With the supposed Black Ops-killer Halo: Reach knocking on our doors, developer Bungie is moving on to its 10-year franchise and building the new engine for it. Having used the same engine (albeit a heavily upgraded one) since the very first Halo game back in 2002, it’s clearly showing its age despite the wonders it’s done for the franchise. But it’s a new era and a well-deserved refreshment is unquestionably in order, let alone new offices capable of fitting in 180+ employees. But the independent powerhouse is prepared.

“We do have the benefit of people who have worked at Bungie for fifteen years; these are the same people that have been through long franchise periods,” said community director Brian Jarrard.

With the Activision deal now in effect, the new engine is “actually in development, so I would say it’s in a stage where, technically we’re still at the end of a pre-production mode,” commented Jarrard. “But now that Reach is done the full weight of our team is rolling into the project. Real work is underway.”

He added that building an engine of their own “goes hand-in-hand with our independent spirit. Just like we don’t want to develop a game off someone else’s IP, we want to push our own technology in the same way.”

And last but not least, it would seem Bungie is ready to go the whole nine yards with this new universe. Plans for bringing it into mobile devices is something the developer wants to do. “That’s definitely our intent. We want multiple platforms and devices for this game, where it makes sense,” adding it’s “an exciting time to see the advent of all these new input devices and there’s just more ways than ever to reach fans and make them a part of this big universe.”

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2010/09/10/bungie-on-new-engine-real-work-is-underway/

Posted: Sep 10, 2010 7:17 pm