Bungie's Destiny is "quite like Halo", according to DemonWare - rumor

Bungie may be using DemonWare, the subsidiary of Activision-Blizzard which specializes in online software and services for videogames, for its next game, presumably titled Destiny. According to a DemonWare blog post, which has been removed, the game "is still quite like Halo" and the firm has been involved with Destiny since the early stages of the project.

The information contained within the blog post, dug up by Superannuation, was posted by a senior DemonWare employee which attended Bungie Day back in July.

According to the employee, during Bungie Day, attendees were treated to "presentations covering everything from game story, factions, art, engineering, tool chain, graphics, audio, player investment mechanisms, player progression, UI, and web and mobile apps."

Some of the presentations contained video footage such as "a live scene walk through demonstrating lots of atmospherics, huge amounts of trees and foliage (SpeedTree), particle effects, dynamic lighting and dynamic time of day ending in a sun set."

Once the presentation ended, Demonware employees were given hands-on time with Destiny, which the poster went on to describe.

"This is not a dedicated server game, but there is some simulation and coordination running in their server infrastructure. The game was up and down a lot, playing in a team of three, we did manage to experience entering a zone to find other players already taking on the bad guys, it's cooperative so we helped out (mostly [name removed], I just died) before both groups went their separate ways. Which is a pretty cool experience, making you feel you are part of a much larger populated world.

"At the end of the day I was excited about the game, I like the feel of being in a large world with different destinations and the interactions along the way. It actually brought back a sense of exploration I recall from playing [Elite] many years ago, although there was no opportunity to shoot aliens in the face in Elite. I'm not fully sold on the appeal of being able to change the color of a weapon, but I guess it works in China, and customization and individual identity is a big theme for the game."

The DemonWare employee said the general consensus regarding Destiny was that it was "still quite like Halo" and "there is a lot of work still to be done."

He even mentioned that the project's codename had changed from "Tiger" to "Destiny," which is what the game is referred to at present.

A job opening for senior online systems programmer for Destiny appeared online, and it also mentioned PS3 experience as a preference, leading one to believe the game could be released on PS3 - which isn't a stretch in the slightest.

The contract between Bungie and Activision, which was leaked online back in May, has the first game in the franchise slated for release next year.