Rampancy

A good deal of new information about some of the alien races in Bungie's Destiny in this week's Mail Sack. Here, for instance, is some really interesting stuff about the Fallen from Urk:

I fell in love with the Fallen all the way back in 2009. Partly because there’s just something wonderful about the idea of a nomadic race of once noble houses now scattered to the solar winds. Partly because there’s something primordial and instantly terrifying about squaring off against an unpredictable Fallen Captain, his tattered crimson cape draped over a set of four splayed and angular arms that bristle with sleek firepower.

Sounds like an interesting blend of Dune's Landsraad, Mass Effect's Quarians, and Unreal's Nali. Also sounds like they all have four arms.

Steve Peterson at Gamesindustry.biz has put up a Photo Tour of the new offices Bungie is developing Destiny in. Of the things I didn't know about the building, this one was the most interesting:

Parsons related how they had to use the second-largest crane in the country to lower the refrigeration units onto the roof; he said they were afraid they'd have to use a helicopter, which would have meant shutting down a wide area of the city, but fortunately that wasn't needed. Refrigeration and air conditioning are important due to the massive server infrastructure required by Bungie's operations; six huge units occupy much of the roof space.

Sounds like Bungie has big infrastructure plans around Destiny, far more than just XBL matchmaking.

Over at Gamasutra, Shay Pierce wrote a piece entitled Game Designers and the Four Tribes of Artists, and then Sara Gross (also at Gamasutra) wrote a piece called Indie Elitism, partially in response. Response to what? Well, apparently Pierce had read some conversations on Twitter in response to Bungie's Destiny reveal that were a bit less than positive:

A few days ago when Bungie did their first reveal of "Destiny", my friend and former co-worker Josh (who is working on Destiny) was expressing some frustration on Twitter. Josh is a big fan of indie games, and was frustrated because many of the indie game developers he respects were seemed to be expressing immediate disdain for the game.

Josh in this case is Bungie's Josh Hamrick, of course. Pierce started in on how the indie game community has a bunch of snobs in it, but Gross apparently thought Pierce took it too far, or perhaps not far enough, or not quite in the right direction, and anyway ended up here:

I see no reason to vehemently snub the things that shaped gaming as we see them today. Why not embrace them - appreciate what they did for us? Some were pioneers once too. Before they made AAA titles, they made games in their parents’ basements, lived on pre-packaged garbage foods, and suffered obscene deadlines to help their creations see the light of day. They started somewhere too. AAA developers aren’t so different from us, indies.

... and linked to this.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi has interviewed Bungie COO Pete Parsons about his role with the Halo and Destiny franchises originated by Bungie. Quite a few interesting tidbits in there, but perhaps the most interesting one reaffirms the origins of the idea behind the new IP:

Destiny is very much a product of everybody at Bungie, but its inception comes from Jason [Jones, co-founder of Bungie]. This is very much a vision that Jason has. Then, he gathers a small group of really talented people who have been here a long time, and they begin hammering on it. It's had multiple incarnations until it finally landed into what it is today. That's fun to watch. Not just on technology, but art and story. [...] As naive as this may sound, if Jason believes in something and he's ready to go for it, I'm in.

Be sure to read the full story at VentureBeat.