Sound Team Interview
Kevin McMullan and JD Smith, the fellows heading up your audio experience in Halo Wars, have sat down to answer a few questions for WyattFNEarp of the Halo Wars RTS Chapter on Bungie.net. They craft all of the sounds, outside of the music, for the game. That includes weapons firing, vehicle engines, explosions, or something as subtle as those ambient bird songs that help draw you into the world. JD even managed to incorporate sound from his daughter into the game, as he reveals in the interview.
Check out part 1 and part 2 for more on how Halo Wars will sound. Our thanks to Wyatt for conducting the interview.
Gameplayer Interviews Graeme Devine
The Aussie site Gameplayer.com.au has chatted with Ensemble Studios designer Graeme Devine about how Halo Wars got started, the controls, and what we are planning for after the game hits the shelves:
“Halo Wars will most certainly be supported by downloadable content after the game’s release. “We have plans for extra units and extra maps, and then beyond that we’ll look at what else we can add further down the track, such as extra campaigns and so on,” explains Devine. “I think it’s definitely a good way of consistently breathing new life into the product via DLC.”
Halo Wars IRC
Mr Sprout from Halo Wars Central has spearheaded the creation of the #Halowars IRC chat channel so that fans of the game can have a place to share their ideas and thoughts on the game in real-time. You can connect to the chat channel via your web browser, which is the quick and easy way, or you can set up an IRC client. Check out this tutorial for setting up a chat client.
Our thanks to Mr Sprout setting this up, and be sure to stop in at Halo Wars Central to check out their new design.
Halo Wars Monthly Update 4.28.08
Ok, the tournament didn’t happen. Yes, apparently someone heard how my team was going to mop the floor with everyone and it was called off. Well at least we can talk some strategy and Stephen Rippy also drops in to give us some photos of his trip to Prague for the recording of the music for Halo Wars as well as answer some questions on how that all turned out. Check out the monthly update for the real deal:
“You’ve been very open to feedback on your tunes for the game, asking folks here at Ensemble to come up listen to what you had cooking. What kinds of feedback did you get?
Big Al: They helped me make sure that the music was “Halo enough” - though there was at least one instance where I made something “too Halo” 
Graeme Devine, who wrote the story for the campaign, got very involved with the music I wrote for the cinematics. Just about every day, I’d call him in to hear some sketched-out ideas. We’d discuss whether they met his expectations for whichever scene they went with, and I’d make changes based on that. It may be subtle, but I think that kind of involvement gives some sense of unity to the finished product.”
New Attire
Every once in awhile we get treated to some new shwag here at Ensemble Studios. T-shirts with the ol’ game or company logo on them are pretty common, and cool. The latest gift was this awesome hat with the Spirit of Fire logo on the front, Ensemble on the side and the name of the game on the back. They’re bold, black, and modeled here by SOLUS who has appeared in such magazines as GQ and Vanity Fair.
Want one? Be the first person to send an e-mail to … with “Spirit of Fire” as the subject and we’ll ship you one.
We have a winner! Congratulations to Stuart M. You have one of these Halo Wars hats coming your way.
