Interview: How Ensemble Gets Halo Fans To Appreciate Halo Wars

[Four years into Halo Wars’s development, Ensemble Studios feels like it’s succeeding in bringing the RTS to consoles. Christian Nutt of big sister site Gamasutra recently spoke to the studio’s Graeme Devine and Bill Jackson - and we thought it intriguing enough from a design/ethos context to reprint here on GSW.]
The Halo series is in a period of rapid expansion. The first title outside of the mainline numbered installments will be next year’s Halo Wars, a console-oriented realtime strategy title for Xbox 360.
Unfortunately for Ensemble, Halo Wars marks the final game from the Dallas, Texas-based Age Of Empires studio, with the Microsoft-owned developer set to close in early 2009 following the game’s completion.
Nonetheless, Gamasutra recently had the chance to speak to lead designer Graeme Devine and Bill Jackson, the game’s campaign producer.
The interview focuses on the challenges of bringing an original realtime strategy title to consoles, what focus tests […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back