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Want to know the answers to the community's questions straight from the creators themselves?? Hand-picked questions that are answered by Bungie. Be brave...read on! Image and content courtesy of Bungie.net. "The Mail Sack of Love" Bungie's Mailsack - April 5, 2013 SonOfTheShire - If we ask questions about Destiny, will we actually get proper answers, or are you still not allowed to talk about most of it yet? Are we there yet? We’ve only begun to introduce you to our brave new world. There’s a lot more to discover, and we’ll continue to lead the expedition here on Bungie.net over the next few weeks. While we’re no longer dark, it can’t exactly be said that we’re burning bright. Our hands are on that dimmer switch, though, and we’ll be turning up the heat slowly but surely over the coming months. What was it that Joe Staten said to bring our GDC talk to a close? Ah, yes. Here it is: “See you at E3!” In the meantime, we’ll have to do the old metaphorical dance. Old Monarch - What meal would you use to describe Destiny? A knuckle sandwich. Elliott Gray, Graphic Designer Medium-rare filet mignon, but with marshmallows on top. Leland Dantzler, Tester Macaroni and cheese with gold leaf foil. Mat Noguchi, Programmer* A three gravy poutine flight, with watermelon lemonade and Snow Phoenix Scotch on the side. In other words: Savory, bright, and intoxicating. Troy McFarland, Motion Capture Lead Destiny is like having catering delivered from your favorite restaurant. The table is set before you with a ton of different entrée options, and you can have whatever you’re in the mood for at that particular moment. Josh Eash, Release Manager From my wife’s repertoire: Fried Rabbit. It’s the new black. CJ Cowan, Story Design Lead Dim Sum. You never know what to expect and it just keeps coming. Jake Lauer, Web Development Engineer Christmas Dinner with the whole family, there is so much to choose from, everything is delicious and there are presents to boot. Luke Ledwich, Test Engineer An all you can eat wedding buffet. Jonty Barnes, Production Director A seven-course meal with portions of awesome, camaraderie, and victory. David Johnson, Engineer Hive Central - What can you tell us about the Hive? Are they an organized hierarchy? How did they establish themselves as a threat in the universe of Destiny? Are they Zombies? Cyborgs? Zombie-borgs? These are all great questions. And we will answer them, but not in the Mail Sack. By the way, Zombie-borgs? C’mon, man. That’s just silly. And I’m being sincere when I say that. I’m not saying it in an ironic way, like “Zombie-borgs confirmed for Destiny.” ibex1001 - How much of an affect do new scientific discoveries have an effect on your games? For example what would happen if they found fish on Europa? We would attempt no landing there. As for scientific discoveries, Bungie has an interplanetary scientist on speed-dial who is sworn to alert us as soon as new discoveries come to light. In all fairness, his Non-Disclosure Agreement is probably thicker than ours, so all we really do is swap snarky emails with each other. xgeua - How much work do you do from home? Only when I do the mocap laundry. Troy McFarland, Motion Capture Lead Does waking up count? That’s sometimes hard work. Leland Dantzler, Tester None. Except for those ideas that manifest into being in that weird place between being awake and asleep that make me excited to go back to work and put them in to action. Kurt Nellis, Technical Cinematic Lead Regularly. I typically bring my laptop home, turn on some smooth jazz, and work from my kitchen table in my underwear. Drew Smith, Producer I own several services that require occasional after hours attention, but the work is usually monitoring and minor bug fixes. I heartily prefer doing real work at the office, so I come in for anything major. Luke Ledwich, Test Engineer When we were supporting the Halo back-end, I worked from home quite a bit to help keep things stable. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer I find that I’m often thinking about how to solve difficult problems even while away from our pristine towers. David Johnson, Engineer Enrathe - When Destiny comes out, will we encounter Bungie Employees while we are adventuring like you? Most certainly. Have you ever heard that we make games that we want to play? Destiny is being designed to deliver chance encounters on the road to adventure, so you can expect that some of our encounters will be with you. GREEDY39 - Is the "competitive" side of destiny getting as much work put into it as the campaign/live world? Or is it more of an afterthought? Destiny will provide you with activities for every mood. Sometimes, you’ll want to form up a fireteam to rout the Cabal from the Buried City on Mars. Other times, you’ll want to battle against your fellow players to see who’s the fairest Guardian of them all. That mood gets ahold of us on a regular basis in the studio. Justrec - During your after-work-Destiny-parties, who usually does the most trash talking? I’ve seen Jon Weisnewski bring a grown man to tears with his vitriolic spew. Leland Dantzler, Tester From what I’ve heard and seen, Nate Hawbaker. But he usually plays well, so maybe it’s deserved. Jake Lauer, Web Development Engineer Luke Smith. David Johnson, Engineer Mat Noguchi. Not limited to after-work, either. Elliott Gray, Graphic Designer Luke Smith is the champion, but Mat Noguchi is louder. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer Bolt Ons23 - I want to buy the PS4 now that Bungie makes games for PlayStation. But I am worried that it will effectively mean I am starting with a blank slate. How will this affect everything I have achieved with Halo? With the rebuild of Bungie.net, we’ve sort of wiped that slate clean for you. Destiny (and the online experiences that will support it) will provide brand new opportunities for you to distinguish yourself as a rare and unique snowflake who kicks ass in a living world. The great feats you achieved in Halo may yet impact your legacy as a player of Bungie games. We still have a database with billions of rows of player data, and we’re not afraid to use it. Player3Thomas - What is love? Love is feeling a little bit guilty when the landscape is littered with the corpses of your enemies. Leland Dantzler, Tester Love is taking a brief detour from your objective to help out a fellow Guardian in battle. Josh Eash, Release Manager Love is a night on the Moon – the ultimate date destination. Jake Lauer, Web Development Engineer Love is ignoring the tantalizing prospect of new loot to go save your mate. Luke Ledwich, Test Engineer Love is fulfilling a mission on Mars as I softly whisper, “I’ll be back soon. Promise.” David Johnson, Engineer Love is stumbling into a massive squad of enemies, only to be saved by a stranger on the ridgeline. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer Modernarcher - How big will the destiny art book be? You assume too much. However, were we to publish a book of all the art we’ve created to help us realize this brave new world; it would be heavier than all of our previous publications combined. player 900709 - Should the less awesomely talented community members (this guy) feel intimidated and not share their creative Destiny-related works? Not at all. We only learn when we try. There are some amazing illustrators who are flexing their creative muscles in Art and Stuff, and their appreciation society is shaping up to be a great place to have your work critiqued by your peers. Mfish125 - Does Bungie use 3ds Max or Maya? Both. And Motion Builder. Troy McFarland, Motion Capture Lead Max is typically – although not exclusively – used for environment creation and hard surface creation while Maya is typically used for character creation and animation. We also use software programs like Zbrush, Mudbox, and a variety of highly specialized software. And of course we have our own proprietary tools that our artists use. Dave Dunn, Head of Art EZcompany2ndsqd - What does it take to become a community manager or assistant community manager? Practice, baby. Practice! Bungie likes to hire people who have already demonstrated an ability to tackle the work that we need done. In the absence of professional experience, personal projects are a great way to demonstrate that you pack the gear to serve on our team. I won’t speak for how my predecessors prepared themselves to man this station, but I was managing a community (a smaller, more intimate alliance of online warriors) before I was drafted into the service of the Seventh Column. As a recruit from the community, I’m not alone at Bungie. Our games provide gamers with a lot ways to express themselves, and those expressions tend to prepare them for the craziness that cultivates in our studio every day. LordMonkey - What is your spirit animal? This could have been an interesting exploration of our various internal expressions of power, but it’s a safe bet that everyone would have just said “Tiger.” Hylebos - Human, Awoken, or Exo, and why? Human! Cause we awesome! Awoken. Cause blue! Exo. Cause robots! Francisco Cruz, Artist Awoken, because getting destroyed by a female Edward Cullen is great bragging rights. Leland Dantzler, Tester Human: I love the raw passion and heroism that humans bring to the table. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer Exo Warlock! An ancient rusted war machine in a tattered robe who wields unknown powers and carries a shotgun? Does it really need any explanation? Christopher Barrett, Art Director korokva117 - What are the fates of the Giant Frogs, Grub Lords, and Giant Rat Piranha Fish? You could only have learned of those lost visions from our GDC talk. They’ve been committed to a crate, and stored in a warehouse right next to the Ark of the Covenant (no, not that Covenant). Along with the Tiger Man, they are casualties in the battle for the best idea. It’s a war that we love to wage at Bungie, but it leaves a lot of blood on the field. It should be said that good ideas die hard at Bungie. You never know when inspiration will strike, and we start busting open those old and dusty crates. Progo - What is most important at Bungie, being able to self-manage or to be able to work in large teams? At Bungie those two are inseparable; the work you do on your own self-motivation and management directly affects your [large] team. Leland Dantzler, Tester Well, if you can't self-manage you can't really be effective with a large team. We are a large team. Therefore, by modus tollens, you must be able to self-manage. Mat Noguchi, Programmer* By being able to self-manage, you come prepared and ready to work in a large collaborative team environment. People know you’ve got your end covered and can count on you to deliver. Troy McFarland, Motion Capture Lead The most important thing is being able to work in a SMALL team, the ability to help your pod kick ass. Everything else flows out of that. Elliott Gray, Graphic Designer While we do work in teams, and that is important, I’ve found that striking out and finding your own plot of soil and fertilizing that over time is the path to success. David Johnson, Engineer At Bungie and in life; both are of equal import. Who will build a shelter for you while you hunt? Joe Spataro, Senior Technical Designer Social intelligence and the ability to collaborate are more important than both those things. Jonty Barnes, Production Director Jjswanson24 - Can we get a picture of DeeJ in a MoCap suit? Never. There are few promises that I dare make to the Bungie Community, but staying as far away from full-spectrum spandex is one of them. I like you people too much to subject you to that. Jakaii - Are you going to show a new trailer at E3, or at least more game footage? You’re going to have to wait for E3 to see what we have planned. All we can tell you is that it’s a show you won’t want to miss. The Mail Sack is now empty. We’ve committed to your screen all the community love that is fit to pixelate. As we make our way into a restful weekend, we must take a moment for one final expression of solidarity. This week, Bungie learned of a kindred soul in need of some strength in the face of great adversity. Joe Staten, as he is known to do on many an occasion, will do the best job of speaking for us. Bring it home, Joe: Friends, we learned some very sad news this week. Iain Banks, a tremendously inspirational author for many of us at Bungie, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. His open letter about his condition was clever and courageous, just what you would expect from the man who gave us the Culture series of books and so many other wonderful stories. If you haven’t ever read a book by Banks, or if you haven’t recently re-read your favorite, might we suggest: now would be a great time. And then, if you feel inspired, why not leave a message on his guestbook? Many of us at Bungie certainly will, offering thanks for all the joy he’s given us—and hope and comfort for his days ahead. Be Brave, Iain. Love, Bungie. - Dee J More Bungie Mailsack to come...

Want to know the answers to the community's questions straight from the creators themselves?? Hand-picked questions that are answered by Bungie. Be brave...read on! Image and content courtesy of www.Bungie.net. "The March of the Mail Sack" Bungie's Mailsack - March 1, 2013 Duardo - What's the scariest part about creating a new universe? The best sci-fi/fantasy blows people’s minds, while still resonating with them on a deeper, universally relatable level. The entire team at Bungie has spent years figuring out how to best marry these two ideals into one wholly compelling experience. It’s been daunting, to say the least. But releasing it to the wild – that is the terrifying part. Dave Mongan, Senior Writer tyalka93 - How much backstory and lore can we expect in Destiny? Prior to joining the writing team on Destiny, Eric Raab painstakingly helped guide the Halo fiction as part of an external team at Tor Books. He has a wealth of experience curating deep volumes of fiction for other franchises and a stable of supremely talented authors, as well. When we asked him your question, we expected a digital tome overflowing with careful Generations worth. Good luck uncovering it all. Eric Raab, Managing Editor Dark Delta 6 - What is your favorite alien in Destiny? There are many to choose from. Let’s learn about the preferred targets of our panel. My favorite alien is a dead alien. Mike Forrest, Senior Engineer The Cabal. I want to give them hugs. Special hugs. Frank Krause, SDET Everyone’s an alien, aren’t they? Concepts of nationality don’t really apply when there’s only one safe city left on Earth. Destiny is a melting pot. A tossed salad. Gumbo. What’s in gumbo? No one knows. Tom Slattery, Localization Content Manager The (yet to be named) “Space Zombies.” I love their mythos and how it’s communicated through the art direction of the characters and the environments. Joey Gibbs, Broducer 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. That said, now that all of the enemy combatant races have been fleshed out more deeply, I’m harder pressed to call out a single enemy as a frontrunner. It’s become too difficult to play favorites. The amount of visual variety has become mind boggling, and our writers have been in overdrive to give each race rich and meaningful motivations that don’t just create distinctions between enemy races, but within them. Urk, Classified The Vex. They are unlike any enemies I’ve fought in other games. The fiction behind them is really fascinating, which, in turn, creates one of the coolest deaths in the game. David Candland, Senior Artist I’d answer but my arms are too tired to continue typing. Marty O’Donnell, Audio Director Spawn - How will you be addressing all player audiences within Destiny? You can’t make everyone happy all of the time, but with Destiny we’re reaching out to gamers who love heart-pounding action set in a world worthy of heroes. If that suit of armor fits you, here’s some speculative context from someone who is no stranger to player audiences. Sometimes shooting aliens is -blam-ing relaxing and sometimes shooting aliens is stressful and intense. We’re going to accommodate both sides of that coin. Destiny will have activities for every mood. Luke Smith, Senior Designer ll ManBean ll - What's Bungie's favorite thing to do in Destiny? With so many things to do, we’ll need our panelists to scratch the surface. I stare at gorgeous vistas instead of playing the game. Leland Dantzler, Tester Nothing’s better than playtesting with the entire studio. Francisco Cruz, Artist One night each week after work, food and beverages appear in the kitchen and we all get together to playtest the latest build. Josh Eash, Release Manager I like slow dramatic walks on the moon. Drew Smith, Producer I just go out to kill stuff for the shiny loot. Ben Thompson, Engineer Sit on the Shores of Time on Venus and watch other Guardians run through, leaving behind a body count. Nate Hawbaker, Associate Technical Artist Dramatic entrances. Josh Markham, Associate Artist Camp out in the social areas helping people get to their next destination. Kevin Hart, Associate Artist Madness - Is everything in Destiny made so "lone wolves" like me can enjoy the game as much as the guys who like to play cooperatively? You won’t be required to partner with strangers to achieve your goals in Destiny. You’ll have all the freedom you need to blaze your own trail. LLamuh - Will competitive gamers have a home in Destiny? Yes. The most competitive guys at our studio are having a damn good time playing Destiny. Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer burritohsenior - Will Destiny give us a chance to have cooperative Ride Along matches, where fans work side by side with Bungie to kick all the buttocks? Not all combatants have buttocks, but, just like anything that’s fun, Destiny is a game that’s more fun to play with your friends. We can’t say that enough. When we ship this game from our hands to yours, we’ll want nothing more than to play it with you. Father Franklin - Who is currently the best Destiny player in the studio? This is just the census we need to solicit volunteers to ride along with our community. What say you, Bungie? Our test automation is by far the best player; it can create a character and play through an entire level faster than any human. Austin Spafford is the best human player, in my opinion. Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer Mat Noguchi, Nate Hawbaker, Leland Dantzler, Mike Forrest. Elliott Gray, Graphic Designer I’m consistently thrashed by Monske or Hawbaker. Leland Dantzler, Tester Not me. Launching Bungie.next has put me a bit behind the curve. Tom Gioconda, Engineer John Harris. The man brings death with him wherever he goes. Joey Gibbs, Broducer Josh Hamrick. I try to avoid playing against him in anything. Francisco Cruz, Artist I haven’t played against everyone, but I was in a game the other day where Shaun Martin dominated my team. Rahsaan Green, Sandbox Test Engineer I thought I was good till I played our testers. Kevin Hart, Associate Artist I'm the unluckiest, statistically speaking. Mat Noguchi, Programmer* It’s unanimous. Flamestryker - Aside from the Mail Sack, when can we expect our next stream of Destiny related information? Will this be on a weekly or a monthly basis? The Mail Sack won’t be your only or most theatrical source of Destiny news, but it’s inevitable that our ongoing weekly chat will touch on our game from time to time. We have a lot to show you before it’s your turn to play, and you won’t miss a beat if you’re paying attention to Bungie.net, or any of our official channels. What we don’t want to do is commit that parade of details to a predictable cadence. Its a Mirage - Did anyone come close to accidentally announcing Destiny? Are you kidding? Before its “official” reveal, Destiny was the worst kept secret in the history of video games – or secrets, for that matter. While it stung to have our showmanship disrupted by sneak previews that we didn’t plan, it was hard for us to complain about the fact that the world was hungry enough for details about our mysterious project to pry them from our clenched fists. Professor24 - When Jason Jones (or whoever) pitched the idea of Destiny, how was the companies reaction? Jason Jones doesn’t pitch anything to Bungie. He tells us that he has an idea, and we listen from the very edge of our seats. Mandroid - Will there be grinding? I hate having to grind for stuff. Destiny is an action game, so you’ll grind your enemies into dust. EpicWaffles - For the Environment artists and level designers: What is your process of designing then creating a level for Destiny? We have world designers now. We’ll tell you more about what that means later. frdeswaq - I am guessing that most of you have played some form of Destiny by now. What was your first reaction when you stepped into this brave new world? We play this game every day. Here’s what some of us said when we stepped into Destiny for the first time: “I want to know more and see more.” Rahsaan Green, Sandbox Test Engineer “Ermahgeeeeerrrrd.” Dawn Vu, Graphics Tester “I made the right decision coming to Bungie.” Tom Slattery, Localization Content Manager “Hey, this is pretty damn fun… wait, what time is it now? Uh, I’ve been playing for how long? Wow… Eh, a few more minutes won’t hurt.” Tom Gioconda, Engineer “OMG, it’s so pretty! When can I take this home again?” David Johnson, Engineer “I’ve never experienced a User Interface like this.” Kevin McGinnis, Art Lead (User Interface) “Oh god, how are we going to test this thing in the usability lab?” John Hopson, User Research Lead “Hey, that’s finally working!” Tyson Green, Staff Designer “We’ve got our work cut out for us.” David Candland, Senior Artist As you can probably tell, some of these first impressions were made earlier in the process than others, but Mr. Candland is right. There is still a lot of work to be done in building this brave new world. Fortunately, that work will be done by the most talented team that we have ever assembled. We’ll be sharing more soon. I can hear the whispers as I type these words. Until then, we’ll be seeing you in all the familiar places. - Dee J More from the Mailsack to come!

Want to know the answers to the community's questions straight from the creators themselves?? Hand-picked questions that are answered by Bungie. Be brave...read on! Image and content courtesy of www.Bungie.net. "A Most Quotable Mail Sack" Bungie's Mailsack - March 22, 2013 Let us begin this weekly sacrament of sharing and caring between Developers and Community by getting a piece of quick housekeeping out of the way. ODST VII - Will the community have any access to Bungie's GDC 2013 panel? For the less-informed, this shock trooper is talking about the Game Developers Conference. We’ve already announced Joe and Barry’s lecture, “Building a Brave New World.” You can grab the full session synopsis on the GDC website. If you want to be a fly on that wall, you’re in luck. Gamespot will be streaming GDC events on their website. You may want to pay special attention to the “Intended Audience,” however. The talk is not being built as a marketing asset, but rather an examination of world building pillars and challenges we’ve faced building a new universe from scratch. If you’re expecting a trailer, do yourself a favor and don’t tune in. If you love the sound of Joe Staten’s seductive voice, and can’t help but get lost in Barry’s chestnut eyes as he unfurls his beloved art pillars, stay tuned to Bungie.net and our social channels for more specific tune-in details next week. With that out of the way, let’s open the Sack. Forcewielder - For the members of the writing team: What were your majors, degrees and early experiences in your field of writing? And what things learned from that time in your life most influenced the early writing process for Destiny? I double-majored in Cinema/TV and English Creative Writing, then graduated and wrote my *** off (unpaid) while working my way up in the Industry. I read as many scripts as I could, even the horrible ones, and tried to steal learn as much as possible along the way. As for how that experience influences my work on Destiny, I’ll just say this: Early on, I learned that writing is 99% rewriting, and you can never get too precious about an idea. Game development is no different. It’s all about iteration. Sometimes painful, but part of the process. Dave Mongan, Senior Writer Trentonimor - What's the best experience you've ever had while working at Bungie? Working 17 hours straight, walking home at 3am, and wishing I could have stayed just a bit longer. Leland Dantzler, Tester Any day that they treat us with breakfast sandwiches ranks amongst the top days. Nothing beats a sausage patty on an English muffin to start the day. Kurt Nellis, Technical Cinematic Lead The after-work LAN parties are pretty spectacular. Never had a job where I finish working and voluntarily decide to hang around for several hours after! Jake Lauer, Web Development Engineer Crossbow. DeeJ’s Monitor. John Stvan, Graphic Designer The Pentathlon! Seriously, I really cannot wait for next year already. David Johnson, Engineer Signing someone's shoe at the Halo 2 launch party at the EMP. Mat Noguchi, Programmer* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9gBFmcg230&feature=player_embedded CJ Cowan, Story Design Lead During the run-up to Halo 3, Jonty Barnes and I went to the Tokyo Game Show. The gaming magazine Famitsu challenged MS Japan to a live Capture the Flag match. They asked one of us to participate with three members of the MS Japan team. Jonty immediately threw me under the bus and made me go play in this very public match. I was very nervous, not aided by the fact that it was 100 degrees in Tokyo and I was in a suit coat. The controller threatened to slip right out of my hand. Famitsu was so confident they would win, they agreed ahead of time they would shave their heads if they lost. We played on High Ground, which I knew quite well. As no one knew about the hatch, I quickly scored two flag captures and we won easily. Poor Famitsu. Jay Weinland, Senior Audio Lead Meeting fans of the studio is always one of the rewarding aspects of working at Bungie. James Tsai, Senior Designer Seeing my FX in the . Reed Shingledecker, Artist. yo momy hafu - Will Destiny be an easy pick up for new gamers? Well, yeah. The average game disc weighs about a half an ounce, so no one should have too hard a time picking it up. Was this a loaded question? Like “Is Destiny for noobs?” Or were you curious if our vision for this shared adventure would be too complex for a casual gamer to embrace? One thing that we’ve always strived to do at Bungie is to take rich and elaborate (and sometimes complex) experiences that we love and help bring them to a wider audience without losing what makes them great in the first place. We think we’ve done a good job of that in the past, but we’re looking forward to doing an even better job in the future. yo momy hafu - How do you exercise after spending most of your time on Destiny? I try to go to the gym (lifting, some cardio) in the mornings. I’m usually too exhausted to do it at the end of the day. Kurt Nellis, Technical Cinematic Lead I’m one of those goobers who still plays In the Groove and Pump It Up. For you non-rhythm-dance-game aficionados out there, these are essentially “hipster” variants of Dance Dance Revolution. Still lots of fun, and a great way to exercise. I have a couple awesome friends who own their own arcade cabinets, so I don't have to keep fishing for quarters. Daniel Hanson, Engineer Developer League Soccer. Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer Occasionally helping my wife with her horses is what passes for exercise for me usually. Tom Gioconda, Engineer I’m pretty rigorous about running 3 times a week. I go early in the morning before work, so I don’t have an excuse for later in the day. Some days are harder than others, but I’m always happy I’ve done it. Lars Bakken, Design Lead Every day at 1pm. 5 day lifting schedule. What’s up? Nate Hawbaker, Technical Artist I have a Doberman that needs a lot of exercise, so I take him out before work every morning. Unless it’s raining. Then he runs on the treadmill in the garage, and I sit next to it and play games or surf the web. Tom Slattery, Localization Content Manager Muay Thai, Cross Fit, Soccer, Math. Drew Smith, Producer EMJAYEL - Are the forums going to be incorporated into the Bungie Mobile App? That'd be nice. That would be very nice, eh? Aj6627 - Why is there still no news on bacon appearing in Destiny? I can neither confirm nor deny if swine survived the collapse of the Golden Age. Humanity’s luxury for consuming pork is a mystery that you will have to unlock as a player of the game. Another mystery is whether or not Urk, a confirmed vegetarian, [gentlemen, scholar, mentor, and curator of one of the best beards I have ever laid eyes upon,] will let this question stand. He doesn’t like it when I get cheeky with the fiction. Editor’s note: I will allow it. – Urk Macharius - How difficult was it to keep Destiny secret? Really difficulty, but we did it. We really pulled it off. Hard to believe. Yeah. SkilPhil - Fun facts are fun. Can you give us a fun fact about the development of Destiny? The entire case of Junior Mints that was added to the snack cabinets yesterday night was gone by 2pm today. Leland Dantzler, Tester Here in Cinematics Land, we often hold entire conversations with one another by only quoting lines from our scenes. We’re like an organic Destiny soundboard. Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer Current free space on my Dev Machine: 49.8GB / 698GB Code files I’ve checked in so far today: 48 Dice on my desk: 23 Food orders for last night’s playtest: 68 Beer orders: 32 Michael Williams, Senior Engineer I played our last build for 64 hours. Mat Noguchi, Programmer* ChorizoTapatio - This is for the multiplayer design team: What skills are required for your job? How did you learn what you needed to learn for your job? If I had to point to a specific skill, it’s the ability to rip apart anything and analyze how it works. How do the maps, gametypes, sandbox, vehicles, spawning system interact to create the experience? Critically, can you take a top-down view and understand why things are working and why they aren’t? Even more importantly, can you describe to another human being why you passionately think something sucks and propose a solution to fix it? I learned some of that skill set in college (critical thinking skills, writing, etc.). I honed them by working at my previous job, and now at Bungie. Before coming here, I played a virtual crap-ton of Multiplayer games - and still do - which prepared me to talk about games in context to the current landscape. Lars Bakken, Design Lead In general, being a multiplayer designer requires good critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills on top of a love for games. I learned my trade first by playing, thinking about, and making games (…maps, mostly) as a devoted amateur, then making the jump to a professional game design gig when the opportunity arose. The best way to learn to make games is to make games. Derek Carroll, Senior Designer I came up on the level design side, making maps and mods in my spare time. That experience helped me learn the concepts of layout design and flow, which is critical in multiplayer shooters. Get involved in making something, then finish it and make something else. Beyond that, a lot still comes down to "just" playing games, but paying extra attention to game rules, balance, systems, etc. and learning how those interact to create the player vs. player experience. Think about your favorite memories of specific multiplayer games and what came together to create them. Crack open strategy guides to study map layouts and game rules/tactics. Read or watch interviews discussing the design of these games. Be a sponge, then start thinking of ways you might expand on those experiences or create new ones. Andrew Weldon, Designer Ser Jergen - "O Brave New World" and the Making of for limited editions of Halo 3 and 2 are some of my most cherished pieces of Bungie memorabilia, not to mention the countless ViDocs. That said has/is there an internal Bungie "Historian" who chronicles all the goings on behind the scenes at Bungie? In addition to the official Bungie multimedia you’ve seen, we’ve filmed around sixty hours of footage just for Destiny. Primarily, it’s used to populate our internal website, “Tiger University,” with content that chronicles our team meetings, show and tells, and internal Bungie Day presentations going all the way back to 2009ish. It’s a great resource to help new employees get up to speed quickly, and a great way to keep the entire team up to date on everything that’s happening on the project. It’s all put together by an in house crew, and yes, it’s the very same crew that helps make our ViDocs and in-engine trailers. They prefer to stay behind the camera, so we’re not going to out them individually. We will say, however, that they have a hand in just about every visual element you’ll lay eyes on, aside from the game itself. In fact, if you watch Act One of Bungie Community Theater, you’ll catch sight of one of their less metaphorical hands. Mr Reloadshot - Many of us are Halo fans, so what are some things being brought from Halo to Destiny? Many of us are Halo fans, too! Some of us even ran Halo clans. Some of us created Halo, and pretty much lived it for years. Pretty wild stuff, eh? If you fancy yourself a Halo aficionado, we hope you’ll recognize the Bungie signature, but it should go without saying that Destiny is a completely new universe. Joe will touch on this a little bit more at GDC, and of course, there’s also this from an earlier mail sack: “Destiny is an action game set in an amazing and mysterious new universe. If you love first person shooters – if you enjoy Bungie action games – then you’re going to love Destiny.” That’s right. We’re quoting ourselves now. But it felt relevant. The Mail Sack is now empty. With each week, the cycle repeats itself. You fill it. We spill it out all over the floor and decide which of you we want to quote with quotes all our own. See you again on Monday, and (if you’re extra studious) on Thursday. You can quote us on that. - Dee J More to come from Bungie's Mailsack when released with more answers to the community's questions.

Want to know the answers to the community's questions straight from the creators themselves?? Hand-picked questions that are answered by Bungie. Be brave...read on! Image and content courtesy of www.Bungie.net. "The Ides of Mail Sack" Bungie's Mailsack - March 15, 2013 POKEY CLYDE - Can you tell the tale of an adventure you've had while playing Destiny? No. Lorraine McLees, Senior Graphic Designer I loaded a build, shot a gun, killed a dude. I suck at stories. John Stvan, Graphic Designer This one time it was like “brrrt”, and then I was like “whoa” and then the guys were all “oh yeah!” I was like “Yeah, take that!” and then I had to get back to work. Cameron Pinard, Artist I found myself working with three separate groups of people at different times. That was pretty rad. Jake Lauer, Engineer Gunny 186 - Is the team ready for the massive onslaught of players on Destiny's release day? This isn’t our first rodeo. Bungie is no stranger to anxious mobs of players who rush home after a midnight launch and put our best-laid plans to the test. Since a release date hasn’t even been announced yet, we’ll let our team focus on some less frightening but equally important challenges. ibex1001 - What are some of the more tedious things that the testers have had to do, either for Halo or Destiny? We had to test squad joining and host migration combinations mixed with various types of network disconnects. I don’t want to have to go back into matchmaking or reform my squad because the host rage quit. Rahsaan Green, Sandbox Test Engineer Halo 2, simulating 14.4 modem bandwidth with massive packet loss, playing 16 player rockets on Midship. The netcode held up remarkably well, considering. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer I still have nightmares about capturing 500 flags. John Harris, Tester All I am going to say is, “If They Came To Hear Me Beg.” Travis Pijut, Test Engineer I had to verify a bug that involved making 65 transitions from one area to another and back. It was… delightful. Leland Dantzler, Tester This rock has a bad texture, this rock has a bad texture, this rock has a bad texture, oh look a hole in the ground, this rock has a bad texture. Thomas Wiley, Tester GPK Ethan - What do you guys plan on showing at GDC? The GDC is really more of an industry affair than a marketing venue. If that’s what you’re after, we’ve got some thoughts about what we might share from the proceedings. When last we checked in with Joe and Barry, their presentation was a whopping 157 slides long, and bursting with Bungie secret sauce. Warman422 - On those few moments where you aren't coding/playing Destiny, what do you enjoy doing? Making fun of Urk. Drew Smith, Producer Creating pixel art and sprites, often for roguelike games, under the pseudonym Oryx. Christopher Barrett, Art Director Some gaming, lately including Tomb Raider and Starcraft II. Regular Magic: The Gathering over lunch at work is great fun too. Tom Gioconda, Engineer I like hanging out at home with my wife and kids. Joe Sifferman, Associate Test Engineer Maintaining tall-ships, playing Magic, creating puzzles, and reading books. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer I like to make beer and mead then consume the aforementioned product while playing my favorite video games. Alan Stuart, Senior Engineer Playing the violin and planning my wedding. Reed Shingledecker, Artist Writing, recording, and then never finishing songs in my home studio. Jake Lauer, Engineer Golfing, smoking premium cigars, and throwing tomahawks at people in black ops. David Henry, Senior Audio Designer Playing with my son. He thinks handing me a cup and then taking it back is the coolest thing ever. It never gets old. Justin Truman, Engineering Lead MastaSin - In Destiny, can we play as the aliens or are we locked to the human race? And if we are, why are we locked to the human race? What's the reason? Not all of the aliens in Destiny are evil, just like not all humans are good. We’ve barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options you’ll have access to in Destiny, but we’re not going to dig in any deeper today. Element ZER0 - How big are "levels" in Destiny compared to the levels from your past Halo games? The scope and scale really don’t tell half the story. At a high level, we now have what we call World teams. As the name implies, they’re less concerned about atomic “levels,” instead focused holistically on each world’s visual themes and the various destinations and activities you’ll find when you set foot in an LZ. It’s a bit more nuanced than that, of course – there are a number of teams that fall outside the umbrella of World teams whose contributions are equally instrumental – but ultimately our grand and overarching goal is to make Destiny feel like a world you visit, not just a disc in your drive. Don Shibz - Which planet do you guys most enjoy adventuring on and why? I personally love the Moon (yes, I realize this is not a planet). There is a spark of childhood wonder looking on the horizon and seeing the Earth in the distance. Just call me Neil Armstrong. Drew Smith, Producer Whichever is pretty this week. Lorraine McLees, Senior Graphic Designer Venus. It’s pretty and I like the Combatants you find there. Joe Sifferman, Associate Test Engineer There’s no place like home – there’s some great stuff set right here on Earth. It’s always neat seeing a modern-ish era presented as archaeological ruins/relics. Andrew Weldon, Designer Right now, I’m pretty partial to the red sands of Mars, but my favorite seems to change each time I land on a planet. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer Venus by far! No wait, Mars!!! Well, actually the Moon is pretty sweet when I think about it. But if I had to choose, I would say good ‘ole Earth! Reed Shingledecker, Artist yo momy hafu - Is Destiny going to have any kind of community creation tools in it? The entire game will be a community creation tool. As you encounter other brave heroes on your path, you’ll be very aware of the other people playing this game. On some occasions, they may save your life. Mental - What is your favorite new feature in Destiny that you can give us an extremely vague hint at? Crossing paths. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer Moving. Andrew Weldon, Designer We just got this sweet new import feature that speeds up workflow. Cameron Pinard, Artist Particle wrapping. Reed Shingledecker, Artist slunkling - So, you've given us sparing details about the game so far, understandably. We got guns like the Gravesend MkII and The Fate of All Fools, care to give us another one? For reveal, we showed off and named a good half-dozen guns for our friends in the press corps, including one of Staten’s favorites, Thorn. Here’s what he had to say about it: “The City wants us to recover a piece of Charlemagne, one of the great Warminds of the Golden Age—a vast machine intelligence built by the ancient Powers of Mars. The Cabal do everything they can to try and stop our descent, but we keep pushing, rifles cracking and Traveler energy boiling from our fists until the only thing left standing is us, and the only thing left of the Cabal is the loot they hid in Charlemagne’s vault. Jason finds a new shotgun – perfect for his close-quarters combat style. I find a rare hand cannon that looks like it was carved from the dark heart of one of the Cracked Moons of Saturn. It feels good in my hand, and glows like starlight when I prime its magazine. I am instantly and totally in love.” Barry also showed off Pocket Infinity and Super Good Advice, but those are toys we’ll save for another day. Xenos85 - What class of the announced classes is your favorite? The classiest one. Cameron Pinard, Artist Warlock, but I am a sucker for magic users. Drew Smith, Producer My favorite class switches weekly (or daily). Rahsaan Green, Sandbox Test Engineer Currently dueling between the Hunter and Warlock. The Titan may come crashing in and punch them in the face at any moment. Andrew Weldon, Designer Hunter. Fell in love the first time I met her. Jaime Jones painted the first hunter permutation as female and in my mind associated with that class more as a result. Combination of speed and strength. I also liked the shorter cape and rather sexier shape. Lorraine McLees, Senior Graphic Designer Two Words: Titan [Redacted]! Amos Yuen, Associate Engineer one eight four - What has been your biggest setback so far? Not enough time in the day! Lorraine McLees, Senior Graphic Designer Whenever we hit a new internal milestone, all our characters get deleted. Michael Williams, Senior Engineer My first day was the day the studio took the hands-at-sides-wearing-blazers picture. I knew it was going to be a weird time from then on. Jake Lauer, Engineer Real blocking bug by Timmins in January: 49361 – there is no ice cream in the freezer. Leland Dantzler, Tester I was backing up looking at some effects that I was working on and fell into the Hellmouth. Reed Shingledecker, Artist shmuel30 - How does it feel to have been working on Destiny for so long and being finally able to release more information about it to us? I no longer feel like a huge [redacted] making small talk with friends when the subject of how work is going comes up. Tom Gioconda, Engineer Now the kids can say “Destiny” instead of “the new game mommy’s working on…” I like how they say “Destiny” in hushed tones, though. It’s a relief to be sure. Lorraine McLees, Senior Graphic Designer Liberating. It’s also fun to read all of the comments and speculation out there. Joe Sifferman, Associate Test Engineer It’s nice to not have to do the whole “we haven’t announced anything” but now there is the totally new problem of me having no idea what we have and haven’t talked about. Cameron Pinard, Artist I still plead the fifth on everything. Rachel Swavely, Technical Artist It’s like playing with the best toy in the world and finally getting to show it to your friends but still not letting them play with it. John Stvan, Graphic Designer I’ve only been on the project for 5 months, and I was literally bursting at the seams. I can’t imagine what some coworkers who’ve been working on it for years had to endure. Leland Dantzler, Tester I’ve spent 3 years having to say “the game I’m working on,” and now I can shorten that to three syllables. Justin Truman, Engineering Lead. Be safe, everyone. Don’t make the same mistake as Caesar. Heed your own warnings. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on the fun we’re planning for you. - Dee J Be on the lookout for the latest Bungie Mailsack as they are released with more answers to the community's questions.