Interview: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Producer, Dennis Ries

With the launch of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on the horizon, we recently got the chance to catch up with 343 Industries’ Dennis Ries, Producer on the Halo remake. We covered a range of topics in the short time we had with Ries, including what it’s like for a studio coming into such a massive series, why 343 didn’t change any of the gameplay elements for the game and how he feels about 3D technology.

GodisaGeek: You said that you haven’t changed the gameplay in Halo Anniversary, was there not anything you had to tweak?

Dennis Ries: It’s the same. Damage is the same, everything is the same. The original game code is unchanged, and from that perspective you are playing the same game that you were ten years ago and that’s why it feels the same. The benefit with the updated graphics and audio engine is that you get more immersed in a lot of ways — so it just feels more different. The funny thing is that you can just hit back on the 360 pad and see how it was before, but even the old version is higher resolution.

With the online modes and co-op, how was it integrating that into the game seeing as it was split screen before?

That was an effort, but fortunately we had a lead developer at 343, Greg Herman, who was a huge help to solve those problems. He worked closely with Bungie in previous projects and understood their engine. The engine they used for Halo one, they built on for Halo 2 and 3 so the best thing is, a lot of the root components remain unchanged. Greg could look at the original engine and figure out how to hook up co-op over LIVE and then our development partner, Sabre, was able to go in and polish it up to get that same good experience you get with other Halo games.

Going back to why the gameplay is unchanged, is that out of respect for the first title? Was there anything you wanted to change that you couldn’t?

Early on when we were thinking about what to do with Halo, we knew that the core gameplay had to remain unchanged. This is an iconic title, it ushered in a whole genre of first person shooters and really in a lot of ways defined the Xbox and to us, risking hurting what that is wasn’t worth the risk, so keeping core gameplay was very important. I think that what we have ended up doing by using the existing game and bringing in the updated graphics and audio engine to give us both the classic view and remastered view is probably the best of both worlds. For those who loved how it looked ten years ago, they can still get that experience, and for those who want updated graphics and audio, its all there and they can take advantage of it. And then you also have some other things like Skulls for example. That’s a great way to take features that have existed in previous Halo games and add them to this, and it’s up to the user to decide if they want to use them or not. Skulls, 3D and Kinect are all great ways to take advantage of technology that exists today, that didn’t exist ten years ago without changing the core gameplay.

What do you think about Xbox going 3D and how do you feel about 3D for future titles?

I think that our implementation of 3D has come across very well and I think it depends on whatever title you are building. In our scenario we did full stereoscopic 3D support and I think the results have come out very good. I’m not sure how to look at it for other titles across the Xbox platform.

Do you worry that with 3D, people see it as an afterthought? Do you think games should be made like the film Avatar, with 3D from the off rather than put in afterwards?

Yeah I think there is opportunities to script gameplay that works with 3D, in our case actually, if you think about the way the game is set up, there is lots of environments that work really well with 3D. Guilty Spark comes to mind. There’s all these fireflies that fly around and foliage which makes for a great 3D environment, and plus with all of the individual physics on each of the objects a grenade throw can make all of these objects come at you in a different way, so its actually a lot of fun in 3D to go and tinker around with it. In a lot of ways, Halo Anniversary has worked very well with 3D.

How does 343 feel about taking on the Halo games? Is it daunting?

It is, but at the same time its very exciting, I just love the franchise, I am a passionate Halo fan and for me, it’s a great opportunity so yeah I think what you’ll find with 343 in general is a lot of very passionate fans.

You guys have parallels to Sledgehammer Games with coming into a AAA franchise when it is so established. 

In some respects, but with 343, we had been involved with Bungie for quite some time. Bungie was on its own for ODST, they had kinda left Microsoft at the point and 343 was publishing them since ODST as well as Reach, so for us, we are familiar with the games. We released the Defiant map pack, and have been involved in working on Halo content for quite some time. We are very comfortable with it.

Is there consultation with Bungie in the development of Anniversary?

I wouldn’t say consultation so much. They are very busy doing their own things. They are more then welcome to come by and play, I talk with Bungie very frequently. They will definitely be one of the people that get one of the first copies. We plan to ship them over a bunch of copies.

Why do you think that so many games are being re-mastered this year?

I think that with the console life cycle, this particular console feels like it’s possibly at the tail end of its life. Once you get to that section, it’s a good time to revive content that’s been established for several years and celebrate it.

Would you say it’s bad time to come up with a new IP at this stage in the cycle?

I know from Halo Anniversary’s perspective that people wanted a remake for quite sometime. Literally since the launch of Halo 2, so for us it was a great time, the ten year anniversary. I can’t speak for why anyone else does it but it was a great time for us.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is set for a November 15th release, exclusively for Xbox 360.