What to expect from Halo Infinite’s Forge launch

If there’s one part of Halo Infinite that’s truly infinite, it’s the Forge mode — a set of creation tools that allow players to design bespoke maps, modes, and even rulesets. Set to (officially) roll out Tuesday in a beta state, players have long held up Forge as the thing that’ll “save” Halo Infinite. The folks behind the mode, however, aren’t so sure.

“I don’t think it needs saving,” Michael Schorr, lead designer of Halo Infinite’s Forge mode, told Polygon over a Microsoft Teams call. (Known affectionately as “Forge Lord” to the HaloSchorr was a member of the community and used to be a drummer for Death Cab for Cutie, a popular sad rock group from Seattle.

To be clear, Schorr acknowledged some of the extant tension in the Halo community: (master) chiefly, that the first-person shooter’s multiplayer component has been devoid of meaningful content updates. But that’s by no means the only source of strife among Halo fans. Every new release has seen delays at least once. Outsiders have also raised concerns about the departure of high-profile executives at 343 Industries. And that’s to say nothing of the other persistent issues, like desync and steeply priced cosmetics, that plague every online game released in the past decade.

Halo InfiniteThe fans want a significant change. And over the past year, outside of two admittedly pretty damn sweet maps, they haven’t really got it. As a result, dedicated players — including those affiliated with professional esports organizations and therefore bound by strict codes of conduct — have been quite, uh, vocal in their feedback.

“In that sense, that sort of pressure valve, Forge is going to release that, and that’ll be great,” Schorr said. “But I wouldn’t say that that has influenced any of our decisions.”

Forge, for those who don’t know, is Halo’s long-running creation mode, first implemented in 2007’s Halo 3 and significantly expanded upon in 2010’s Halo Reach. The game gives the players an opportunity to draw maps of Halo architecture on a blank surface. A slew of developer blogs and videos have detailed the sheer size and scope of what’s possible in Halo Infinite’s iteration of Forge. An unannounced Forge build was made earlier this summer. They have generated a lot of buzz among the public. Halo Infinitecommunity, and demonstrated just how huge the InfiniteVersion of Forge will be.

Remaking an old map is the single most impressive Forge creation. A major Forge event took place in September. Halo Infinite esports contest, 343 Industries unveiled an internally made version of The Pit — a symmetrical Halo 3This map was created for both Halo 4 Halo 5. Fans are sceptical about what they call a retread. Other fans were happy to see a series regular. (Halo Infinite doesn’t feature any legacy maps.) The majority of the feedback received, at most, came from people who were honest and believed that it was Forge.

“From the art side, we really wanted to nail the visual fidelity and blur that line between what a Forge map is and what a developer-created map is,” Ryan Kuehn, lead artist on Infinite’s Forge mode, told Polygon on a Microsoft Teams call.

It’s safe to say Infinite’s version of The Pit indeed blurs that line. What’s more, The Pit isn’t the only classic map coming to Halo InfiniteDevelopers using Forge tools. Schorr stated that 343 plans to add some classic maps into the rotation, but did not go further. “We have their fan favorites,” Schorr said. “Why wouldn’t you want to play these maps?”

Also, Forge users almost certain to recreate some fan favourites the day Forge launches Halo Infinite. Ten points for anyone who remakes Halo 4’s Haven first!

But Forge is, at its heart, a community tool, and it’s the community-made creations that have really impressed such. The beta test was completed earlier this summer. Halo Infinite’s delayed cooperative mode, players accessed an unsanctioned version of Forge mode — then summarily used it to create some absolutely bonkers shit.

One content creator, Red Nomster, has truly pushed the limits of what’s possible, creating astonishingly accurate facsimiles of settings from Toy Story and The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time. Red Nomster also has the Forge’s most mind-blowing level, a two-dimensional version. Halo InfiniteInside a Halo InfiniteA arcade cabinet within a Halo Infinite Forge canvas — basically Halo Infiniteception. It is, as Schorr describes, the “one where I literally was like, What was their secret?”

“We’re seeing really cool stuff coming out from the community,” Josh Hoida, Forge’s lead engineer, noted on a Microsoft Teams call. “And they don’t even have access to all of our tools from day one.”

These designs might make your home more attractive. Halo Infinite with 343’s rubber stamp of approval. Paimon, Halo content creator and mapmaker Eternity is one example. Eternity is an extremely small map. It’s an all-whitestone castle that sits on top of a space-bound floating island. The backdrop shows a giant planet. (“It had just such a unique visual identity,” Schorr said.) The vast majority of the stuff created so far will need to be recreated; currently, the studio does not plan to let players port existing designs to the Forge launch-day edition.

“Right now, there’s no support for that,” Schorr explained. “It would really take a Herculean effort to work, and it would take resources away from the Forge launch.”

That’s the double-edged sword hanging over Forge right now — that it’s been in the hands of players months before intended, preventing 343 Industries from being able to control the narrative. Starting God of War Ragnarök to whatever the hell Hideo Kojima is working on these days, 2022 has been gaming’s big year of leaks. Halo InfiniteAlthough it has been available for one year, the main story behind this biggest addition is not entirely linked to those who created it.

“It sucks that leaks happen, right? But I was very energized by the response,” Schorr said. “It was super positive. It was almost unnaturally optimistic. But it was enough for me to go, ‘You know what? This is such a little sample size, but this is such a great temperature check of how playable Forge is.’ These people spent dozens if not hundreds of hours in a build where you couldn’t save content — and yet, they were still engaged.”