Diving into the Destiny Universe with Bungie's Luke Smith | The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast

Ted Price chats with Bungie's Luke Smith. Together they discuss the Destiny Universe; designing repeatable gameplay for live services; balancing a massive experience like Destiny for veterans and new players; ensuring a player friendly experience; and how live service experiences can benefit the games industry as a whole.
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[@XxHUNT3RN4T0RxX]

It was so cool to listen to Ted and Luke sit down and have a conversation. Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and Destiny 2 are some of my favorite games.

[@reveriedawn3606]

As a fan of bungie and destiny this was really interesting, and I think the restaurant metaphor works well

[@reveriedawn3606]

@HARRYRANTS ok

[@reveriedawn3606]

@HARRYRANTS ok so let’s say destiny is the worst game ever created with no redeeming factors whatsoever. If you’re done with it, if you don’t enjoy playing it, why would you care if other people enjoy it? If you don’t play it and it’s completely flawed and irrelevant , how does it have any impact on the games that you do play? Why do you care? I’m not blind, I get that the game has issues, like any game. Core activities haven’t received enough meaningful updates. PVP has fallen by the wayside. The seasonal model is becoming increasingly stale over time. But I still enjoy the gameplay and the overall story and playing through new stuff with friends. I still find dungeons and raids to be extremely entertaining, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of chasing titles, even if it’s just a meaningless checklist. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a game to put on like a favorite song to distract you from everyday life. I think at this point it’s clear that destiny will only die if Bungie neglects it to the point that there’s nothing redeeming about it, but I don’t think it’s really a threat to other games. People who like call of duty and fifa and halo and god of war are still going to play those games for a multitude of reasons. People who like indie games are still going to play those games. As long as there are things in the game I enjoy, I’ll play it. If I no longer enjoy it, I won’t. Simple as that.

[@wckdend9317]

As a huge Bungie/Destiny/Insomniac fan, I loved this interview

[@billbobaggins945]

Bungie made a lot of miss-steps throughout Destiny. But for me i cant think of any other console game the does what Destiny does, The Division tried, Anthem tried and others but couldnt do it. The amount of game you get for your money in Destiny is unreal and the raids and to a lesser extent the dungeons are an experience unique to Destiny

[@aaggroberlin19]

Lol have you ever played borderlands? Borderlands does everything better then what destiny will never be able to do :D.

[@billbobaggins945]

@@aaggroberlin19 Hahaha player count says the opposite. Played all 3 mainline BL games. Never played more that a month. Played Destiny for nearly 10 years across 2 games

[@Krisseh93]

@@aaggroberlin19 People still play that game? 😅

[@aaggroberlin19]

@@Krisseh93 Oh boy.... Yes they do but let me tell you this: A lot of them leave the game :D, which is not surprising.

[@roberthesser6402]

Warframe and Final Fantasy 14 both offer 4 times as much content as Destiny for free without ever removing content that you already paid for.

[@azfaru4367]

Love this dude from the 1up days. A shame he's a bit less out there in interviews etc. Great insights and humor.. appreciate the layman way of talking about game design

[@sTEALtooth]

10:45 - Luke basically agreeing that the Halo TV show sucked :D

I have a pleasure to listen and learn about game creating side, and I fully agree on his advice about learning and utilizing opportunities. I know from my own past work experience where people in companies' loose passion about what they do because not given a structure to evolve, but instead trying to keep in one place. I myself having idea for my game and I keep writing all the story, level design, various mechanics and even marketing ideas in my journal, just in case I will have chance to seize an opportunity to make it real!

[@mattgoldknopf834]

Awesome stuff, thanks!

[@LordShaxe]

amazing interview.

[@ZeroPlan3333]

Great interview. ❤

[@mitchconner2021]

Always respected Luke and his approach even from his Halo 3 forum days. Cool to see him still at Bungie.

[@thrasher5257]

I used to play destiny but I haven’t got the time anymore. I think about jumping back in from time to time but it generally takes too long to do anything and I’ll just get left behind again. Maybe once the game is finished, I can just binge it all at once.

[@AETHEREALMINDS]

Destiny is an amazing game, unlike any other. It will go down in history. Love the positivity here!

[@chegrow]

Luke smith gave some life lessons, great video!

[@beng6149]

they both have a big 2

[@bo__]

Destiny has had its ups and downs, but great to hear the insight. Excited to see what Bungie has under wraps

[@Kamotcha]

Ted we need a new Resistance or maybe remakes of the series on PC too. 😁😁👌👌

[@lentchunk]

Gahlran Fomo

[@plasmuhcoral3160]

puke shit fomo’d my wife and now shes filing for divorce… bungalow at it again!!!

[@khilorn]

As avet I feel so much sympathy for this. I loved witch queen for the lead but if didnt have that oof i completely understand that.

[@xXxSnaKe24xXx]

Seriously this was REALLY cool to listen too. I bleed destiny and honestly glad to find … well listen to … SOMETHING that tells me Luke S is still alive lol …. cuz ya know u dont wana scroll threw “where is luke smith?” on google… lol! But Love to hear from the man and stuff he had to say. P.S Tell Luke Smith… D2 needs a “Taken King level” Hype Train Luke S. + Bungie Team Vidoc … to take it to 11 😎 For the 10 yr end of Light and Dark saga !!! Unmatched Hype …. Still lol

[@ImMohammedAli]

Bungie please add 1 new map every season, the end is coming for Destiny in a couple of years and we haven’t gotten any good maps in the past couple of years, we have a great PvP community and we’d love to more new maps not just old remakes or big maps. PVE is awesome but for some us we stuck around all these years later because of the unique PVP unlike any other game.

[@JDxxatteis]

Destiny isn’t ending anytime soon. The final shape isn’t the last expansion it’s just the end to the light and dark saga

[@PhotonBread]

@@JDxxatteis If you ask Eris, it’s just the beginning

[@D33PLOV3]

I think Luke would’ve fit in more going with the 343 guys

[@twohorsesinamancostume7606]

Well gee... it would be a lot easier to get players into Destiny if you hadn't erased the first 3 years of the game and the last 2 years of seasons from the game and then replaced the normal Red War intro with Destiny 1s into, which has absolutely no relevance to anything that's happening right now... Content vaulting was a mistake, we should have just moved on to Destiny 3. Luke "I'm going to take all of your stuff" Smith already had sunset everything anyway.

[@PhotonBread]

Destiny board game confirmed?

[@JohnSmith-uf3yn]

Luke is so fuckin bad at his job & inexperienced, glad he’s gone

[@murrayprocter8754]

well its broken typical off ever thing he touches

[@xxcjjthedonxx]

Luke Smith lost all my respect when he and his "team" introduced the DCV and sunsetting into destiny and keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Clearly not learning at all at bungie.

[@beng6149]

cry

[@ynybody1382]

Sunsetting is a good and necessary mechanic in mmos to stop powercreep. The DCV was a bad idea - improving and revamping old activities to modernize them is the better solution.

[@lentchunk]

Back into the Dcv little slugger boy

[@shorddy1668]

@@ynybody1382 the old content was removed for other reasons, not them being played very little and being old.

[@ynybody1382]

@@shorddy1668 There justification for which content was removed was based on how often the content was played. The claim that it's to save space is wrong - many of the old maps are still in the files, and some of the old areas have returned (leviathan to derelict leviathan). I would rather have 4 raids and menagerie than a patrol area and a dungeon. They've also proven they can revamp old raids - look at D1, where old raids were modernized. This was one of the best updates to the game.