Bungie Co-Founder Jason Jones: On Legacy and Destiny

Until this year, the elusive co-founder of Bungie, Jason Jones, had not allowed himself to be interviewed for more than a decade. On the 7th July, he finally opened up to Ryan McCaffrey, of IGN. The gaming community has since barely said anything more than, “Jason Jones is awesome”. As true as that may be, the interview is filled with greater insights on his game creation philosophies. The role of Jason Jones, as a watchful guardian at Bungie, deserves more exposition.


Jones begins his interview by making it clear that Bungie is its people, and their passions. “I think the ideal case, […] is when everybody not just has a responsibility, but really feels that they have control and authority over what they're working on.” This comment is reminiscent of Bungie's talk at the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2013), in which Joe Staten and Chris Barrett explained how Destiny was upscaled, from a small team of creative leads, to the entirety of Bungie. To do this, they first created part-formed mood boards (see below), then produced a series of image postcards. These images captured the flavour—mood, fiction, colour pallet—of different locales and races. The intention was to help focus the team's creativity, and to inspire, rather than to rigorously impose direction. This approach provided an opportunity for those at all levels to clarify the game's identity, granting everybody the control and authority that Jones considers ideal.

Click to open the image in new tab.

What is vital in this process, and not noted in the IGN interview, is the importance of trust. Bungie's emphasis on trust (and food) has been apparent in previous interviews:

“There's no way we're going to ship this game unless we trust one another, have each other's backs” - Joe Staten, Design Director (Polygon interview)
“For the first six months you work at Bungie, if you pay for your own lunch, you’re a chump. You can walk up to anybody and invite them out to lunch, or they can walk up to you. You go out, have a nice meal, talk about whatever you want, and expense it. It’s a huge expense, but it has a huge impact on the team as you get larger. People feel like they know each other. When they’re up against a milestone, instead of reaching out to a stranger, they’re reaching out to a friend. That’s a powerful thing.” - Pete Parsons, Chief Operating Officer at Bungie (GamesBeat interview)

To be clear, there is no indication that any of these approaches came specifically from Jason Jones himself. In talking of the creative process he puts it best: “Blame or credit? Usually it's blame. Credit is somebody else.” Although, perhaps not always somebody, but something else. Establishing Bungie's philosophy is within his control, hence his liability to blame, but a climate that brings out the best in its people transcends this control, and blurs the question of credit. Jones has provided an ideal for others to follow, and to evolve.

Jones goes on to clarify his own working role at Bungie; “it's all people, and all ideas all day […] my ideal thing is that the game would get built without me”. It might sound paradoxical, but Jones feels a level of detachment is necessary, in order to keep perspective of the whole, and to act as arbiter, making the difficult, crucial changes that “make the experience”.

It's not about size.

In hearing this, McCaffrey jumped on the opportunity to confirm the mythology of Halo CE's pistol. It has long been rumoured that Jones doubled the pistol's damage, from a 6 to 3 shot kill, with a ninja-coding change, just prior to the game going gold. Jones confirmed this is true. His long kept silence speaks volumes for his humility. More importantly, this decision illustrates how his distanced, all-encompassing approach can create a more fun, empowering experience.

In this sense, the discussion of the pistol in the IGN interview is misleading. McCaffrey terms it 'the most controversial weapon in Halo history'. When examined with reference to stats, rather than gameplay experience, it might appear so. A weapon capable of killing in 3 shots, or 0.6 seconds, sounds horrendously overpowered, and incites a lot of misinformed criticism. In reality, the pistol's limited auto-aim, lack of bullet magnetism, and need to lead shots over distances, prevented its suggested dominance. The other spawn weapon, the badass-sounding assault rifle, was equal, if not superior to the sidearm, unless players were highly skilled. This made for a self-regulating sandbox, one that allowed casual gamers their diverse fun, and competitive gamers to take the game to a whole new level. The last-minute change was a phenomenal achievement. Put simply, it meant the game felt awesome at all levels of play. However, in this early part of the interview Jason Jones does not give any such elaboration, simply saying, “I would have made that change a lot earlier.”

You still have no excuse, Marine.

Later in the interview, Jason Jones clarifies his underlying philosophy, and proves it was not a fluke, by critiquing Halo CE's Ghost. He explains the error that was made in balancing the vehicle by making its guns inaccurate; “[it] was correctly balanced numerically, but it wasn't that fun. It didn't make you feel awesome […] You feel the opposite of empowerment. You feel disempowered.” Retrospectively he believes the guns would have been better balanced with a fast overheat and a quick-precise burst of death, as opposed to the current spraying-and-praying.

In reading this, one cannot help but wonder whether Jones's watchful perspective was key to Halo's success, and whether his wandering eye helps to explain the more recent decline of the series. Jason Jones was the Project Lead of Halo CE and Halo 2, and both were fun-fast-precise-empowering games. After this point his last involvement with the series was brief, coming in only at the latter end of Halo 3. Rather than continue to focus on Halo, he started a family, took some much deserved holiday (accumulated over 15 non-stop, intensive working years), and worked on a number of small internal projects, to further his understanding of, and passion for, game design. In conjunction with his absence, increasingly disempowering mechanics have proliferated. The weapon bloom of the DMR (his description of the Ghost could easily be applied to this weapon), the Battle Rifle's bullet spread, and Armour lock (pictured below), to name a few. It is not a question of credit or blame, as Bungie has no shortage of talent, but it does seem that the all-encompassing perspective, provided by Jones, has been missed.

Nope.

Jones is clear on his philosophy: “every player-facing verb needs to be a power fantasy in some way”. Bungie COO Pete Parsons, whom he quotes, is clearer: “balance for awesome”. The genius of Halo, the reason it was awesome, was because it empowered the player. It is reassuring that Jones has kept sight of the philosophy that defined Halo, now that he is again more keenly involved in Bungie's game creation process.

In talking more specifically about Destiny, Jones says,“I think it would be impossible to find any more – what's the word? Foolhardy? Brave? Arrogant? Fun? – thing that I've ever done”. This is coming from a guy who dropped out of college and spent $10,000 in 6 months. He continues, “What you're doing is incredibly arrogant, which is, 'I believe that this group of people [at Bungie] can make something that millions of people will not only enjoy, but will enjoy so much that they're willing to pay for it.' You have to be fucking stupid to do that.”

It is surprising to see someone brand their actions as arrogant. Perhaps Bungie have exhibited some arrogance in the past, in calling Halo Reach their swan song, for example. However, they did the very same with Halo 2, and have only been honest about its internal turmoil in more recent years. As much as I wish more would take responsibility in the industry, I accept that it is not a good business practice. The reason being that the less informed are likely to internalize the confession of failure, without taking note of the context, or the lessons learned. The best way for a developer to evidence their learning is with their next game. With Bungie, this is Destiny.

The first Destiny postcard that was publicly released.

The thing to take away is not that Jason Jones is Bungie, but that without him there could be no Bungie. This is not to be read in literal terms, as a comment on his co-founding 20 years ago. It is a comment on the philosophy—people and passions—of Bungie, to which Jones remains a humble, watchful guardian, and arbiter of awesome to boot. It is clear, and reassuring, that the ideas that defined Halo remain strong, particularly now that Jones is once again actively involved in the creation process. The strength of Bungie's foundations are also clear, with key tenets continuing to evolve beyond Jones. In regards to Destiny, the label of arrogance is a misnomer; tempered by an appreciation of risk, inclination towards innovation, and willingness to take blame, it is not arrogance at all. It is boldness, and, it is exciting.

Destiny's development tagline seems more appropriate now than ever. Be Brave.

More on think-entertainment.net:
Our Promised Destiny: Will Bungie Again Revolutionize Online Gaming?


Links:
IGN interview
Video of Bungie's GDC presentation
Polygon interview
GamesBeat interview