The Rooster Teeth expo came around recently, and Certain Affinity, who have worked on plenty of past Halo projects, were there to reveal their work on Halo 4‘s Forge mode and talk to attendees about some of the new Forge features players can expect to find.
Certain Affinity are no strangers to the Halo franchise, working on the Halo 2 Blastacular Map Pack, the Halo: Reach Defiant Map Pack, and collaborated with 343 Industries on last years Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Now Certain Affinity are reuniting with the Master Chief by delivering their skills to the development of Halo 4‘s Forge mode, the franchise’s own map editor.
Speaking at Friday’s Rooster Teeth expo, Certain Affinity representatives showed some footage of the new Forge mode, which boasts several new usability functions, to make building that perfect map (or elaborate models built out of blocks) even more of a breeze.
Objects are now highlighted when the cursor hovers over them, allowing players to easily see what they’ll be grabbing. On top of that objects can now be locked into place, easily duplicated, and even magnetized so they lock together in a handful of predetermined ways. No more meticulously nudging walls together when you want to make a simple room.
More toys for the construction sandbox come in the form of player traits. Aspiring map creators can now place hidden zones onto their maps that change player traits such as speed and shields. In addition to this is the ‘Grav Volume’ which does pretty much what you think it does: change the properties of gravity at certain areas of the map. Halo: Reach introduced different gravitational fields in some of its DLC maps, but aspiring creators were never able to replicate the same effect on their own creations.
Increased usability sounds great for anyone already interested in Halo 4. The franchise’s Forge mode, introduced in Halo 3, has always given rise to some seriously impressive creations.
More features can only equal more madness, right? Sounds great.
[Polygon]
