Halo 4 Narrative Designer Ryan Payton Departing 343 Industries

@penINC said:

Metal Gear's batshit crazy narrative design worked for it, but I can't see it working for any other thing ever. I kinda feel bad for the guy, but let Halo be Halo.

Because clearly not only was he responsible for the entirety of Metal Gear being crazy....he also clearly had the intent of making Halo just as crazy...

just the other the day i was wondering what the hell happened to Ryan Payton. well guess that answers that!

@Grilledcheez said:

Well people have different opinions about what they want, I'm assuming that applies to video game development. Just because it wasn't the game he wanted, doesn't mean it's not the game we want. If heads were clashing over game direction, then maybe MS wasn't the best place for him. Now he gets to go and make the games he wants, the way he wants..so good for him!

Well said, sir.

I can get behind his reason for leaving though. He's not making the game he wants to make, he is not enjoying what he is doing, sounds legit to me. He has the resources to leave and pursue his own dream and if that is the case I completely understand that motivation. It doesn't work out with every job and this what he wants to do more power to him. I am very interested to see what he'll do next.

@Mordukai said:

Wait a minute...He worked with Hideo Kojima and MS burnt him out???? WOW!

Hideo is pretty corny, and tweets about his attempts to sidestep the monolithic culture of Konami.

Meanwhile, teh Haloz is serious business.

Anyway, I met Ryan P. just in passing during a Tokyo Game Show, and his hatwear style is as legendary as the bard songs tell it.

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

@Mordukai said:

Wait a minute...He worked with Hideo Kojima and MS burnt him out???? WOW!

Hideo is pretty corny, and tweets about his attempts to sidestep the monolithic culture of Konami.

Meanwhile, teh Haloz is serious business.

Anyway, I met Ryan P. just in passing during a Tokyo Game Show, and his hatwear style is as legendary as the bard songs tell it.

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

@Mordukai said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

don't forget the flood. You know they will turn up at some point.

Ugh.

@HistoryInRust said:

@Mordukai said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

don't forget the flood. You know they will turn up at some point.

Ugh.

Not to be the Halo nerd coming in here to correct everyone's fears with speculation but...

...from what we know about the game, mostly from the Halo 4 panel at PAX and what was said and shown there, the setting will most likely take place on a still semi-active Forerunner planet in the form of a Dyson Sphere, which is essentially an inside-out planet. Most of the information gleamed from the few pieces of concept art at that panel seem to support this, as does this piece of teaser art:

What this means is, we will not be fighting Covenant forces, especially seeing as the Covenant was basically in shambles as of the end of Halo 3, and will most likely be fighting some form of Forerunner machinery or possibly Flood. This is all speculation on my part, but it's a pretty easy leap of logic considering Master Chief has just randomly shown up at a massive Forerunner installation (Again) and no one really knows he's there, least of all the disbanded Covenant.

Most of the UNSC weaponry and vehicles can be explained away by the very ship he is riding into the Forerunner planet on, the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn.

As a long-time Halo fan, I was worried about the direction of Halo 4 being in the hands of an as-of-now unproven team, but after the PAX panel I attended, it definitely sounds like the creative minds behind Halo 4 both are reverent for the world Bungie crafted, but also want to do something a little different with it. It's still going to be a Halo game, no doubt about it, but as this is an entirely new set of 3 games, I would expect some pretty major changes in the form of what we're fighting and where. Only time will tell though.

@HistoryInRust said:

@Mordukai said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

don't forget the flood. You know they will turn up at some point.

Ugh.

Not to be the Halo nerd coming in here to correct everyone's fears with speculation but...

...from what we know about the game, mostly from the Halo 4 panel at PAX and what was said and shown there, the setting will most likely take place on a still semi-active Forerunner planet in the form of a Dyson Sphere, which is essentially an inside-out planet. Most of the information gleamed from the few pieces of concept art at that panel seem to support this, as does this piece of teaser art:

What this means is, we will not be fighting Covenant forces, especially seeing as the Covenant was basically in shambles as of the end of Halo 3, and will most likely be fighting some form of Forerunner machinery or possibly Flood. This is all speculation on my part, but it's a pretty easy leap of logic considering Master Chief has just randomly shown up at a massive Forerunner installation (Again) and no one really knows he's there, least of all the disbanded Covenant.

Most of the UNSC weaponry and vehicles can be explained away by the very ship he is riding into the Forerunner planet on, the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn.

As a long-time Halo fan, I was worried about the direction of Halo 4 being in the hands of an as-of-now unproven team, but after the PAX panel I attended, it definitely sounds like the creative minds behind Halo 4 both are reverent for the world Bungie crafted, but also want to do something a little different with it. It's still going to be a Halo game, no doubt about it, but as this is an entirely new set of 3 games, I would expect some pretty major changes in the form of what we're fighting and where. Only time will tell though.

@Mordukai said:

@Captain_Felafel said:

@HistoryInRust said:

@Mordukai said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

don't forget the flood. You know they will turn up at some point.

Ugh.

Not to be the Halo nerd coming in here to correct everyone's fears with speculation but...

...from what we know about the game, mostly from the Halo 4 panel at PAX and what was said and shown there, the setting will most likely take place on a still semi-active Forerunner planet in the form of a Dyson Sphere, which is essentially an inside-out planet. Most of the information gleamed from the few pieces of concept art at that panel seem to support this, as does this piece of teaser art:

What this means is, we will not be fighting Covenant forces, especially seeing as the Covenant was basically in shambles as of the end of Halo 3, and will most likely be fighting some form of Forerunner machinery or possibly Flood. This is all speculation on my part, but it's a pretty easy leap of logic considering Master Chief has just randomly shown up at a massive Forerunner installation (Again) and no one really knows he's there, least of all the disbanded Covenant.

Most of the UNSC weaponry and vehicles can be explained away by the very ship he is riding into the Forerunner planet on, the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn.

As a long-time Halo fan, I was worried about the direction of Halo 4 being in the hands of an as-of-now unproven team, but after the PAX panel I attended, it definitely sounds like the creative minds behind Halo 4 both are reverent for the world Bungie crafted, but also want to do something a little different with it. It's still going to be a Halo game, no doubt about it, but as this is an entirely new set of 3 games, I would expect some pretty major changes in the form of what we're fighting and where. Only time will tell though.

sorry to make you work so hard on your Halo facts but I should have mentioned that I don't give a shit about Halo and it mythos. I enjoyed the first game and that's where it ended. After that all the halo games were downhill. imo Green Eggs and Ham has better plot.

And I totally get that about 98% of people playing Halo don't give a shit about the narrative. It's unfortunate, but a lot of the really awesome stuff in the Halo universe takes place outside of the core games. So on their own, the core 3 Halo games kind of don't have a lot of depth in their narrative. It's there, but you have to dig, and most players can't and shouldn't be expected to do that extra work.

Oh hey a NEW Camoflaj/Camouflaj company page, no wonder mine's getting deleted.

Wish you best of luck...?

@Captain_Felafel said:

@Mordukai said:

@Captain_Felafel said:

@HistoryInRust said:

@Mordukai said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Seriously, though. How depressing will it be when Halo 4 is just Master Chief vs. Some Covenant again.

don't forget the flood. You know they will turn up at some point.

Ugh.

Not to be the Halo nerd coming in here to correct everyone's fears with speculation but...

...from what we know about the game, mostly from the Halo 4 panel at PAX and what was said and shown there, the setting will most likely take place on a still semi-active Forerunner planet in the form of a Dyson Sphere, which is essentially an inside-out planet. Most of the information gleamed from the few pieces of concept art at that panel seem to support this, as does this piece of teaser art:

What this means is, we will not be fighting Covenant forces, especially seeing as the Covenant was basically in shambles as of the end of Halo 3, and will most likely be fighting some form of Forerunner machinery or possibly Flood. This is all speculation on my part, but it's a pretty easy leap of logic considering Master Chief has just randomly shown up at a massive Forerunner installation (Again) and no one really knows he's there, least of all the disbanded Covenant.

Most of the UNSC weaponry and vehicles can be explained away by the very ship he is riding into the Forerunner planet on, the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn.

As a long-time Halo fan, I was worried about the direction of Halo 4 being in the hands of an as-of-now unproven team, but after the PAX panel I attended, it definitely sounds like the creative minds behind Halo 4 both are reverent for the world Bungie crafted, but also want to do something a little different with it. It's still going to be a Halo game, no doubt about it, but as this is an entirely new set of 3 games, I would expect some pretty major changes in the form of what we're fighting and where. Only time will tell though.

sorry to make you work so hard on your Halo facts but I should have mentioned that I don't give a shit about Halo and it mythos. I enjoyed the first game and that's where it ended. After that all the halo games were downhill. imo Green Eggs and Ham has better plot.

And I totally get that about 98% of people playing Halo don't give a shit about the narrative. It's unfortunate, but a lot of the really awesome stuff in the Halo universe takes place outside of the core games. So on their own, the core 3 Halo games kind of don't have a lot of depth in their narrative. It's there, but you have to dig, and most players can't and shouldn't be expected to do that extra work.

I with ya man. I'm a huge fan of the Halo fiction and I think there are more of us than you think. Halo brings in people that just love the online, some the single player, and some the fiction. I'm a big fan of all of it.

I've read quite a few of the novels they've put out and it's really filled out the universe. There is very little story in the games at all. I've re-played all the games since reading those books and having that knowledge about the universe has totally enriched my experience with the games. It's too bad they don't always match up perfectly like the endings of Fall of Reach and Halo Reach. Now that 343 is in charge of the games too I think the stories will align across all the mediums they put Halo out on. I can't wait to see where they take the series with Halo 4. The idea that it could be on a planet like Onyx from the Ghosts of Onyx novel kind of blows my mind. The concept art looks amazing.

Also, I'm looking forward to Glasslands by Karen Traviss to give some information on the universe after Halo 3 that will tie-in to Halo 4. That and Greg Bear's second book in the forerunner trilogy which has been amazing so far. The Halo Universe is so deep and people seem to dismiss it's story a lot. I can understand that though because there is very little of it in the games at all. It's a great universe and I'm becoming a bigger fan all the time.

Sounds like they didn't like his story and he got forced out. What did Payton do in the past other than make sure that MGS4 was somewhat more playable? 

He sounds passionate...hopefully the desire to really do something with Halo's narrative within the actual games didn't leave with him. I'm also pulling for more in-game development and less jarring cutscenes...taking a cue from Valve wouldn't be terrible.

I am guessing Master Chief is gonna have more things to shoot at in Halo 4.

Holy shit. The name sounded familiar to me, so I look it up to see if it was who I thought it was. Ryan Payton is the older brother of my best friend (Matt Payton) in Jr. High. I lived down the street from him. Small fucking world.

Guy was an asshole back then, used to torture cats even.

His dad is the coolest dude ever though. Was my role model growing up.

Sorry for the shitty copy and paste link, but this might be interesting viewing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsjR5_R4HHg&feature=BFa&list=PLEABEB916981DE691&lf=results_main

@JazGalaxy said:

So much for Halo 4 being the game that fixes the mess than Halo has become...

So much you not being a troll/wanker/pretendhero/masterofherpderp/shoeselller

A bit late to be throwing in the towel considering you already know the games called Halo 4! Makes me sad as a 360 owner that this is all the devoted Xbox community ever demand of Microsoft, so they never get their fingers dirty with other 1st party IPs. Hopefully there will be some long-term syptoms of this neglect next gen?.. I doubt it though.