Bungie On The Making Of Corridors Of Time

Bungie put a lot of effort into the Corridors of Time quest, and it shows. The quest became a micro-event that I’m sure we’ll all be getting special rewards for in a few months as recognition of those who were exploring it. The quest may be closing this week, but Bungie wants us to know a little more about it all the same, which is why they’ve given us a look at the making of this incredible quest.

Planning and Development

In the beginning, Bungie put together some goals that would guide their development process moving forward. Those goals are as follows.

• Create a maze in time that Guardians could dive into in order to discover secrets and new lore
• Create a shared community puzzle that ultimately rewards Bastion
• Celebrate the achievement and invite every Guardian to join in for the reward

The bare bones of Corridors of Time were actually created years ago, with the discovery and subsequent quest for Sleeper Simulant. Bungie realised that at the time the discovery was only relevant to those Guardians who were logged in, which wasn’t everyone. In a similar fashion the mission for Whisper of the Worm, and Zero Hour itself, were also limited to Guardians with a play time window that matched up perfectly with the discovery.

The Corridors of Time was designed to be experienced by everyone who wanted to take part.

Inspired by the Bungie Pentathalon, which sees the entire company complete puzzles designed by the brightest people in the studio in an effort to unlock a wider meta puzzle, Corridors of Time was built to be simple at first, but lead to a complicated solution. The overall concept of the Corridors of Time came about whilst the team were working on Season of Dawn, which is very time focused.

Early ideas for the quest looked like the cult movie Cube, which saw players complete a room, but them move through a door into an identical room with a new death trap. The art team then created a visual language inspired by Alice in Wonderland and The Matrix, making anyone who wanders the Corridors Time wonder just how deep it was.

I think Bungie achieved what they set out to do with Corridors of Time, and the community of Guardians certainly enjoyed it. I’d be surprised if we didn’t have a similar puzzle for every season moving forward, but they’ll be very different. Bungie will have to work hard to come up with something this good for the next season, and it’ll need to be themed around whatever that season focuses on. I for one cannot wait to see that new season and its puzzle.

Let us know what you thought of Corridors of Time in the comments.

Image Source: Kotaku UK, Rock Paper Shotgun