In Destiny 2, the new NPC in the Tower, Saint-14, is currently exciting many players. A designer from Bungie now gives insight into his work and how difficult it was to get an important detail right. Because actually, the players’ favorite line had already been cut.
What line is it? When a player approaches the NPC Saint-14 in the Tower while wearing the “Helm of Saint-14,” the Titan reacts and says: “Hey, you look like me. Let’s confuse Zavala together.”
The line contributes to the mood of Destiny 2. Because Titans have had the “Helm of Saint-14” for many years, with its mohawk look, it has always been a special trademark. And now the original bearer of this helm is addressing you. That feels cool.
Tiny detail requires a lot of work
What’s behind it? The “Technical Dialogue Designer” Kareem Schuman explained on Twitter that this single line was actually already dead and buried.
Even though the line was recorded because the responsible designer thought it was a cool idea, it was technically not easy to ensure that Saint-14 actually says the line when appropriate.
Bungie uses filters in the dialogue system. They check whether a player has a specific class or race. In the Dreaming City, players will call an Awoken “Cousin.”
The idea that Saint-14 reacts to players wearing this specific helm seemed cool to Bungie, but they then realized it would mean “a lot of work” to bring this detail into the game. They initially didn’t want to spend so many resources on such a small detail and therefore cut the line.
The dialogue designer Kareem Schuman said he found the idea so cool that he quietly decided to work hard to get the line into Destiny 2. He sat down with a designer from the system team and they worked on getting this line into the game. Schuman also recruited an audio tester for his plan. Even though everyone had a lot of work, everyone thought the idea was so cool that they took the time for it.
Time was pressing as the code freeze was approaching. The filter for the line with the hero was included in the code as one of many possible lines that Saint-14 says when someone approaches him.
During one of the final tests, however, the audio tester stated that it did not work. Saint-14 refused to speak his line when approached wearing the helm.
So Kareem Schuman had to go back in and adjust the code so that the helm filter was checked first. At the very last moment, on the last day of testing, the voice line worked.
Kareem was able to tell the responsible designer, whose idea it was, that the special voice line would actually make it into Destiny 2. He had already given up hope on that weeks ago.
How players are reacting: The story is resonating on reddit and Twitter. Some say they didn’t realize what kind of stress it is to accomplish such a small change.
Others share their experiences working in IT jobs and how often it is difficult to solve such seemingly tiny issues.
There is a lot of praise for Kareem Schuman. Such examples show how passionate the developers at Bungie are about their game.
More insights into the actual development of Destiny 2:
