How Bungie Decided What Destiny Level To Use To Debut The Game

Destiny, Bungie’es next big magnum opus, finally got a gameplay debut at Sony’s E3 presser. And while the game definitely looked good, many were disappointed by what Bungie had to show, which just looked like a glorified drop in/drop out, online co-op linear FPS.

Given all this criticism, it is perhaps fair to wonder how and why Bungie ended up choosing the level they did to showcase the game to the world. As Polygon reports, it was a level specifically picked because it showed off the seamlessly connected nature of the game very well, and it was one of the few areas of the game that were completed to a standard acceptable enough that it could be demoed on stage.

“For this demo, we ended up picking the space we see partially because, as we’re playing through the whole game, this was the first space we decided to make the type of public event we showed in the demo last night,” Ryan said. “This was the first space that we built one of those in. What you saw as the public event is the prototypical public event of that type and that kind of public event could happen in public spaces all over the game, but that one just happens to be the first one we put together.”

Bungie also went in depth with the game’s loot system:

“The main thing about loot was that it really came from us as gamers looking at, ‘As I’m playing, what am I getting?’ What makes playing for 30 minutes meaningful? You know, experience is something, but we modeled 1,000 experience levels or 100, and you say, ‘Oh, it’s too big, it’s too small.’ And the thing you can really pop out there is a big, beautiful weapon or a beautiful piece of gear.

“That’s really what drove us to loot, was the ability to reward the player with something that they would see and want and then covet and hold.”

Destiny is currently scheduled to release on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and Playstation 4 in 2014. No PC or Wii U version has been announced yet. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.