Jason Jones (programmer)

Last updated

Jason Jones
Jason Jones-bungie.png
Jason Jones at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2006
Born (1971-06-01) June 1, 1971 (age 52)
United States
Alma mater University of Chicago
Occupation(s) Video game developer, programmer
Known forCo-founder of Bungie, co-creator of Marathon , Myth , Halo , and Destiny
Title CCO of Bungie

Jason Jones (born June 1, 1971) [1] is an American video game developer and programmer who co-founded the video game studio Bungie with Alex Seropian in 1991. Jones began programming on Apple computers in high school, assembling a multiplayer game called Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete . While attending the University of Chicago, Jones met Seropian and the two formed a partnership to publish Minotaur.

Contents

Following the modest success of Minotaur, Jones programmed Bungie's next game, Pathways into Darkness , and worked on code, level design and story development for Bungie's Marathon and Myth series. For Bungie's next projects, Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 , Jones took on a more managerial role as project lead. He served as director on the 2014 video game Destiny . [2]

Early life

Jones became interested in programming in high school, and learned Applesoft BASIC and 6502 Assembly on an Apple II series computer. When Apple released its Macintosh line, Jones's family purchased a Macintosh 128K, but Jones never programmed much for it. After high school Jones got a job programming for a computer-aided design company on PCs, before going to college the next year. In his off time Jones said that all he ever did on the Apple II was write games, "and it seemed logical to continue that on the Mac," he said. "The first thing I did on the Mac was to port a modem game I'd written called Minotaur from 6502 Assembly on the Apple II into MPW C on the Mac. I was still finishing that when I came to college. By that time, I knew I wanted to write games." [3]

Career

Jones met Alex Seropian in his second year at the University of Chicago. In 1991 Seropian had founded Bungie and published his own game, Operation: Desert Storm . [4] Seropian was looking for another game to publish, and they decided to work together to finish Minotaur. While Seropian did design and marketing, Jones finished the programming. Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete shipped in April 1992; [3] while the game sold only around 2,500 copies (it required a then-rare modem for network play), [4] it developed a devoted following. After publishing Minotaur, Jones and Seropian formed a partnership; "What I liked about him was that he never wasted any money", Jones said of his partner. [5]

Bungie focused on the Mac platform due to familiarity with the platform and ease of use. "The PC market was really cutthroat, but the Mac market was all friendly and lame. So it was easier to compete," Jones said. [5] After Minotaur, Bungie began work on a 3D graphics version of the game, but realized that the game's format was not suited to a 3D environment. Instead, Jones and Seropian wrote a brand-new story for what became Pathways Into Darkness . Since Bungie had no money and Jones was the only one with the available time, he single-handedly coded the game on a Macintosh IIfx, passing art chores to his friend Colin Brent. [3] [6] Pathways was successful enough that Bungie moved from a one-bedroom apartment to an actual office. [6]

Bungie's next project started as an update of Pathways but evolved into a science fiction shooter game, Marathon. The game included state-of-the-art graphics, network multiplayer, and voice support, and won a number of awards on release in 1994. [4] Jones recalled that he was surprised anyone ever completed the game and sought to atone for some of its shortcomings with its sequel, Marathon 2: Durandal , [7] which was also released for Microsoft Windows. The Marathon series was followed by a series of real-time tactics games, starting with Myth: The Fallen Lords in 1996. [4]

Bungie continued to expand, and in 1997 work began on a new project, codenamed Blam! [4] (Jones had changed the name from Monkey Nuts because he could not bring himself to tell his mother about the new game under that title.) [8] Blam! evolved from a real-time strategy game to a third-person shooter to a first-person shooter called Halo: Combat Evolved . Jones role in development was unlike Marathon and Myth, where Jones was involved in developing more than half the levels and much to most of the story. Instead, he was the project lead [9] and a manager, barely providing any code to the game. He would read war journals by authors such as John Kinkead and Winston Churchill. [7]

In 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie, moving the team from Chicago to Washington State. Jones recalled that the buyout was a "blur [...] We'd been talking to people for years and years—before we even published Marathon, Activision made a serious offer [to buy us]. But the chance to work on [the Microsoft Xbox console]—the chance to work with a company that took the games seriously. Before that we worried that we'd get bought by someone who just wanted Mac ports or didn't have a clue." [10] Around the same time, a glitch in versions of Myth II was found to entirely erase a player's hard drive; this led to a massive recall of the games right before they shipped, costing Bungie nearly one million dollars. [10] [11] Composer Martin O'Donnell said that this recall created financial uncertainty in the studio, though accepting the offer was not something "Bungie had to do." [12] Jones and Seropian refused to accept Microsoft's offer until the entire studio agreed to the buyout. [11]

Combat Evolved was highly successful, selling more than a million units in its first six months and driving Xbox sales. [13] Jones led the development team that created its sequel, Halo 2 , [14] and served as director on a new video game series, Destiny . [15] [16] [17] He was listed in Next Generation 's top 100 Developers in 2006 and 2007. [9] [18]

After the release of Halo 2, Jones took a sabbatical from Bungie, not knowing whether he wanted to continue making games. [19] As Jones returned, his involvement with Halo began to diminish, [19] as Jones tended to 'dislike' sequels. [20] He desired to build a new intellectual property. [21] Jones worked closely with colleague Jaimie Griesemer who was working on his own internal project named "Dragon's Tavern" which Griesemer described to be a "third person fantasy game" [21] In the end however, Jones had the most power at Bungie, despite not being the President he was the majority share-holder and his vision of the studio was his alone to decide. [21] Ultimately, Jason got his way with the studio's next project and worked with Griesemer to combine his ideas of "Dragon's Tavern" with what would be Destiny . [21] As development continued, and with Griesemer gone, the writing team led by Joseph Staten had created a "Super-Cut" which was essentially a summary of the game's story-line. The super-cut was poorly received by Jones and the rest of the studio. [21] Shortly after, Jones decided to scrap the writing team's work and effectively re-write the story very late into production with Marty O'Donnell, believing it was not feasible and almost impossible to complete. [21] Knowing the game was in peril with his proposed reboot of the story, Jones formed a group called the "Iron Bar" composed of art director Christopher Barrett, designer Luke Smith and writer Eric Raab, an experienced book editor. [21] Jones and the rest of Bungie carried on to release Destiny on September 9, 2014. [21]

Related Research Articles

<i>Marathon Trilogy</i> Video game series

The Marathon Trilogy is a science fiction first-person shooter video game series from Bungie, originally released for the Classic Mac OS. The name of the series is derived from the giant interstellar colony ship that provides the main setting for the first game; the ship is constructed out of the Martian moon Deimos. The series is often regarded as a spiritual predecessor of Bungie's Halo series.

<i>Halo: Combat Evolved</i> 2001 video game

Halo: Combat Evolved is a 2001 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. It was the first installment of the Halo Franchise. It was released as a launch game for Microsoft's Xbox video game console on November 15, 2001. The game was ported to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in 2003. It was later released as a downloadable Xbox Original for the Xbox 360. Halo is set in the twenty-sixth century, with the player assuming the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier. The Chief is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence. Players battle aliens as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped artificial world.

<i>Pathways into Darkness</i> 1993 video game

Pathways into Darkness is a first-person shooter adventure video game developed and published by Bungie in 1993, for Macintosh personal computers. Players assume the role of a Special Forces soldier who must stop a powerful, godlike being from awakening and destroying the world. Players solve puzzles and defeat enemies to unlock parts of a pyramid where the god sleeps; the game's ending changes depending on player actions.

<i>Halo 2</i> 2004 video game

Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. Halo 2 is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. The game features new weapons, enemies, and vehicles, another player character, and shipped with online multiplayer via Microsoft's Xbox Live service. In Halo 2's story mode, the player assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the United Nations Space Command, the genocidal Covenant, and the parasitic Flood.

Cortana (<i>Halo</i>) Fictional video game character

Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent character in the Halo video game series. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite. She also briefly appears in the prequel Halo: Reach, as well as in several of the franchise's novels, comics, and merchandise. During gameplay, Cortana provides backstory and tactical information to the player, who often assumes the role of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. In the story, she is instrumental in preventing the activation of the Halo installations, which would have destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.

Arbiter (<i>Halo</i>) Fictional character in the Halo video game series

In the Halo science fiction universe, an Arbiter is a ceremonial, religious, and political rank bestowed upon Covenant Elites. In the 2004 video game Halo 2, the rank is given to a disgraced commander named Thel 'Vadam as a way to atone for his failures. Although the Arbiter is intended to die serving the Covenant leadership, the High Prophets, he survives his missions and the Prophets' subsequent betrayal of his kind. When he learns that the Prophets' plans would doom all sentient life in the galaxy, the Arbiter allies with the Covenant's enemies (humans) and stops the ringworld Halo from being activated. The Arbiter is a playable character in Halo 2 and its 2007 sequel Halo 3. The character also appears in Halo 5: Guardians and additional expanded universe material. A different Arbiter, Ripa 'Moramee appears in the 2009 real-time strategy game Halo Wars, which takes place 20 years before the events of the main trilogy.

Halo is a military science fiction media franchise, originally created and developed by Bungie and currently managed and developed by 343 Industries, part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The series launched in 2001 with the first-person shooter video game Halo: Combat Evolved and its tie-in novel, The Fall of Reach. The latest main game, Halo Infinite, was released in 2021.

<i>Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete</i> 1992 video game

Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete is a 1992 role-playing adventure video game for Macintosh by Bungie; produced by Jason Jones and Alex Seropian. The game distinguished itself from other games of its time by including a multiplayer mode that functioned over the AppleTalk protocol or Point-to-Point Protocol. A single-player exploration mode was also available, but this mode had no end goal and was useful to discover how the various items found in the maze operated. The game originated in 1988 as an Apple game played over a modem between two opponents, but was never officially released on that platform.

Wideload Games was an American video game developer located in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 2003 by Alexander Seropian—the co-founder of Bungie and head behind the games Halo: Combat Evolved, Myth, and Marathon—and six other former Bungie employees three years after Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Seropian</span> American video game developer

Alexander Seropian is an American video game developer, one of the initial founders and later president of Bungie, the developer of the Marathon, Myth, and Halo video game series. Seropian became interested in computer programming in college and teamed up with fellow student Jason Jones to publish Jones's game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. The two became partners, and Bungie grew to become the best-known Apple Macintosh game developer before being bought by Microsoft in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin O'Donnell</span> American video game composer

Martin O'Donnell is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer known for his work on video game developer Bungie's series, such as Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny. O'Donnell collaborated with his musical colleague Michael Salvatori for many of the scores; he has also directed voice talent and sound design for the Halo trilogy. O'Donnell was Bungie's audio lead until April 11, 2014.

<i>Marathon</i> (video game) 1994 video game

Marathon is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Bungie, and released in December 1994 for the Apple Macintosh. The game takes place several centuries into the future in outer space and sets the player as a security officer attempting to stop an alien invasion aboard a colony ship named the Marathon.

<i>Halo Original Soundtrack</i> 2002 soundtrack album by Martin ODonnell, Michael Salvatori

The Halo Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack for the video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Composed and produced by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori for Bungie, the soundtrack was released on June 11, 2002. Most of the music from Halo: Combat Evolved is present on the CD, although some songs have been remixed by O'Donnell in medley form for "more enjoyable" listening. The first piece O'Donnell wrote, known as "Halo", became the basis for Halo's "signature sound" which has been heard in the other games of the main trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Staten</span> American writer

Joseph Staten is an American writer best known for his work at video game studios Bungie, Microsoft Studios, and 343 Industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Salvatori</span> American composer (born 1954)

Michael C. Salvatori is an American composer best known for his collaboration with colleague Martin O'Donnell for the soundtracks to the Halo video game series. Salvatori became acquainted with O'Donnell in college; when O'Donnell was given a job offer to score a colleague's film, Salvatori and O'Donnell formed a partnership and eventually created their own production company, TotalAudio. Salvatori continued to manage TotalAudio and worked on his own music for clients such as Disney and Wideload Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Smith (writer)</span> American journalist

Luke Michael Smith is an American writer. He is a staff member at the video game development company Bungie, and is a former video games journalist. Smith wrote for a college newspaper and weekly papers in Michigan before being hired as one of the first new freelance writers for Kotaku. At Kotaku, Smith developed his writing style but soon left the site for a staff position as 1Up.com's news editor. Smith made a name for himself at 1Up, particularly through an article he wrote focusing on problems with the game Halo 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">343 Industries</span> American video game developer

343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the Halo series of military science fiction games, originally created and produced by Bungie, and is the developer of the Slipspace Engine. Named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark, the studio was established in 2007 after the departure of Bungie.

Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones's game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Originally based in Chicago, Illinois, the company concentrated on Macintosh games during its early years and created two successful video game franchises called Marathon and Myth. An offshoot studio, Bungie West, produced Oni, published in 2001 and owned by Take-Two Interactive, which held a 19.9% ownership stake at the time.

References

  1. ↑ Errera, Claude (June 2, 2001). "Happy Birthday, Jason and Peter!". Halo.Bungie.Org . Archived from the original on April 18, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
  2. ↑ Inanimado 001 (May 18, 2017). "Destiny 2 Reveal - Interview with Jason Jones Co Founder Bungie". YouTube . Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Rouse, Richard III (October 1993). "IMG Interview: Bungie's Jason Jones". Inside Mac Games . Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Xbox World 360 (October 8, 2007). "The History of Halo; How two students went from Pong clones to the biggest game of all time". GamesRadar . pp. 1–4. Archived from the original on November 23, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
  5. 1 2 "Bungie History: Primordial Soup—Gnop!". Bungie . Archived from the original on April 26, 2008. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  6. 1 2 Staff. "Bungie History: Primordial Soup—Pathways!". Bungie . Archived from the original on April 26, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  7. 1 2 Jarrard, Brian (December 18, 2001). "Jason Jones Interviewed By You". Bungie . Archived from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  8. ↑ Trautmann, Eric (2004). The Art of Halo. New York City: Del Ray Publishing. p. ix. ISBN   0-345-47586-0.
  9. 1 2 "The Hot 100 Game Developers of 2006". Next Generation Magazine. March 18, 2006. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  10. 1 2 "Billion Dollar Donut: Halo CE". Bungie . Archived from the original on April 26, 2008. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
  11. 1 2 Bungie (October 12, 2004). Icons: Bungie. G4TV. Archived from the original (MOV) on April 11, 2008. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
  12. ↑ O'Connor, Frank; Smith, Luke (December 12, 2007). "Official Bungie Podcast 12/12/2007: With Martin O'Donnell". Bungie . Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  13. ↑ Moreno-Salazar, Quibian (October 9, 2007). "Microsoft Bets Big on Halo 3". Fox News . Archived from the original on July 26, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
  14. ↑ Grossman, Lev (April 15, 2005). "The Halo Trinity". Time Magazine . Archived from the original on January 12, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Destiny Credits". Bungie. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  16. ↑ McCaffrey, Ryan (June 7, 2014). "Bungie Cofounder Halo and Destiny Creator Jason Jones Breaks 11-Year Silence". IGN . Los Angeles, California: j2 Global. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  17. ↑ Pakinkis, Tom (April 29, 2010). "Marathon boss heads Bungie's new IP". Computer and Video Games . Archived from the original on May 1, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  18. ↑ "The Hot 100 Game Developers of 2007". Next Generation Magazine. March 3, 2007. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  19. 1 2 Haske, Steve (May 30, 2017). "The Complete, Untold History of Halo". Waypoint. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  20. ↑ Rouse III, Richard. "IMG Interview: Bungie's Jason Jones". pid.bungie.org. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Schreier, Jason (2017). Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. New York City: Harper Paperbacks. pp. 176–200. ISBN   9780062651235.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.