Jason Pace ('Halo Wars')

The original Halo: Combat Evolved made the Xbox a household name when it launched alongside the console in 2001, changing the first-person shooter landscape forever. Halo Wars, set 20 years before the events of the original games, will attempt to create another paradigm shift, this time bringing the real-time strategy (RTS) genre to consoles. We sat down with lead producer Jason Pace to discuss the task of bringing such a PC-specific genre to the Xbox 360.

What was the idea behind bringing in Ensemble, a PC developer, to develop for the Xbox 360 console?

"We could have, I'm sure, have found a great Xbox developer, and have them take a whack at a real-time strategy (RTS) but that would've been very backwards. Ensemble have for many years been forwards, backwards and sideways about RTS games, and it doesn't necessarily matter that all their experience was on the PC - if you want to change that genre, you want people experienced with that genre."

Halo has a huge FPS fanbase, so how will Halo Wars appeal to those fans, and what will make RTS fans want to try out a console RTS based on the Halo universe?

"These were two of the biggest issues we had - number one, how do you make a great Halo game that isn't an FPS, and number two, how do you make a great strategy game without using a PC? It's a very fine line, so you have to consider every decision you make. So when we had to sit down we had this very difficult exercise about what is the core of a Halo experience. It doesn't matter if it's an FPS or reading a book, it's about how should it feel - things like heroism, an epic struggle for the future of humanity, and visceral action."

When it came to the Halo universe, did you have a free reign over creating a new story within that universe, or were there certain limits?
"I think if you look at the size and scope of the Halo universe, it spans many millennia, so there are an almost limitless number of stories you can tell. When we sit down and do story development, we make sure we entertain lots of different ideas, and then we go through a series of vetting those ideas against canon and against any current projects to make sure everything meshes and doesn’t overlap."

How involved was Bungie in creating the game? Did they come in during development and help out with story, or was it just Ensemble?
"This was fully Ensemble's game - that said, it would be crazy not to consult Bungie every step of the way. Ensemble definitely creatively drove the project and had the last word on how they wanted the game to evolve, but those two teams worked together really closely. Bungie consulted on everything from story to character and vehicle models to use, to make the Warthog look and feel how it should, for example."

Halo is renowned for its multiplayer, so how was this considered since its early stages of development to create a similar quality experience?
"Well, to take that a step further I'd say both strategy games and Halo are very much about their multiplayer. So when you think about Starcraft, there are professional leagues in Korea where people make their entire living on from playing it, so from both perspectives we felt multiplayer was very important. That said, we could certainly envision a genre or a world where multiplayer wasn’t necessarily super important, but for this particular game, we agree multiplayer is critical."

Halo Wars is released on February 27

> Click here for our hands-on preview of the game