GDC 2008: Constructing the environments for Halo 3

Mike Zak has a BFA from UVic, and has been working on Halo environments since he joined Bungie halfway through the production of Halo 2. He was the environmental art lead for Halo 3, and in a session this morning, described how he and the team of artists with which he works came up with the breathtaking worlds.

Zak used one specific mission as a case study for his talk: The Storm. This mission happens fairly early in the game, and starts with Master Chief being told he needs to prevent the Covenant from activating the Ark. The mission ends when the Ark is activated, the portal opens, the Covenant escapes, and the Flood-infested ship crashes to Earth.

Besides showing off incredible concept art and preproduction sketches, Zak walked through an interesting breakdown of the level and articulated a few things he and his team were looking at when creating the environments.

“The Hook” refers to having a strong layout concept that makes the space unique, but is also easy for a player to see and navigate, while suggesting to them a tactic they might use.

“Scale” refers to getting an early sense of the size of things, which helps determine how large the space for the level needs to be. The sense of capacity, then, will help determine budget and AI requirements for building the level.

“Combat elements,” or “encounter design for laymen,” refers to the need to build a space with fronts (including safe territories for retreat), layers (in terms of basements and balconies), and blinds (for both AI and players to exploit, and includes cover).

Finally, “movement elements,” refers to how the player can traverse the space, including shortcuts, one-way paths, and ninja paths (in which the player has a distinct advantage).

I interviewed Zak for a Georgia Straight cover feature on Halo 3 last fall. This morning he told me that he’s sketching for a new project, but could not reveal a hint of what it was. Sorry.