick it back up again in late December, 2008. Can you give a brief description of each map and how you envision it to be played? The first map I made is called Redshift. It's a complete overhaul of the map I showed the MLG staff. It has roughly the same amount of floor space as damnation, but it's got chillout-type portals, so it's suitable for 2v2 and 4v4. I'm also doing my very best to balance CTF for both sides. I'm not a fan of large maps, or outdoor maps, or large outdoor maps. I like small, asymmetrical arenas. Chillout, Prisoner, and Damnation are the best things that ever happened to Halo, in my opinion (Hang 'Em High is great too.) The second map, Double Take, could be described as a Prisoner/Longest hybrid, with a lean towards the Prisoner style. It's a 3-tiered symmetrical map, with most of the powerups on or accessible from the first level. I'm designing into the maps things like weapon nades, random and forced spawns, nade jumps; everything that made halo 1 great. Each map will support every game type, to an extent (even race, but who cares?) Oddball will play just fine. I don't think there's much to change in the way of geometry when thinking about oddball gameplay. I mainly focus on TS and CTF for design considerations. We are all very excited to play Halo CE again. When can we expect to be able to play your new maps? Like I said, I'm jobless, so most of my time is going into this project. If and when I do get a job, the project will unfortunately slow down. But I've said from the beginning, it might not even be in 2009. I certainly would hate for it to take a year, especially since I announced the project already. If I had my way, it would be out by the summer, and I'll try, but don't get your hopes up! Adding these maps requires a modded xbox. Are there any other things we need to know to prepare for these maps? Know how to transfer files to your modded box. It may require some moving and copying of the original halo files, but I'll have a concise read-me with the final release. Other than that, it should play just like your favorite game on the planet, so don't worry one bit. Will we be able to play the original maps with the on-screen timer against people on xbc or lan even if they don't have the modded map? I've tested it, and it appears to work just fine. As soon as I add things like a toggle/sound/or any other options into the mix, it could jeopardize that. Everything will be tested to the full extent before I make the final release, and I'll continue getting the community's majority opinion on certain ideas, to find out what people value most. I hardly care about anyone who doesn't want a HUD timer, so if I can't get it to toggle without de-synchronizing, I'll just make it permanent-on. I was worried about integrating the timer into the original maps, because it's easier said than done. Fortunately for everyone, I just got it working in Chillout today. What was once a difficult feat, is now overcome. Yay! Of the new maps, what map and gametype are you the most excited to see played by pros because of the potential for sick team strategy or just the fact that the map is awesomely genius? I certainly hope the maps seem awesomely genius! You can tell Harris to wait til he's stepped inside the map before saying they look "awful." To answer the question, I'm actually anxious to see how Redshift is played in a 2v2 or 4v4. So far, Strangepurple, Nexy, Puckett, Pistol, Gandhi, Shibby, Fishpond, myself and a few others (oh and chaosTheory and his buddies in San Diego) are the only people who have really played serious Team Slayer on the two maps. Not to brag, but they ALL liked the maps. They might have been lost for a bit, but I guarantee that you were lost in Damnation the first time you played it. That being said, a handful of games isn't enough to expose any sort of permanent flow or patterns. However, a few geometry and powerup changes have been considered as a result of the LAN. I'm a bigger fan of TS than anything else, but I'd also like to see a good game of KOTH on Double Take. In closing, is there any kind of "sneak preview" type of information you can give us that will make us even more excited (if that's possible)? There's a bunch of easter eggs in the maps, and there will be many more. Was that exciting? Haha. Hmm, what else... the 3rd map will be called Hot Box. Concept sketches are done, and I am currently working on it in 3ds max, but it has a ways to go. Ultimately, just trust that when it's finally released, it will be done right. I'm a perfectionist and I love Halo1... what more is there to say? Thanks for bringing some life back to Halo CE. Thanks for the support! Paypal donations can be sent to khstarr@gmail.com, hah! Remember to check the MLG thread for periodic updates. Click here for the MLG discussion thread to see a gameplay video and give your suggestions to Insidi0us. Content received from: MB Gaming, http://www.mbgaming.com