As a seasoned gamer with decades of Halo gaming under my belt, I must say that this recent shift by Halo Studios to Unreal Engine 5 is music to my ears (or eyes, if you will). The thought of experiencing the next generation of Halo games with the power and realism provided by Unreal’s Nanite and Lumen technologies is almost too much for me to handle.
343 Industries, for almost two years, has been rumored to switch from its own Slipspace Engine to the Unreal Engine 5. This speculation has now been made official. Not only has the studio changed its name to Halo Studios, but it has also announced that all upcoming “Halo” games will be developed using the Unreal Engine 5.
According to Elizabeth van Wyck, COO at Halo Studios, carrying on with Slipspace could hinder the studio’s preferred approach to future game development. In her words, “The method we used to create Halo games might not be as effective for our vision of creating games in the future.” The discussion also included finding ways to help the team concentrate more on game creation instead of tool and engine development.
She emphasized that the duration to release a game is not the only factor to consider, but rather the speed at which updates are rolled out, new content is provided to players, and adjustments are made based on player preferences. This involves both the development process and recruitment. The time it takes to train a new hire to create assets for the game is also crucial in this context. (In the case of Halo Studios, they were among several Xbox studios impacted by significant layoffs in January 2023, resulting in over 10,000 job cuts across Microsoft.)
Chris Matthews, Halo Studios’ art director, stated, “To be clear, parts of Slipspace have been around for nearly 25 years. Even though 343 Industries has consistently worked on it, there are elements in Unreal that Epic Games has been refining for a while, which we can’t incorporate into Slipspace. It would have required significant time and resources to replicate these features.
One key aspect we’re passionate about is broadening and enriching our game environment, providing players with more engaging interactions and memorable experiences. The technologies of Nanite and Lumen [Unreal’s rendering and lighting systems] give us a unique chance to achieve this in ways the gaming industry hasn’t explored yet. As artists, it’s truly thrilling to be part of such innovative work.
It’s worth noting that Halo Studios’ decision to move towards Unreal Engine isn’t unexpected. Over the past few years, they have been working on Project Foundry, an extensive tech demo constructed using Unreal Engine 5. They refer to it as a representation of the technology needed for a new Halo game on Unreal, and also as a guide for how to achieve that goal. Remarkably, this tech demo has been developed with the same level of detail, methodology, and quality as a completed game would be.
Project Foundry consists of three distinct landscapes crafted by Halo Studios. One resembles the Pacific Northwest, another is named Coldlands and is characterized as a permanently frozen region, while the third, referred to as Blightlands, is portrayed as a world overtaken by the parasitic Flood. The following images showcase Project Foundry.
As a die-hard fan, I’m thrilled to share that according to Halo Studios, the groundbreaking work on Project Foundry could potentially find its way into upcoming games of the series!
In historical context, and across the industry, such kind of work often involves a great deal of illusion or deception, according to art director Chris Matthews.
Sometimes games can mislead players into thinking they’re heading toward one outcome, only for a different event to occur instead. However, Foundry is all about providing an experience that goes against this approach.
All our creations adhere to the quality standards required for our games’ future development. We made a conscious effort to avoid producing tech demos, instead focusing on building content that we genuinely believe in. A substantial portion of this content can potentially be moved within our games at our discretion, should such a need arise in the future.
Studio president Pierre Hintze stated, ‘It’s accurate to assume that much of what was displayed in Foundry is likely to appear in the projects we’re currently constructing, or those we plan for the future.’
By the way, it’s been verified that Halo Studios is indeed developing several fresh titles within the Halo series at the moment.
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2024-10-07 06:41