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Hey everybody, and welcome back to a new episode of Creators Spotlight! As always, this is your friendly transcript article that is here with some extended bits of the conversation that we cut from the video. Speaking of the video, if you'd like to watch that instead, here's that for you!



Without further ado let's jump right into the interview with our friend UneeQ!

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Begin Transmission
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Crush (C):

Hey everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Creator Spotlight today. We have a Forger who a lot of you have probably been seeing around on the Leaked Co-op build. His name is UneeQ Forges, introduce yourself man!.

UneeQ(U):

Hey everybody, my name is UneeQ or most of my friends know me as Ryan. But yeah hello!

C:

Well, it's great to meet you and we also have another Ryan here on the chat here with us. A ForgeHub Staff member Foge will chime in every now and again with a question or two. But yeah, let's hop right into this so when it comes to when you started your Forging career and stuff, when did you start? Or what would you consider your start?

U:

Ah, probably when foundry came out for the first map pack on Halo 3! Was that The Legendary map pack?

C:

The Legendary or Heroic. I believe it was the Heroic, but if I'm wrong on that then I'm sure someone in the comments will correct me.

U:

Yeah, one of those two.

C:

What did you start building when you were on there?

U:

Man, that's a good question.

C:

Was your first map like a mini game? Was it a 4V4 style map? Like what would you? What would you tend to?

U:

Yeah, most of my maps on Halo three were based around Arena style MLG maps 'cause, I was very keen on. Recreating maps that were in the style of Onslaught and Amplified. My maps are more focused around symmetrical 4V4 competitive at that time anyway.



C:

Nice, it was really sick. I know a lot of people back then had some pretty good 4v4 maps, both on Foundry and Sandbox. So that’d be pretty unique to see, are are you planning to bring over any of those old maps that you worked on for like infinite in the future or anything like that? Like when the Forge fully comes out or?

U:

A lot of our stuff on our file share was actually saved. I have quite a few maps from Reach and Halo 4 that I can easily bring up in Forge still and go back and check out some of those maps 'cause there's quite a few that I have probably forgotten. That are still pretty good to playoff.

C:

That's sick, man. Did you forge long in Halo 4? Because I know a lot of people back then like kind of like gave Halo 4 a shot and then kind of stopped and then like there's some other people like me and some other people that I have seen that have continued on and still forge. Did you keep forging at that point and like through or when did you? When it, when it when did your Halo 4 career I guess start and or end if that makes sense.

U:

I think a little four was probably the peak of my quality when it came to map building. Even though a lot of people think Halo 4 was like a little bit of a downgrade from Reach, just due to like, piece wise, but I have seen it as a bit of an upgrade just by environment wise. There was a little bit more to to forge with a different look.

C:

Yeah, definitely I’d agree.

U:

Halo 4 I did quite a few remakes of Halo 3 in that one. Somehow, I was able to fit the entire map of Rat’s nest into a full scale remake in Halo 4.



C:

That's sick, man! What would you say? Because of course in the Co-op build you've been making a lot of remakes. What would you say the biggest challenge when you're making these remakes is? Would it be like trying to get the aesthetic close or would it be trying to just like properly scale the remake for said game, whether that be infinite with the Co-op build or Halo 4?

U:

The first remake I did on the leaked build here lockout that one was. I did that one 100% by eye but since then we have figured out a few different tools to help us get scale proper. Going on a 1 to 1 scale. There's a few maps that I probably would want to push for Halo Infinite matchmaking and get them more suitable for the new movement and whatnot. But my idea around recreating most of these maps is going to be custom games and bringing a Classic Halo 3 style game type into Infinite’s custom game so we can get that Halo three feel on these maps.

C:

OK, so like cut out Sprint, cut out clamber and all that and have like the classic feel and stuff. Yeah nice.

U:

Add a few of the new infinite sandbox items in there to give it a little bit of a twist, but essentially. Most of the maps will. Play pretty well with the infinite movement, but there are some. You'll probably want to restrict the movement.

C:

Definitely Foge actually has a lot of experience that with that with from like Halo 5, Foge do you want to put some words on that idea? Since you did the Halo 3 throwback playlist?

Foge (F):

Uh, yeah I guess, uh, so basically for the Halo 5 playlist. Obviously, they wanted completely to scale remakes. They literally made a custom game type to match Halo 3's jump height and everything like that, so the scale had to be exactly the same. Uhm, but clearly with infinite you want to you want to make something that plays good but also as the exact same kind of feel of the original map. I would agree with a UneeQ here and on like making those subtle little changes to make the map. You know work slightly more.

C:

100%.

U:

The map that I have been working on lately has been high ground and with the whole snap slide and curb slide movement. Being in Halo infinite and this map basically having downhill if you can capture that flag. Yeah, I think it would completely break. This map, as a capture the flag map because of that move movement.

C:

Specifically, like with Snap slide or also with curb slide?

U:

Probably both would. Would definitely be an issue so. With the game type like assault. Just going up the hill perfectly fine, but it's that one movement being able to. Slide down the hill faster.



C:

Yeah, the one the one flag kind of. It is more drastic since you have to take the flag back to the beach. So how have you been combating that with the current high ground remake that you are working on?

U:

This one is probably going to be one of those map specific ones where it is: no Sprint, no slide, no clamber. That would be pretty hard to adjust, considering the map is all on a slant essentially.

C:

Definitely yeah. I mean, I think that, uh, when it comes to like curb sliding and designing around that, it is going to be interesting to see how people ultimately combat that. I mean from all the practicing that I have done, like when I was in the comp scene and stuff with it, it seems like it is only on like certain angles that it works, as it will still speed you up if you are going downhill, but it is not like. It is not as much as if you were doing off a ledge onto another surface, but it will be interesting to see how people ultimately combat that. Because it is one of the new movement abilities, I guess, is a way to put that like granted, like a more casual player is not probably going to learn it as much, but like a more competitive player, or even just like a moderately more competitive person will typically like. Either find it by accident or learn it and that will change how map plays for them compared to a casual player, so it will be interesting to see how we ultimately designed around that.

U:

Yeah, if you take that out of the occasion then like even then the map would play fine with Sprint, slide and clamber. It's just that one little trick so it would not be a good competitive map, but it would still be a fun social map for sure.

C:

When it comes to your past, you said like you have started with three and foundry and stuff and you went up through reach and four and built in those games. When it comes to the difference between Halo 4, Reach, 3, and of course infinite. What would you say was the biggest challenge learning the new tool in the Co-op flight compared to the MCC forge or Halo 3 Classic or 4 classic?

U:

I found that it was...this is just me personally, I found that it when I first loaded it up so I have a little bit of experience with Unreal Engine and unity and some 3D programs like Blender and my brain clicked in, and it, thought I should be using a mouse and keyboard for d it just works perfectly. Compared to the other forge modes, it is night and day. It is incredible. I would say that this is the most powerful. Tool that we have to use. Probably would compare it to something like Garry's Mod.

C:

Oh 100%, it is gotta be insane to see how not only like with what we have seen from the scripting video and then also the first video they did with scaling and other other object manipulation things, it is going to be insane to see what people actually create down the line. I am sure that this will ultimately turn out to be kind of a Garry's mod situation where people play. More of the party games on it than the main game sometimes is like. I am pretty sure but I still have not looked at the steam chart from the last video, but I am pretty sure there is more people playing Garry's Mod than there are CS go, but I could be wrong on that. I'll have to check that out and they are based off like the same game. They are both based off half life so. Like at least the engine in the gameplay with the guns and stuff seemingly has a lot of half-life inspiration so, so that will be interesting to see how that ultimately works out for Halo, since it forge always has been such a powerful tool just in general. And it has always brought people in from different areas that may not have stuck around otherwise, like both in Infection, Grifball, Mini Games, etc. So it will be interesting to see how everything works out with that.

U:

Yeah, we do not really have just a map builder anymore. It is essentially a game mode builder too.

C:

Definitely, especially with what they showed with juggernaut on the scripting video, which is pretty sick because we haven't seen yet or not since. Since Reach I mean like I guess you just consider Regicide in Halo 4 kind of Juggernaut test, but still wasn't the same. But uhm. It is really... it is very cool to see that we are gonna be able to really just build to our hearts content with a lot of that stuff. And that's what my next question for you actually is. What are some of the things that you use for inspiration when it comes to like new maps that you work on? Or if, like you are making a. A remake and you want to make it like aesthetically different from the original map? What are some things that you take inspiration from typically?

U:

Ah, believe it or not, I use AI generation.

C:

So like so like the, I forgot the bots called the select where you just type it in and like just gives you like a unique art piece type of thing?



U:

For concept art. Yeah, I use that for environmental art and it gives me quite a few different art pieces depending on what keywords I'm using.

C:

How often would you say you like use that? Is that like a then you use like every single, every single time? Or would that be?

U:

No, this is recent brand new for me. But more or less that is where I have been gathering inspiration for maps that I will be working on, but in the past what I have used for inspiration is more of Old designer concept art.

C:

So like from Halo specifically, or from like other games too or?

U:

Yeah, other games I do not limit myself to making everything look like Halo.

C:

That's really sick man. I do similar stuff too like. Some old concept art for Destiny is always some really cool inspiration too. Sometimes I have been looking at some of that every now and again 'cause they have some really cool stuff in there that even still hasn't come to the game, that Destiny 2 is that just looks really sick. What are some games that you've looked at the concept art for?

U:

World of Warcraft is one of them. Runescape is another one I like. The big expansive MMO and how they have different biomes and environments in them. So you get a lot of different concept art from those type of games.

C:

That is sick, so more like fantasy style games typically when it comes to the variation of concept art?

U:

More castles and medieval time type themes, so you'll probably see a few themes that are with, well, outside of the Realm of Halo. I guess you would call it.

C:

That's awesome man. Back in Halo 5, I actually tried to play around with like an Oblivion style ascetic with the like inside the Oblivion gate stuff that would be cool trying to revisit. I am kind of curious if, like Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls games have their concept art public or not. 'cause that would be really cool to look back on some of that stuff 'cause I know that Bethesda typically has a lot of really cool and unique concept arts for their games and sliding like in like Fallout and stuff too. When it comes to creating these like aesthetic designs from the concept arts is it just like you try to like recreate it as close as you can, like 1 to 1 or do you like just get inspired off it and go like off on your own tangent of an art art pass?

U:

Well, it depends on what map I am kind of recreating. In the older games there is not really much foliage or aesthetics to add to it so the older games is kind of, you get a bit of a free range to add your own little touch to them. But I try to get it as close as possible but, with adding a little bit more to it to make it more updates and make it updated, Sort of speak. What the visuals could look like on a new engine. Like what I did with Guardian, there I added a lot more vegetation and foliage to the green section of the map. Go down there, you can actually see glowing fungus and there's little lights that cast your shadows as you walk by them and there is just so much you can work within Halo Infinite Forge. You can even have small effects of butterflies and bugs and then audio emitters. Emitting sounds of owls hooting and birds and it's just incredible. All the new things that you can add to these original maps that were never there to give them a more immersive environment that some of the previous maps just didn’t have.
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