HALO BEFORE HALO

1997

In 1997, Bungie were fresh off the success of their other sci-fi first-person shooter series, Marathon. In San Jose, California, a new studio under Bungie aptly titled Bungie West began work on a third-person anime-inspired action game entitled Oni. The main studio in Chicago meanwhile worked on another new IP in the genre of real-time strategy. That project was Myth: The Fallen Lords. In a back room of the main office, a small team comprised of just Jason Jones, Robert McClees, and Marcus Lehto began work on a new project.

The code name of the project was "Armor." That name was short lived to avoid shipping with that title as that was the fate of both Marathon and Myth. In order to make sure the name would be changed prior to release, the code name was then changed to "Munkey Nutz." Jason Jones then changed the title again to "Blam!" as it was a favorite word of Bungie employees and Jones didn't want to tell his mother he was working on a game called "Munkey Nutz."

While not much is known about the 1997 RTS builds of Halo, it is interesting to note how early the millitary sci-fi aesthetic was established.
The Latest
YouTuber Why's Halo pre-release analysis covering the 1997 and 1998 builds of Halo.

1998

In the beginning the project was a testbed for a next-generation terrain engine to be used by Myth or another RTS game. Smooth hills punctuated by a handful of buildings and some near-future sci-fi soldiers and vehicles. One day a programmer on the project, Charlie Gough, decided to hook up the game's controls to a single unit. This combined with the progress on Bungie West's Oni would push the game into its first major change; the game changed from an RTS to a 3rd person action game.

The tone of the game wasn't entirely nailed down yet. A few of the barebones stylistic bits were established from the start however. Even from the earliest screenshots and gameplay of Halo, near-future sci-fi millitary tech inspired by films like Alien makes its appearance. Rolling hills and even an early iteration of the Halo ring can also be seen. It is interesting to note that the early Halo has a chunk taken out of it. Along with this, the HUD resembles the Marathon logo. By the end of 1998, the game was slowly becoming recognizably Halo.


Gallery