Joseph Staten

According to Staten, one scene that did not make it to the finished game was a horrible scene of betrayal where Miranda Keyes straps a bomb to the Master Chief's back and throws him into a hole; "Jason was going through a rather difficult breakup at the time and I think that had something to do with it," he said.

Read more: Halo 2 | In this article: Halo 2, Covenant, Master Chief, Bungie, Arbiter, Halo: Combat Evolved, Cortana, Halo 3, and Flood

"We're doing a lot of pretty neat things in terms of mixing it up, introducing some non-linearity, some free exploration," said writer and creative director Joseph Staten. "This is also a mystery story so there's a lot more clue-finding and mystery-solving than you would normally find in a game of this kind - nothing that strays too far from the fun Halo experience, but we definitely decided to take a little bit of risk and have some fun with this one."

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"It goes without saying that Joseph has great, intimate knowledge of the Halo universe, so who better to tell the harrowing tale of humanity's first contact with the Covenant?" says Tor Editor Eric Raab. "In the novel, Joseph not only reveals exciting nuances of known events and characters such as Sgt. Johnson. But he also breaks new ground-takes readers on an action-packed journey to a little-known but vital part of the Halo universe: the far-flung, ill-fated word of Harvest."

Read more: Tor Books Launches Halo(R): Contact Harvest Today | In this article: Halo: Contact Harvest, Halo, Covenant, Tor Books, Halo 3, Halo 2, Bungie Studios, and Xbox 360

"Halo 3"s "battle rifle" weapon and give the ODSTs some unique and "cool" armaments. The sound designers ended up increasing the volume of the SMG in order to make it feel more powerful. The health mechanic was added to provide a level of tension; "it reminds you that you're vulnerable," Staten said. With the main characters in place, the development team had to decide on a setting. "The events that unfolded on Earth is something fans still clamor for after being 'short changed' in Halo 2,"

Read more: Halo 3: ODST | In this article: Halo 3, Bungie, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 2, Covenant, Microsoft, Halo, and Mombasa

"The events that unfolded on Earth is something fans still clamor for after being 'short changed' in Halo 2," Jarrard said. "Fans wanted to know what happened back on Earth, how humanity was defending it." New Mombasa's urban environments fit the intended feel of the game, as Bungie felt that the change of protagonists required a change in location: "We know the kinds of problems Master Chief solves," Staten explained.

Read more: Halo 3: ODST | In this article: Halo 3, Bungie, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 2, Covenant, Microsoft, Halo, and Mombasa

"Breaking Quarantine ", which details Johnson's escape from the Flood in Halo: Combat Evolved, and a main character in the 2007 novel '. In many ways similar to the stereotype of charismatic black Marines found in other science fiction (such as Sergeant Apone in Aliens "), some publications found Johnson, though enjoyable, somewhat of a flat character. In an interview for ", Joseph Staten of Bungie admitted that Johnson was a static character in Halo: Combat Evolved, and that despite the character's potential, "he sort of inherited those caricature aspects from Halo'." "Contact Harvest was a chance "to do right by Johnson, to give him the rich, fully fleshed out backstory he deserves, that we have never been able to give him in the game."

Read more: Characters of Halo | In this article: Halo 2, Master Chief, Covenant, Halo 3, Halo: Combat Evolved, Flood, Arbiter, Spartans, and Spartan Project

The author found that the book was the perfect way to elaborate on the Halo story without stripping it down for a video game: "I always felt we shortchanged the playe. We don't have a lot of time to tell story while the bullets are flying."

Read more: Halo: Contact Harvest | In this article: Halo: Contact Harvest, Covenant, Halo 2, Forerunner, Bungie, and Marine

"It started when we realized that in Halo we do a pretty good job of describing the clash of these military industrial complexes, but it really is the soldiers' story," said Joseph Staten, creative director at Bungie and the creative director for the ODST game.

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