The witching hour is upon us. As the skies darken to a foreboding shade of grey, and the trees flourish with every color found in a flame, our studio is being readied to welcome trick-or-treaters. Don’t take that as an invitation to knock on our door dressed in costume. We only have enough candy for the good little boys and girls who have parents that work here. We’ll be sure to give you glimpse of our masquerade ball, though.
Maybe you’ll be able to spot:
Derek Carroll, Senior Designer
Mark Flieg, Artist
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
John Hopson, User Research Lead
Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer
Scott Kankelborg, Special Projects Assassin
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
David Shaw, Senior Producer
Michael Strein, Engineer
Rachel Swavely, MoCap Tech
Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer
Mark Yocom, Release Engineer
Let’s open the Sack.
ALI217 What is your favorite attack/finisher from any fighting game?
SkullsGirls : Ms. Fortune : Nom, Nom, Nom.
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
Mortal Kombat 2, Liu Kang’s Friendship finisher. Makes me laugh. Every. Time.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
Mark Yocom, Release Engineer
Hougeki Unshin Soukoshou, the Hidden Mountain of Steel
Derek Carroll, Senior Designer
Sgt Bash X77 Do you play some games by other developers just to get inspiration for your new project, and do you see it as work so you can make your new project better?
We play all kinds of games. Almost all of what we play is for the sake of leisure. While we draw some inspiration from experiences that other developers create, we value our game time far too much to treat it like homework.
Kalriq What is your favorite game genre in general?
Adventure Platformers like Ratchet & Clank, God of War, etc.
Mark Flieg, Artist
Turn Based Strategy/4X games.
Scott Kankelborg, Special Projects Assassin
Competitive Shooters like Halo, Quake, and Unreal Tournament.
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
I love RPGs, as certain dark things are to be loved.
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
RPGs and FPSs.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
MMOs.
John Hopson, User Research Lead
CrazzySnipe55 Do you subscribe to the ideology that a game development company puts things into their game just to elicit an emotional reaction?
Is there any other reason to put something in a game? Even elements that are designed to inform, guide, taunt, or provide feedback to the player can elicit (or even suppress) a reaction. Some of the things we put into our games are there to prevent you from experiencing emotions like frustration, boredom, or rage. Not only do these design tactics keep the player properly entertained, but deliberately provoking an emotional response makes it much easier for us to identify and retire the Replicants in our player base.
By the way,
CrazzySnipe55, you're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise...
MightyMarcher01 What is the your favorite picture on the internet?
The whole Internet? Thanks for narrowing it down for us.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
Derek Carroll, Cake-Loving Photo-bomber
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer
Michael Strein, Engineer
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
MozzarellaMonky When you start a new project, do you take ideas from the entire studio?
Yes we do! Our studio is a totally open environment where everyone is welcome and encouraged to have an opinion. This doesn’t mean that all these ideas are regarded as “good” by the designers who make the final decisions. For example: I’m getting a lot of pushback on my request to have invincible avatars for Bungie Employees who play our next game. The outlook at current is not good (ask again later).
On the subject of taking ideas from the entire studio, let’s see how well that decision-making process works out for this guy…
Captain Scurvy Will you name my new dog for me?
I always thought that Cobalt Nova would be a cool name for a loyal companion. How about you, Panel?
Dog.
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
Wind.
Mark Flieg, Artist
Your Mom. Think about the amazing conversations. “I think Your Mom missed me today, I came home and she had completely shredded the couch.” This name is completely acceptable for a male dog as well.
Scott Kankelborg, Special Projects Assassin
Dolly! If you need a steak bone chewed on, or a carpet freshly pooped on, just leave everything to me. (Bonus points for catching the reference!)
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
John Waters. You’re welcome.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
How about Wilbur?
David Shaw, Senior Producer
Snuff, because
A Night in the Lonesome October is the best book of all time.
John Hopson, User Research Lead
Considering your moniker, name him/her “Lind” after James Lind who first proved scurvy could be treated with citrus fruit.
Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer
Wikked Navajoe On a scale from 1 to 100, how busy is your schedule?
99. All hands are on deck for this next project, and we’re charging full-speed ahead. Every hour of the day is given to squeezing into this game as much awesome as it will hold - and some days are longer than others. There’s no such thing as idle hands at Bungie right now. We save that final percentage point in our schedule to eat, climb the rock-wall, and keep the connection to our community alive with this here Mail Sack.
DE4THINC4RN4TE Name the most profound effect working for BUNGIE has had on your life.
Working at a place that provides enough paid days off to spend about 2 months of every year in other countries.
Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer
It’s seriously destroyed my ability to ever be ok working anywhere else again… ever.
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
It's been an amazing experience working with talented and motivated people who really care about what they're doing. The most profound effect of this is the gratitude I feel every day to be able to be some small part of it.
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
I believe that there are companies out there that actually care about their employees. I was seriously beginning to doubt that.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
I enjoy my job for the first time in many years. I can spend the weekends with my family.
Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer
I’m skinnier. No, seriously. Bungie is a very fitness-conscious crowd, and it’s helped inspire me to get in better shape. I’ve lost about 40 pounds since I started working here.
John Hopson, User Research Lead
EAGLES5 If I kill and mount big foot, will you hang it in your studios?
We have a Bigfoot. If you be a hunting man, we think that the Loch Ness Monster would be a nice addition to our growing collection of mysterious anomalies.
edableshoe What is the scariest room at Bungie?
The interview room.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
Any room where I find myself alone with
Matthew Ward.
Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer
Restroom. We’ll leave out the details, for your sake and mine.
Mark Flieg, Artist
The inner sanctum room with no windows and the seven-sided table. The leadership team conducts strange and terrible rites in there to maintain the stability of the universe during crunch.
John Hopson, User Research Lead
The server room. I’ve been told that if you aim just right you can utilize the airflow to gas somebody all the way across the room.
Scott Kankelborg, Special Projects Assassin
What kind of gas are we talking about here, Skank?
WestCoastRonin Who is responsible for making the ViDocs and other video content that has come out of Bungie in the past? Do you have an internal video production team?
I asked the same exact thing when I got here. It turns out that Bungie’s resident storyteller and digital auteur was one of the interrogators on my interview loop, and he never revealed himself. He prefers instead to remain behind the curtain, pushing the buttons that make the wizard belch green smoke. There isn’t a single photo of him in existence – at least not one that isn’t blurry or obstructed by trees in a dense forest.
Lobster Fish 2 What was your favorite decade to experience? Why?
The
dream of the ‘90s is alive in Seattle, too. We relive that decade every day. All you need to do is turn on the radio. Let’s see if any of our people have been able to escape the gravity well of pre-millennial nostalgia…
The ‘90s. I'd still be wearing neon baggy pants if it weren't for that court order.
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
The ‘90s. Mostly for the music and the sweet arcades.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
The ‘90s, be it the SNES, rollerblades, denim everything, or a combination of all of the above.
Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer
The ‘90s. Why? Space Jam.
Michael Strein, Engineer
The ‘90s. It was a great decade for entertainment. Good music. Games started to become a more serious affair - some of my favorite games of all time come from the decade. Good movies.
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
The 80’s! Only had a few years in the 80’s but they were amazing due to Labyrinth, the crazy style back then and music.
Rachel Swavely, MoCap Tech
The 80’s. I got my driver’s license. I attend all the big-hair-band concerts. I met my wife. I became a computer programmer.
Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer
Just as I suspected: It looks like only two of the people in our sampling prefer big hair to soggy flannel.
defnop552 If you could travel back in time to when you first started in the industry, what advice would you give yourself?
Skip grad school, make more games.
John Hopson, User Research Lead
Don’t expect college to teach you how to be a professional computer programmer.
Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer
As this was my first gig straight outta school, I think I’d give myself a hug and tell myself to stop worrying so much about not meeting the studio’s expectations.
Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer
Don’t get jaded, always be closing and bet everything you have on the 2004 Red Sox to win the Series.
Chris Owens, Test Engineer
Don’t sign up for that Facebook account, it’s just gonna become noise. Bet on Bungie.
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
Buy Apple stock.
David Shaw, Senior Producer
Mr_Brightside How can I make my writing colorful like yours and Recon Number 54’s?
When you say “colorful,” do you mean the unmistakable hue that signals our posts on the Bungie forum? Or were you referring to a delightfully entertaining literary quality that spurs you on to drink deep of our every word? If you want colored text on the forum, you’re gonna have to ascend to the seat of power occupied by a Forum Ninja, or even a gold-plated employee of Bungie, Inc. If you want to be a more colorful writer, Urk tells me the secret is usin’ a lot of apostrophes.
SG Tumnus123 What's the best costume you've seen?
Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer
Scott Kankelborg, Special Projects Assassin
Derek Carroll, Senior Designer
Shameless self-promotion.
Mark Flieg, Artist
Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer
LIGHTNING ROUND!
ChorrizoTapatio May we please be the judges of an employee costume contest for Halloween?
Okay. Stay tuned.
AxJARxOFxDIRT Do you shower before bed or after bed? I think that is a good lightning round question.
That’s such a terrible question, we’re cancelling the
LIGHTNING ROUND altogether. Nice goin’.
Mythical Wolf Please tell me this week's Mail Sack challenge will be a Pumpkin carving contest.
This week’s Mail Sack challenge is a Pumpkin carving contest. You’re welcome.
Report to
Facebook for details. Come on now. You can share a challenge with the rest of the Internet. Show them what you’re made of, Bungie Community.