Hey everyone and welcome back to ForgeHub! Today we have another brand new episode of Creators Spotlight for you; today's episode is with a scripting Forger known as The Guardian163 (or The Programmer 163 depending on platform). This will be quite a long article since we have over 22 minutes of unused content from the video to articulate here so whether you prefer listening into the video or reading the "Directors Cut/Cut content" we've got you covered! More than likely this article will be split into 2 parts like the previous article so be prepared for that if you want all the juicy details! Without further a-do let's jump right into Creators Spotlight!

(Video will be posted at 12:30pm EST)



Crush(C): Welcome to this new episode of Creators Spotlight everyone, today's episode of Creators Spotlight is going to be with Myself, Captain Punch (another member of Staff), and The Guardian163 (Our guest). So guys please introduce yourselves!

The Guardian163 (G): HI! I'm The Gaurdian 163/The Programmer163 and perhaps...some other names in the future!

Captain Punch (P): Gosh that's a lot to follow up on haha, I'm just Captain Punch! You may have to add a 374 depending on what platform you're looking at haha.

C: Alright guys, welcome to the interview/podcast, and thank you for introducing yourselves, lets start off here with a very basic question. Gaurdian, how long have you been in the Halo community?

G: I've been in the Halo Community for roughly 15 years, since around Halo 3. Sooo, that's a long time haha, I wasn't actually a part of the Forge Community originally, more or less I was just hanging out with my Co-Forge partner Bromway. We are French so at the time we didn't know much English and couldn't really communicate with the rest of the community too well, so we were more like 2 little hermits working together and trying stuff haha.

C: That's really interesting and I kinda get that in my own way, it must've been quite the hurdle to get over that language barrier for you two; you mentioned Bromway, who's that?

G: Bromway is basically my Forge Partner, which I previously mentioned we started playing together and Forging back in Halo 3, but we've been working together on most projects, bouncing ideas off each other and making as unique maps as we can. By the way, side note, I found some pictures of the very first maps I made and we made together, and....it was nauseous to see that haha, but yea we've been forging with each other through pretty much every Halo available to us. I didn't have an Xbox One until around 2018 or 2019 though as I was invested in other ventures at the time, but ever since I've come back to Halo through that purchase Bromway and I have been killing it in our scripting and map-making ventures! It was actually surprising how quickly we reconnected and started going into the map-making process, it was almost like we never lost touch.

P: Sounds like that collaboration really has helped pull you two together and helped you pull projects together too.

G: Exactly.

P: What was your experience with having someone to work with vs not having someone to work with?

G: With someone, I typically do a lot more than without, it allows me to bounce ideas off the walls in a since and then have that feedback to turn that into a solution or idea faster, when I Forge alone, typically I don't get things done as quickly as otherwise. That basically is the factor if something ever gets released for me, as there's a very good chance I'd get distracted or work on something else otherwise.

P: Yea it's really hard to maintain that focus when someone else isn't there to help you maintain that or helping you kinda being your incentive. Like the "I'm doing this not just for me and someone will look at it" approach, rather than it being a question if someone does.

G: To clarify Bromway isn't strict or anything either, he's just kinda like "Hey, do more Forge" haha, then I hop on Forge a little bit more.

C: Not to mention collaboration can also spawn new ideas you may not have previously thought of. I know you both have done a lot of scripting, for example, a cool scripting idea may have completely flown over your head that someone you typically work with could've brought up to you making that script or the scripts even better than what you initially thought of or expanded your knowledge on some element of scripting.

P: Most of my influence is helping other people with the roadblocks they've come up to with that, whether it be just being the guy that they can come up to and have all that information absorbed and assisted with that others figured out, or figuring out myself; even more than stuff I've built myself or got released, just helping others along the way is very incentivizing.

G: Mine isn't as humble haha, while I do help around the community from time to time if I'm reached out to, more recently I have been sticking to the cool ideas I've been coming up with, Captain Punch and Addicted Chaos have saved me a few times with some scripts that were complete headaches, someone who has taught me the basic of Numbers (In Scripting) was "Bob Is Here".



P: I never actually got a chance to work with Bob, so that was too bad ...

C: Bob and I go wayyy back, used to play customs with him all the time. How long did you know Bob?

G: I've known him for a while too, with all his help it really helped me out to properly understand the scripting sequences of numbers, it's more complex than it sounds but it's also, in my opinion, the best

C: What're some things that have inspired you to create more stuff? Whether that be Maps, Art, Movies, or anything else that's given you inspiration.

G: Bromway and I have an inside joke, which is, "the map influences the map" which is literally us saying the map makes the map naturally. You can go with a plan naturally and you'll notice two things, A) that you'll find new ideas you haven't thought about before and B) some of the ideas won't work so you'll have to throw them away anyway. Keeping an open mind is the best way to be inspired, instead of being inspired by a show or map we typically just keep an open mind and gradually get new ideas that make our ideas turn out better in the long run compared to a planned inspiration.

P: So not quite flying by the seat of your pants, rather starting an idea and letting that idea Evolve based on what you need than restricting yourself?

G: Exactly, one of my mottos is that Bad ideas are good, and what I mean by that is there are definitely bad ideas, however, a bad idea can give you a good idea. Try things out more frequently, if it only takes a few seconds to see what's bad and what's good, cool move on or implement it, testing will ultimately help you to get more ideas and see what works and what doesn't.



C: Especially with how old the Halo Franchise is, there's so much stuff that's been tried that may now work with Infinite or a future title that maybe didn't work in the past titles. Taking feedback of course is crucial to see if something is working or not of course.

G: I'd actually say that sometimes you can weed out exactly what needs changing too just by watching people play your maps, especially on Asymmetric game types like Infection, One Flag, Invasion, etc. Those game types typically seem to show their cracks more during gameplay than in the forging phases, however, once you are accustomed to how those modes typically play, just like 4v4 or BTB, you can kinda weed out what's good and bad before testing too. You can also work a bad thing into a good thing over time if you keep working at it, in my eyes with enough time but into something you can eventually make it good.

P: And that does make sense in that vein because the bigger difference between those two kinds of levels, a core level or an asymmetric mode is that with the asymmetric mode you can typically take your encounter spaces and design around those connections and their specific gameplay spaces with more leeway compared to a core map.

G: For balance that brings up a whole new can of issues on both sides of the aisle, asymmetric game modes typically have a more difficult time with specific areas rather than weapons, while Core (while still being able to have issues with certain areas) typically it's more about spawning and the weapons at play.

P: Exactly, not to mention you don't have to worry about flow too much compared to a core map, while the flow is still important it isn't as prevalent.

C: We can definitely talk more about that as a whole, especially when it comes to the asymmetric modes and what we want in them in the future. For example, personally a really neat idea I think would be good for free roam infection is the addition of the hill we got in Attrition, a core issue with all free-roam Infection maps is it boils down to one of three things: 1) There's one holdout everyone gravitates towards because of its the ease of survivability, 2) There is a route to take around the map that makes it too easy to survive the infected or juke them giving a boring meta to the map, or 3) There are too many humans spread out to where there isn't enough time to converge on all of them in the allotted time left in-game. This is where the Hill from attrition would come in and slowly push humans to the center of the map or one particular area on the map to funnel gameplay into a more back up against the wall style of adrenaline rush gameplay. Sorry for going on so long about that haha, I'm just very passionate about Infection even after years of making Core maps, but my question Guaridan for you would be what are some things you want in Infinite's Forge?

G: I think that is actually a very good idea, some of my wants however are more basic, honestly I want the ability to force colors onto a player, whether that be for minigames, infection, classic teams, I just want that ability to allow us to bring back more of the game modes and capabilities of the past. I'd also like to be able to switch players' teams through scripting and applying traits on the fly to players that are independent of the base trait settings. For minigames, this would make it a lot easier to apply traits as well.

P: There are a lot of concerns around colors and I too am hoping for some sort of alleviation for us so we can make things transfer over and apply appropriately to Infinite from previous games. The Equipment system in Infinite would be a cool place to innovate on, for example if we had some sort of Dev-based loadout UI we could build a lot of classic elements back into the game with scripting and game type settings.

G: Any settings that it isn't obvious of what it could be used for is honestly a lot of things overall, that could be used for things that maybe the use just isn't obvious at that moment in time. It's always better to have more options than fewer.

C: I'm very optimistic about Forge, I honestly think eventually we'll have everything (Within reason) that we ask for at some point.

G: Yeah I'm very hopeful!

P: Agreed! Either that or the modders will bring it in haha.

C: Well thankfully 343 has been very Pro Modding seemingly since Halo 4 with the embracement of Mini-slayer and other fun modes, and of course with the MCC modding tools. Definitely something to commend them on! I actually used to be friends with Abandon Cashew, he made a lot of old Halo 4 mods that allowed us to make countless things that wouldn't have been possible otherwise, like proper linear infection scripting and objective gameplay within the mode and other cool mods to go along with that like his own version of Halo 4 Invasion.

To continue our conversation though, what would your recommendations for new Forgers just getting into Forge be Guardian?

G: Get comfortable with doing stuff out of frustration and experimentation just for fun, just to get better. I know there are a lot of tutorials and guides out there on how to make things balanced or flow smoother, but honestly, the only way you'll hone your craft is by practicing and finding your niche in the Forging sphere. Obviously looking at tutorials and guides will help you get into it quicker, but don't be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone. Bromway and I started just doing random stuff back in Halo 3, but eventually just by trying stuff we got good. So don't be afraid of releasing an imperfect map or a map with scripts that are broken, because if you release a map with those issues, I might send you a message offering to help out or someone else you may show your map to may offer assistance in finishing the project, then all the sudden those problems you had, you don't have them anymore. That will also help you improve and understand your possible shortcomings too. If you're doing stuff people will want to naturally help and assist you so they'll see even more cool stuff from you!


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This article turned out to be too long for 1 part, so for all the juicy details:

Continue to Part 2
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