Bungie Co-Founder Announces New iOS First-Person Shooter, 'Morning Star'

[MacRumors]

Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian earned his pedigree when he helped found the company that created Microsoft's hit game series Halo. He left Bungie to found a new studio called Industrial Toys, and earlier this week the firm revealed its latest project: a sci-fi first-person shooter called Morning Star for iOS.

In a blog post on is website, the company says the game is a "complete re-imagining of the sci-fi shooter for touch."

If you get the newsletter, you know we've been banging away on R&D with nailing down a satisfying control scheme, developing really cool and interesting gameplay systems and weaving an outrageous story with awesome characters. [...]

Our totally unreasonable goal is to completely change the expectations core gamers have for their mobile games, and with that comes a bunch of dialogue about what we're doing and whether it's gonna work or not.

The game is slated for release in Spring 2013.

Article Link: Bungie Co-Founder Announces New iOS First-Person Shooter, 'Morning Star'

[Macman45]

That looks good...Something to kill time when waiting around for hospital appointments etc....Might well grab a copy on release.

[Yamcha]

Looks awesome, too bad I don't own an iPad =P.. Hoping it'll come to the Mac App Store eventually..

[pgiguere1]

I don't know how much of a "complete re-imagining" the gameplay will be, but the theme, storyline and visual style certainly don't feel like one.

[bobbytallant]

I would like to hear more from macrumors, about the upcoming angry birds movie.

[zbarvian]

Looks cool, the source excites me.

[Chaos123x]

Isn't Morning Star another name for the devil or lucifer?

I hate these trailers that show a whole bunch of cgi cut scenes but barely any game play footage.

Graphically it looks a lot worse than games like Infjnity Blade or Rage HD.

[macuserx86]

Originally Posted by pgiguere1

I don't know how much of a "complete re-imagining" the gameplay will be, but the theme, storyline and visual style certainly don't feel like one.

I'd settle for a "complete re-imagining" of the input/controls. Soft "joysticks" overlaid on the screen make for a horrible FPS experience. Hopefully they'll find a way to make the input more intuitive for touch devices. Infinity Blade (although a very different game) has always been my gold standard for touch-centric game input.

[MeFromHere]

"They're everywhere!"

[Earendil]

If Alex can instill any of what made games like Marathon and Myth unique into this game, I won't care that the graphics aren't top notch. Gaming, especially first person shooters, has lost a lot of depth over the years with this focus on graphics instead of gameplay. Graphics are a part of gameplay, but the "great games", the ones that people played for years and years after it was released, and their graphics were relegated to second rate, or third rate, those are the games that were (and are) awesome.

Bungie knew how to create those kinds of games once upon a time, and while they tried with the Halo series, I think Microsoft sucked a bit of the soul out of them, and gave them constraints that didn't allow for their style. I'm interested to see what influence and talent Alex has at his disposal.

[CindyRed]

The "re-imagining" will be millions of iOS users like us re-imagining how much better this game could have been without touch controls... sigh.

[Dr McKay]

So they wanted to break free of Halo and do their own thing, and then release a trailer that until 90% of the way through it could have been a trailer for a Halo prequel.....

[Earendil]

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

So they wanted to break free of Halo and do their own thing, and then release a trailer that until 90% of the way through it could have been a trailer for a Halo prequel.....

You might want to go check out wikipedia info on Bungie and Alex Seropian.

Bungie its self was created in 1991, producing many games prior to Halo.

From Seropian's own wikipedia article

"In 2004, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload's small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios, a position he left in 2012 to start a company focusing on mobile games."

Seropian hasn't been a part of Bungie for almost 9 years, but was with Bungie for the first 13, those being the golden years of Bungie. And since when was "Space" not a common background for science fiction stories? It's about the story, not the setting...

[thelonelylimo]

I'd like to see Crimson: Steam Pirates support Retina.

[BRLawyer]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian earned his pedigree when he helped found the company that created Microsoft's hit game series Halo. [/url]

WRONG. He "earned his pedigree" because of the Marathon series, the best ever game trilogy for the Mac.

[joeracke]

Originally Posted by MeFromHere

"They're everywhere!"

Bring back the bobs!

[roosta]

still hoping for sequels to oni and pathways into darkness.

----------

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

So they wanted to break free of Halo and do their own thing, and then release a trailer that until 90% of the way through it could have been a trailer for a Halo prequel.....

why not, the marathon series could be considered a prequel to halo.

[mac98aop]

I hope this new concept incorporates elements of Marathon. Halo was enjoyable, but so, so repetitive. Kill it all, and quickly.

Marathon had complex puzzles to solve, amidst the shooting spree. Most of them were counterintuitive and so clever to try and work out, requiring many failed attempts. Who couldn't love running through hot lava as your body shield depletes, only to find the hidden switch that could only be activated by a grenade as if you got any closer, you'd never make it back before the door closed!

Come on, bring back some of that gameplay PLEASE!

[Dr McKay]

Originally Posted by Earendil

You might want to go check out wikipedia info on Bungie and Alex Seropian.

Bungie its self was created in 1991, producing many games prior to Halo.

From Seropian's own wikipedia article

"In 2004, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload's small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios, a position he left in 2012 to start a company focusing on mobile games."

Seropian hasn't been a part of Bungie for almost 9 years, but was with Bungie for the first 13, those being the golden years of Bungie. And since when was "Space" not a common background for science fiction stories? It's about the story, not the setting...

Originally Posted by roosta

still hoping for sequels to oni and pathways into darkness.

----------



why not, the marathon series could be considered a prequel to halo.

When Bungie left Microsoft Studios they said they wanted to branch out from Halo and try new things, different things. But this trailer has the same style as Halo, heck you see a similar logo to the UNSC at one point with "UMSC" under it. It has the same look and feel as Halo. It was like Halo with another skin.

[palmerc2]

I think this would be perfect for AppleTV

I just am not a fan of touch controls for a game like this, would be better if it were on the big screen and a 3rd party released a controller.

[joeracke]

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

When Bungie left Microsoft Studios they said they wanted to branch out from Halo and try new things, different things. But this trailer has the same style as Halo, heck you see a similar logo to the UNSC at one point with "UMSC" under it. It has the same look and feel as Halo. It was like Halo with another skin.

This isn't Bungie.

[Earendil]

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

When Bungie left Microsoft Studios they said they wanted to branch out from Halo and try new things, different things. But this trailer has the same style as Halo, heck you see a similar logo to the UNSC at one point with "UMSC" under it. It has the same look and feel as Halo. It was like Halo with another skin.

You missed the point. Bungie is not making this game, and the guy that started the company that IS making this left Bungie the same time the first Halo was released. It also looks like a half dozen other highly rendered CGI things.

[MacNewsFix]

This looks like a pretty ambitious endeavor. I wonder if it will run on my iPad first gen....or at least not make it burst into flames.

Furthermore, I'd love to play Myth on an iPad! Integrating Airplay for playing on the big screen would be pretty cool, too.

[Mr_Brightside_@]

See my sig, I guess...

[blesscheese]

Originally Posted by BRLawyer

WRONG. He "earned his pedigree" because of the Marathon series, the best ever game trilogy for the Mac.

I agree, the lead in to the article is absurd...Bungie was making great games wayyyy before Halo (I'm thinking Marathon *and* Myth). I'm guessing the writer is some teen/young 20 year old who doesn't have any idea of anything that happened pre-XBox. And on MacRumors, no less!