I wish they would hurry up and release this game!

Halo Wars Heaven: Interview with Graeme Devine

Interview with Ensemble Studios designer Graeme Devine:

HG: What is your name and how’s your life at Ensemble? (What do you there everyday)
ES: Graeme Devine. I’m “Lead Designer” on Halo Wars, which means I get to hold the vision for the game, write some story, and play through the game a bunch.

HG: How far would you say Halo Wars is into development, is it turning out the way Ensemble pictured it?
ES: I think overall, yes, but game making is an organic process and as we iterate on features we improve the experience, no one feature is right the first time but the process of iteration and playtest improves the game as we make it, so in that context, yes, the game is as we pictured it. :-)

HG: By choosing to do Halo Wars on the Xbox 360 only, does it mean it will be more action-packed, as in typical Console games?
ES: I think that’s a fair assumption. But we want to bring the emotional game people have when they play a real time strategy game to the console and felt no one had done that yet. That game is more than just action, it’s strategy too, and getting that feeling in there is very important.

HG: The campaign has been said to be 15 scenarios long, does this translate into deeper scenarios that overall take longer to finish?
ES: We’re not far enough along yet to fairly answer this question. :-)

HG: Continuing on the last question, how long do you think it will take for an average player to finish Halo Wars’ campaign mode?
ES: Same answer as above. One thing though is that I really want everyone to finish the campaign. This is going to be an experience to enjoy and challenge and not a grind.

HG: What is the background story of the campaign? Will it feature any sort of new heroes to the Halo lore?
ES: The story centers around the crew of a UNSC Support Vessel called “Spirit of Fire” and starts in the year 2531 which is 20 years before the events in Halo 1. We’ll be talking more about the characters soon!

HG: Will the story be based on the book “Fall of Reach” ?
ES: Not directly. Although there are some lines in the book that directly affect the story in Halo Wars.

HG: Since Halo Wars appears to focus on combat more than economy, how diverse is the combat? Would you say there’s a lot more strategy to it than simply micro-ing counters?
ES: I think that’s the magic part of the design. Getting the player to manage a battle instead of watching it and being invested in the units on the screen is a big part of the design. Although the battles look fantastic, there’s a great deal of thought put into getting the player involved in them too.

HG: Speaking of diversity, is there a good number of different units as in the typical Age game, or will Halo Wars count on another way to give players more unit options?
ES: We�re still working on that. :-)

HG: Moving on to Multiplayer, it’s been announced that Halo Wars will support online co-op. Does this also mean players will be able to co-op on the same console and/or System-Link?
ES: Right now we’ve talked about co-op over Live. I can tell you that co-op is by far my favorite way of playing any game and I’m really excited about the co-op in Halo Wars.

HG: In Age of Kings we had the option to play many game types, Regecide, Deathmatch, Lightning, etc. Is there plans to bring Halo Wars those old gametypes or any new ones?
ES: Some of those gametypes sure were fun... We’ve not talked about specific gametypes yet. Gametypes is something the team really wants to get into the box, and I think it will, but it’s not certain yet.

HG: Will Random Maps make a comeback also?
ES: We do not have random maps in the game.

HG: Will Halo Wars have a recorded games function that every Age game has? Will it have any fancy sharing features like Halo 3?
ES: Yet to be determined. I really like watching recorded games though. :-)

HG: It’s been mentioned in recent interviews that Halo Wars will not ship with a scenario editor. How does Ensemble plan on keeping the re-playability of the game for years to come?
ES: With DLC [Downloadable Content] on the Xbox we can make new maps more accessible than ever before. Halo 2 is a great example of an Xbox LIVE game that stayed very popular online and with great support from Bungie with new content adding to the experience even years after the game launched.

HG: Also on the editor - using the editor to make off-beat scenarios have been a common thing. Users used Age of Mythology’s physics to make a “soccer” game with Mountain Giants and Dwarfs. Will Ensemble be including all sorts of diverse multiplayer maps to keep us entertained?
ES: I would love to expand what’s possible with the game beyond skirmish. The initial challenge is to get the real time strategy genre established on the console and prove to the world that the console is by far the best interface for playing RTS games. I think first and foremost that’s what Halo Wars proves and that’s a colossal milestone for RTS in general. If the world agrees then I think we can make the second step wider, but that first step has to be firm and certain.

HG: Is there plans to release maps/content over time on Xbox Live?
ES: See above.

HG: Anything else you’d like to say to the Age/Halo fans?
ES: It’s great to get questions like this. We’re amped and excited about Halo Wars and can’t wait until you all get to experience it yourselves and see why we feel the console is the best place to experience real time strategy games. I know that’s a big old statement, but we truly believe that you will be console RTS converts once you pick up that controller and start to play the game. :-)

CAn it be release tym nao plz??1?/

Honestly how hard would it be to just type "Can it be release time now please?" Or, here's a thought, make a sensible statement.

Shit, now that I think about it, I'd rather not type that whole thing out.


Halo Wars really needs to come sooner, I can't wait. Nice post.

Yes! Another day, another flame war.

Can I get the ball rolling by saying Creeps plays WoW, and his post > your post

haha, I love Creeps, I'm just rubbing his dick in the dirt.

Oh, and Unbroken lives down the street from me.

Ruin all my fun asshole.

Have fun and ruin my asshole.


Your move.

checkmate...

peolpe are saying it comes out april 1, 2008

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