Mat Noguchi - Developer on Halo team gives tour of Bungie

niiiice office space they've got there.. the hdtv cam does pay off! looks great

Something wrong w/ the video on my system - looks like a psychedelic mosaic.  I've got WM9...

Robert: I don't fully understand why you dont post the video download right away with the stream. It's not easier to upload the full video than the streaming video, or at least basically the same task?

robert, would you mind telling us which camcorder you used exactly? looks really good to me. colors and everything.

thanks,
simon

Ugh.... open plan == productivity hell.

Some people like open plan because it's more sociable and because they like it they overlook the problems with it. Sure "it works for us" is a common answer. Every game studio I've seen is open plan and that's probably got something to do with why games always slip.

It's refreshing to see someone so enthusiastic about their job!  Of course, if your job is developing world-class video games for an entire world of videogame players to play, it's not so hard to imagine being enthusiastic about something like that, but it's interesting to see the actual realization of such a dream.

With the XBOX 360's 3 CPU cores capable of running 2 hardware threads each, are these developers forced to write game code which runs in parallel?

If so how difficult is it, and are they using these threads for separate tasks (geometry, game logic and AI, network code ect)?

you mentioned that you have a new hd camcorder, which one?

personally gaming for me is dead, pretty is nice up to a point, the gameplay gets boring for us veteran gamers.

One thing I would like to see is some creative genius applied towards making software that allows people to make CGI movies.  Like what the Red vs. Blue folks use Halo for.  People already use video games like Halo and World of Warcraft to make entertaining Webcomics and video; I'm surprised no one out there has gone out and tried to cash in on that phenomena.

EDIT:  Oops, hope I don't get the Red vs. Blue guys in trouble.

DevilsRejection wrote:

you mentioned that you have a new hd camcorder, which one?

Whatever it is, it looks like it's a shoulder-mount.  Maybe an FX1 or even the new Canon XL H1!  (I would be very envious...)  Or maybe it's just a smaller cam on a shoulder-mounted steadicam.  But it looks good in low light, so I'm thinking it's at least an FX1.

I saw an HDTV camcorder at BestBuy about a week ago.  1080p was the highest resolution, which is the max that any HDTV can do, and remain HD.  Beyond that its no longer an HD standard.

But it was a sony, it was small, handheld, and did wonderfully in low light.

it was $2k.

The sound is quite good with that new camera.

I think we should all adopt their open air development style.  Very cool.  Noisy but very cool.

Naikrovek wrote:

I saw an HDTV camcorder at BestBuy about a week ago ... it was a sony, it was small, handheld, and did wonderfully in low light.

Sounds like the HC1.  I've got one, and I don't find it to be all that good in low light.  But then I've been spoiled with having a good 3-chip SD camera for the last three years.  (HD with 3X more pixels means right off the bat 3X less sensitivity for the same size sensor.)  The limitations in sensitivity means auto-focus doens't work as well indoors.

Outdoors is a different story, and the HC1 does do an admirable job.  Great color.  So altogether it's very nice to see usable HD cameras enter the consumer market.  The 60-year reign of NTSC and PAL is finally drawing to a close.

Nice fella and very cool space to work in. Too bad the interview was timed such that the feeling you got was "I don't know what to ask and you can't say anything so let's just make this like those tv game program interviews, lot of talk with as little content as possible".

So rather than wasting time on this video, go read a game developer blog that gives some real idea about doing that kind of development. Even though that guy hasn't even started on the game yet, just the engine, I am already ecstatic about whatever the result is going to be - something that cannot be said about Halo 5 or Flight Simulator (insert year). Afaik you have the developers of such games as Wing & Strike Commander, Ultima (+Underworld) etc working under MS (Unless they quit after the MS's Freelancer?). Wonder what they're doing - Robert you could talk one of the original Origin guys if they're still at MS to put up a blog with insight to both history of the previous projects worked on and optionally building up some anticipation on a future project (if it would be anything remotely original that is). I know P.M. did a hype buildup on magazines writing a looong series on B&W which was quite a disappointment given the years long hype - therefore one shouldn't do a game developing blog built purely on hyping what's coming. A third of the content might work though if doing like 1 longer post a month.

JChung2006 wrote:

One thing I would like to see is some creative genius applied towards making software that allows people to make CGI movies. Like what the Red vs. Blue folks use Halo for. People already use video games like Halo and World of Warcraft to make entertaining Webcomics and video; I'm surprised no one out there has gone out and tried to cash in on that phenomena.

Check out Lionhead's new game The Movies. That's just what it is. Great video, by the way. Are you planning to do more interviews of gamedevs?

Charles wrote:

I'm not Robert, but I can answer the question. No, it is not the same task. Streaming files are not the same encoding for one thing. Secondly, getting the files on to the download cluster is not the same as the process for getting the streaming files out to the streaming cluster.

C

ok, I  guess you are working on the automation of the whole process

The audio was not that great  - I could only understand one tool name he was referring to:
- Visual Assist.
Did anyone catch what were the other developing tools he was talking about?

Scoble, could you tell the interviewee to "forget the cameras" and "turn towards the light source" before taking the shot?
It isn't a big deal, but it kinda annoys me when it's repeated in every video. Although I really don't have any problem with "Who are you?"

What’s happening with the downloadable version?

I don't see what you guys are talking about when it comes to quality, while I haven't done a side by side comparison but I'd say the video quality looks the same, but the real annoying part is that the audio is low quality 8kbps.

Please, please use at least 16kbps audio from now on, 8kbps sounds like the mic is inside a tin can.  I'd rather have great audio and so-so video than great video and so-so audio.

And like the previous poster pointed out, it's now been 4 days and still no download video is available (which might have had better audio quality too).

And the download file? promises, promises...

Goldfish wrote:

[quote user="JChung2006"]One thing I would like to see is some creative genius applied towards making software that allows people to make CGI movies. Like what the Red vs. Blue folks use Halo for. People already use video games like Halo and World of Warcraft to make entertaining Webcomics and video; I'm surprised no one out there has gone out and tried to cash in on that phenomena. Check out Lionhead's new game The Movies. That's just what it is. Great video, by the way. Are you planning to do more interviews of gamedevs?

Are you sure about that?

I am really looking forward to that downloadble version

Hi Robert

I would agree with the point about 'briefing guests a couple of minutes before the interview, on where to look etc, it does get a bit tedious after a while...

Please don't get me wrong, I am a big fan and think that you , Charles and the team are providing a very useful service and I enjoy the vids immensley.

Please could you not steer the conversation back to yourself as much as you sometimes do. I think that we are all aware that you subscribe to 9 million blogs etc so we don't need reminding of this at any opportunity.

You are sometimes guilty of interrupting your guests quite a bit with merry quips and such like. Most I suspect are not used to being interviewed on camera, and some are obviously quite nervous, so the  interruptions only serve to unsettle them even more and spoil the flow of the interview.

otherwise 10/10

to interviewer: No need to dis office developers. Aside from that, I want to thank you for making all these great recordings. I make a huge number of recordings myself (audio) and have learned a great deal from listening to myself on tape, as well as those I interview. It can be a bit painful listening to myself on tape, especially when I learn the topic better and realize when I blundered as the interviewer (fail to follow or recognize the importance of what the interviewee is saying). Listening to my recordings is a great teacher to me. Please, be careful not to let your audience detect that you are snobby towards them. Audiences like to be respected as much as anyone. I personally develop 'little' web apps and even Office apps which are a great source of pride for me.

to developer: I really like the part about your favorite accomplishment being writing a block of code that another talented developer inherits and doesn't complain about.

Congratulations!

I would have liked to hear more about the profitability of games and how making money, or not, effect the developers real time.