Hey everybody! Welcome back to Creators Spotlight, after the success of the first entry we have decided to keep this going as a monthly series; what better way to do that than to give an example of our Popular forger spotlight, the video clocks out to be above 20 mins of content, which will be standard (unless you guys don't like it that long) and has more broad questions and a good conversation this go-round. This is going to be quite the long article too so strap on in for all the details, including some possible cut audio too!

Without Further ado, let's jump right into this!





Crush (C): Hey guys welcome back to Creators Spotlight, in this Episode we have Infinite forges for you, introduce yourself man!

Infinite Forges(IF): What's up man, thanks for having me on, this is cool, really glad we were able to do this!

C: Of course dude, thanks for being down to be a part of the show! We're just going to be picking your brain a little bit today to get your thoughts and opinions on a lot of different topics,, including your recommendations for new forgers/creators coming into the scene! Without further ado let's jump into the first topic.

First Question, how long have you been in the Halo Community, forge or otherwise?

IF: Awe dude what, 20 Years? Haha I've been in the community since Combat Evolved, and forging since Halo 3, I remember first feeling about forge and it got me into the creative avenues of creating my own maps, it was sick as I always thought it was primarily more of a developer type of tool that the player base just didn't get to do in games, but as soon as I realized the power of Forge and the ability we've been given I started creating maps and goofy game types. Of course from H3 we had Reach, 4, and 5; with Halo 5, that was the first time I started making my work public, cause I've been forging ever since 3, but just never made any of my work public until Halo 5, that was a really cool time because putting the work out that I put out just happened to be in this unique section of the Forge community's lifecycle in Halo 5 that barely anything was seemingly getting posted, or at least with traction to it. I think I was one of the only forgers for like 12 months sharing anything, it was definitely cool as it allowed me to get my name out there more, which was wonderful, and I'm glad people have been enjoying my work and Halo in general, but yea I've been around for about that long, while publicly it's only been a year and a half to 2 years.



C: Yea I think about a year and a half to two years ago is when I first started hearing about you. I think I actually know the exact time you were talking about too, of course right when Forge launched there was a slow amount of maps being published for the obvious reason of, well, everyone's still building their maps, but the time you're specifically talking about I think is 2019-2020, most people either stopped Forging or decided to only build stuff in preparation for Infinite, yea a few people were posting here on ForgeHub still, but it wasn't a lot like Halo 5's heyday was.

IF: Yea yea exactly:

C: It's crazy that you've been around as long as all the way back in the CE days, not many people (at least compared to the broader population) have been around since the beginning.

IF: I feel honored because it's been cool to see things grow, especially Forge, what my mind concocts and thinks about when it comes to the new tool and ideas it gets me really really excited

C: Hopefully what's next will be Infinite's Forge within this next year, but I guess we can't count those chickens before they hatch. That actually segways into our next question very well with our next question actually being what would you like to see most in Infinite's Forge, a wishlist if you would?



IF: Oh man, the things I want to see, I want to honestly see a terrain editor more than anything; I spend a ton of time working with Unreal Engine, which of course I'd want to see a similar power is granted to the individual, and a terrain editor would really open the doors for that to be more of the case in Forge. If at all that is possible, whether that is at launch or down the line, that would really revolutionize how we Forge as a whole (Later in the interview Infinite Forges Clarifies that He's much rather it be akin to FarCry's terrain editing but better). Another thing that I think we should be able to use finally is A.I, having a very in-depth scripting system, and more tools with art and skybox to help people create more diverse and strong atmospheres for their levels. Maybe different dynamic weathers would also be really cool as that only amplifies the immersion. In Unreal for example, you are able to move the sun and place it wherever your coordinates tell it to go, which a lot of that gives more freedom to the player and allows it to be more unique ways to create something new every time, a lot more even then what Halo 5 did, which Halo 5 was great, but the other thing that really crippled it, even after the budget increased, was the budget. I want to see that bad boy increased so I can create a decent layout and still have enough budget afterwards to art it to my heart's content and make it something truly immersive.

C: I think that's definitely something a lot of people have been clambering for is the increased budget, even with how large Halo 5's (1024 increased to 1600) was compared to previous iterations of Forge, it still just wasn't enough for the amount of creativity the Forge community has, and in the later years of Halo 5 creators definitely pushed the maps to their absolute limit for the game to pump out the best experiences.

IF: (Relating to the previous point on terrain editing) Imagine to with that power in our hands how much we could do just in our landscapes, I can only imagine the crazy Rac tracks @ducain23 would make haha.



C: oooh Ducain is gonna make the asteroid Worm Hole's from Star Wars (Empire) man that's going to be his first map

IF: Yeaaa haha, the other thing I'd love to see, we had a bunch of different Forge canvases in Halo 5, but what I'd love to actually see is a blank canvas, no Skybox, no Terrain, just nothing, give us the player complete creative freedom and allow us to dictate how everything looks. Just something you can start building in. That's actually how it is in Unreal and that's the type of stuff I'd love to see for Forge so we'll be able to create more Unique things as a whole. Lastly......well actually I think that's about it, of course, I could go on for a while with more wishlist stuff but we'll leave the rest to be surprised, we'll leave some surprises for speculation haha.

C: Definitely a lot of surprises being thrown out there into the wishlist and hopefully into Forge, but actually speaking of surprises, I recently saw you got accepted into the games industry and have begun working in it, so my next question is actually would you have any recommendations for anyone who would like to get into the industry, whether that be from the Forge community or otherwise?

IF: Yea, I mean, the thing that I would say is to put yourself out there as much as you can, and consistently do stuff too. I started out with Forge publicly about a year and a half to 2 years ago, and it was just me consistently putting stuff out there, trying to network with people, getting some mentors; one of my mentors Kaleb Nekumanesh which was the guy who has been a huge help for me in Unreal Engine he actually used to work at 343i, and he's one of the most kindhearted people if anyone would like to have help with game software you should definitely hit him up because he's a very talented and knowledgeable guy. What I'd attribute to me getting into the industry, what I would attribute it all to, is A: Having a portfolio; make sure you're comfortable with putting yourself out there and doing it consistently, B: Build an audience online; if you're creating maps and nobody's playing them, doesn't matter just make, sure that you're putting content out there based around what you're making. The biggest problem I see with Forgers, new and old alike, is that a lot of Forgers don't publicize their work, I always question them and I'm like Why? I understand that a lot of people might just be shy to do it, ya know totally makes sense, but if you're aiming to get into the games industry or get yourself out there in general, creating nice photos or trailers in general; because when you put music with nice panning shots of a level it evokes a lot more emotion and interest into your content, and it's a lot more shareable on platforms like Twitter. I think that's one of the main pieces of advice I'd give is that if you're going to start sharing content anywhere post it to Twitter and tag people like myself or other prominent creators so we can help you share it with a larger audience. Even more prominent creators like Ducain 23, Forge Labs, Unsorted Guy, sharing your content is the number 1 thing that will help you succeed more in life than anything.

C: Be prepared to be spammed on Twitter haha!

This article turned out to be too large for the Site's current article post limit, so here's a link to part 2:

Creators Spotlight: Infinite Forges Part 2 | ForgeHub
​