Video: How Halo was reborn -- The Halo 4

At GDC 2013, Halo franchise creative director Josh Holmes spoke at length about how 343 Industries dealt with the challenges inherent in building a studio from scratch to take over development of a high-profile game series from well-respected developer Bungie.

Holmes frankly laid out some of the hurdles in Halo 4 's development, including the practical difficulties of trying to convey narrative through a game that's just one part of a wider transmedia effort and how 343 went about designing and balancing a whole new enemy race: the Prometheans.

His talk also included some useful insights into how 343 balances games for cooperative play, and how the studio clings to a very iterative design process.

If you missed it in person you can now watch it for free on the GDC YouTube channel, and it's well worth your time to do so.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultand its new YouTube channeloffers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech