What does the addition of scripting mean for Forge? What will that allow you to do? Punch Scripting was present in Halo 5. It wasn't a terrible system, either, just painful to work with because of how it was implemented in the UI. Scripts were attached to objects in groups of 8 input/output pairs that couldn't be rearranged and could only be viewed 1 at a time as part of an object's metadata menu. To make anything of any real complexity, it was almost essential to draft it externally. It was actually quite powerful, though, there were even rudimentary enemy AI made using it. The visual scripting provided by the node graph interface in Halo Infinite frees us from those issues, makes drafting in-game much more user friendly, and makes things like rearranging and duplicating written 'code' is actually doable. That scripts are only stored on a single type of object and you can view large strings of commands at once is a major leap forward and is enough that I don't always feel the need to draft in a whiteboard app first anymore. That, combined with the fact that scripts don't run until you enter "Play" mode and the easy ability to rename objects and use those names as references for targeting them, I can just test ideas in Forge and they are almost self-documented compared to what we had in Halo 5. As for what people can do: there are hundreds of "nodes" available for users to arrange in what are, essentially, flow charts of logic and data. Starting with events that set off each circuit, users can string together outputs like modifying a player's traits, teleporting them, giving them points, changing their team affiliation, sending UI messages to their screen, or even forcing them into a vehicle. There are variables for every datatype present in the system, objects can be put in lists that can be iterated over in loops, and non-static objects can be moved around the level instantly by setting them to a new position. You can even write functions using the Custom Event nodes that are available. It has much more potential than Halo 5's. That said, there are some limitations present that Halo 5 did not have. With 5, we were able to label objects with "User Labels" and could use this and the "Spawn Order" setting to target them with scripts. This allowed us to easily share things like scripted game modes with people in an easy-to-deploy package. We also had a base game mode that would read labels of objects and choose to spawn them in or not for Mini-Game modes, allowing us to have a single level for multiple scripted game modes using a system parallel to the one for the stock game modes. Infinite does not have the "User Labels", Minigame's label functionality, or the ability to sort objects by "Spawn Order" and requires that each object be directly referenced or detected in a boundary attached to an object (like a King of the Hill zone). This will be something that designers will have to work around until these features find their way back in. How far have creators been able to push Forge thus far? How much farther will they be able to push it with the upcoming update? Punch The people that have gotten access to the Forge via the Co Op Flight have been creating some impressive stuff. The art-studies, detailed remakes, and scripting R&D that people have been doing have been great to see, and that's with broken, incomplete, software. The release in November might be a beta, but the build that we've been seeing content from wasn't even checked to make sure it was functional, it was just vestigial as a part of the Co Op Flight. The actual retail build, and the stability and infrastructure that come with it should only serve to take things to greater heights. Beyond just the gorgeous remakes of Guardian and Foundry, and the vistas and vignettes being made by some of the other artists, I've seen the Mario Kart designs, the 'custom weapons', obstacle courses, etc. It's all excellent proof-of-concept work and I can't wait to see these ideas get stitched together into actual gameplay designs. These guys are just getting started. What are some of your all time favorite Forge creations? Wolf This is a tough question, after 15 years of forge it's a big task to nail down my all-time favorites. If I had to pick, I would go to some of my more memorable minigames I loved playing. Jenga and Trash Compactor are definitely on my list, being popular modes from Halo 3. They were both simple but fun. With Jenga you would spawn on top of a tower with a bunch of other people and the goal was to not fall off as the tower was pelted with objects thrown by one other player. It was a game about knowing when and where to jump while also dodging incoming objects. Trash Compactor was similar in many ways, though this time you were not on a tower but in a dead-end hallway. At the other end of the hallway was a shaft that one player on an enemy team would push objects down and your objective was to dodge and be the last one alive. Another favorite of mine is from Halo Reach called Speed Halo. It was one big, long ramp with a teleporter at each end and it was an infection mode. The infected had hammers and swords while the survivors would get in vehicles and head down the ramp. Each time you would get to the end you would be teleported back to the top and continue momentum so after a short while you would start going incredibly fast and sometimes spin like crazy. If you died, then you were given a hammer and thrust back into the fray trying to kill the survivors. I think what I like about all these are that they are full of chaos and unpredictability which makes every time playing fun and interesting. Crush Some of my favorite Forge creations actually come from Halo 3, with the classics of Trash Compactor, Duck Hunt, and Halo on Halo; but there have been some other great creations too such at Flapjack Frenzy in Halo 5 and Speedrun in Halo 4. All the maps I listed are mini games, so the enjoyment really comes from the party games aspect of them, but I also love seeing the creations from other parts of the community. The 4v4, Big Team, and Infection communities always do a fantastic job on creating surreal environments to fight in, which allows for even more enjoyment from the unique environments you get to battle in. It's just always fantastic to see the absolute creativity that the community can come up with, on top of that the ability to express your own creativity is something that's hard to describe. Ducain As many people in the Halo community knows, I love racing in Halo. So some of my favorite maps have been some beautiful racetracks and slayer maps created by Forgers like Noble Forger and Arpod. Noble Forger created a track called "Medieval Rail" and is a themed track where you drive around and through a castle! Arpod has created some amazing slayer maps but one of my favorites is Life Force. This map has multiple floating islands with vines connecting them that you battle on! Some other fun maps in the past have been Mongoose Sumo by TurbTastic. This is where everyone is on a mongoose and the edges of the platform you are on starts to disappear. While that is happening, you try to knock everyone else off and be the last one to survive. Overall there are too many I love because I can go on to mention maps like Speed Halo, Halo on Halo, Trash Compactor, FlapJack Frenzy, Jenga and so on. Not to mention there are tons of fun Parkour and Puzzle maps too...haha What do you think Infinite's version of Forge will bring to the table?/ Talk to me about the future of Forge, what are you excited about the upcoming winter update? Wolf Given my background and still being under an NDA I can't say too much, but I am very excited for what Infinite has in store for Forge and can't wait till more people can play it. Seeing what people have made with the leaked builds is spectacular and I know when everyone is able to get their hands on it, we will see some truly amazing creations. Punch Aside from the release of Forge, itself, getting to share all of the things I've been working on, and getting to settle into a more collaborative workflow are probably the two things I'm looking forward to most. It's a beta release, so I'm managing expectations, but I have good reason to have a positive outlook for the tool: even the half-busted build that people accessed via the Co-Op Flight is blowing previous titles' editors out of the water, for both performance and visuals. Crush I believe that Infinite's Forge will ultimately drive a new era of Forge we haven't seen before, with the vast amounts of improvements that were shown off recently by 343i and the community's creative drive, I'm expecting a lot of very interesting and unique maps in due time. I'm expecting an expanded budget count, new objects to use and manipulate (allowing for more creative use of art and textures), and the new scaling feature to allow us to truly create what we want creatively to our hearts content, even more than Halo 5's previous iteration. Ducain Halo Infinite's Forge is going to be a massive evolution just like it was between Reach and Halo 5. In Infinite's Forge, you can now place up to 7000 objects (from 1600 in Halo 5 Forge) and we have visual scripting that can do crazy things like shrink vehicles, give you power ups like in Mario Kart, create a full on CoD Zombies type mode with mystery boxes and so on! Not to mention now we can scale objects, have more than 50 materials to choose between, proper lighting options/control and more. So the potential in Halo Infinite's Forge is... well... Infinite As you can tell, Forge is extremely important to Halo. It provides ways to play the game that have never been thought of before and it also provides content into Matchmaking since Forge maps are always put into the playlist rotations to give fresh content to the regular players. With Halo Infinite's Forge, I think we will see something people haven't seen in Halo before and I can't wait for everyone to get their hands on it and let their creativity flow Are you worried about 343 following through on what they've promised to add? Punch Worried? No. Do I expect it to all show up quickly? Also no. That doesn't mean I just blindly expect them to follow through, either. Plans change, some changes are forced. I took notice of the couch co-op promise that got broken, and I remember when "the plan" was that content made in Halo 5 would be "playable in Halo 7". That said, with the roadmap as given, I can't think of a reason to expect further delays. No one on these teams wants to over-promise and under-deliver. I know some of them personally and worked with them on projects before they were at 343, I can at least vouch for the fact that they pursued those jobs to be positive influences. -SIR IRON WOLF