Back at Bungie
- January 21st, 2012
- Posted in Work
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For the past several months, I took some time away from my good friends at Bungie to take a long deep breath, be with my family and explore a number of new game ideas on my own.
The game ideas ventured from small mobile apps to massive console titles, with mechanics from simple to moderately complex. (note – I do not enjoy very complex games made just for gamers since they are generally too exclusive and defeat a vision that I have of making interactive entertainment more approachable to a broader audience. But, this never means building anything for the lowest common denominator!)
This time I took was astonishingly more valuable to me than I had ever dreamt. I took for granted that I would relax, take better care of my health, unwind and let the creative energy start building again. I also knew this would be a great time to be closer to family. But, what I did not anticipate was how important to my children this time would be for them. Being home to take them to school, go to their afternoon soccer games, pick them up and take them to music lessons, help them with homework after school. Simply put, I was able to be 100% present in their lives. It’s something that they both recognized and made mention of to my wife, who I have also been able to appreciate on all new levels as I witness day to day life at home. They wanted me to know how important it was to them that I was here rather than at work all day long. My kids are only a handful of years away from completing high school and moving on to college. I know that time will pass swiftly.
During this time, I kept in contact with my friends at Bungie to discuss some possible opportunities that didn’t exist prior to my leaving. It was sad to leave behind a company that I helped create, but I was ready to make a change and start something new. Well, my discussions continued to develop with Bungie and soon we had a plan together that made a ton of sense. Why slave over the difficulties of building a studio from scratch when I could start something new, working on a brand new IP right within Bungie itself?
So, it is with great care that I will be venturing back to Bungie on Monday. I will be teaming up with my longtime colleague, Joe Tung, to start the construction of a brand new team and project. We will be a lean and mean organization for a while until our first game pitch is ready, and then grow from there.
The importance of my family will always remain paramount in whatever I do. It will be no different with my return to Bungie. But, this time around I have a different outlook on how to maintain a healthier balance between the two.
Wish me luck!
Glad to hear you were able to have some time off with your family. Also overjoyed and excited about your return to Bungie, can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for us.
Good luck to you and everyone at Bungie!
This is great news! It often seems that our modern schedules neglect the importance of some serious time away from one’s work to focus on ourselves and our families. Stepping back and taking a moment to breathe often provides new perspectives into facets of our lives that otherwise get overlooked while we’re focusing on doing our best in the workplace.
I imagine you’ll be running dark long into Bungie’s next release cycle, but even so it’s exciting to hear that you’re back at the helm and putting together something completely new. Best of luck on your new endeavors, Marcus, and thanks for keeping us updated on this blog!
This is great news. You were one of the people who made Reach as fantastic as it was. You can do the same, or even more, with Bungie’s new ventures into game land.
congratulations! seriously. those refreshes are sometimes essential to enjoying not only your work, but life in general. glad to hear you were able to have that time afforded to you and good luck with your next venture!
Family time is priceless and always good to have. Glad to hear you have a new outlook on both your family and your career.
I can’t wait to hear what you, Joe Tung, and whoever else joins your elite crew have in store for us. I know it will be great.
So basically you took an extended unpaid vacation ? Jokes aside, glad to hear from you!
Living on a severely low budget due to the lack of paycheck turned out to be factor that contributed to a fair amount of happiness. Knowing that we can and should get by without all the extra fat one typically consumes was exhilarating.
Best of luck! All your words ring tremendously true and it will be exciting to see the products from you and the team. Cheers!!!
Thank you Jason. I hope you are doing well on your life abroad!
I would have been interested to see what your future projects looked like regardless, but have to admit I’m pleased to hear this news, since I know you can do great work with those guys, and Joe especially.
In any case, it sounds like you’ve had some great experiences lately, so congrats on that.
Marcus i could say all kinds of nice things but i am going to stick with: You Rock and i can’t wait whats coming next
Glad you are back with the best company there the next ten years are going to be even greater
great to hear your going back to bungie Marcus. Since you’ve been there so long and brought many great games to the table it would be a shame to not see you on bungies next big game.
loved the halo series you guys created and that there is where my gaming in the halo world stops.
I look forward to the new ip your going to help build and a new world to unravel for all of you.
Im also glad that you got lots of quality family time. Being a father myself I know how important this time is. Cherish it
cheers
Kelsey
Very glad to hear of your time off, friend. Exceedingly more so that you connected with your family the way that you did and that it helped change your perspective on some exceedingly time-sensitive things. It is a fear of mine that, if I ever do break into the game industry, that I will be consumed by the amount of time I spend generating income, and will lose sight of the things that are of the utmost importance and value. Namely, relationships; first with God, then with others.
Whatever you create, I’m happy for you and will likely enjoy it. But I’m far more glad for the person that you and others like you are, and how that trickles down into me through my experiencing what you create.
Much love to you and yours. <3
That means a lot. Thank you!
Glad to hear the good news! It’s also nice to see that you still value your children, time with them is something you can never get back, so get it while you can. Good luck with the new projects!
so pleased that you are back. you and joe have made an awesome team. can’t wait to see…
is this just to re-balance the teams for pentathlon?
I knew someone would see through it all!
thanks for share!
Though I don’t know you BUNGIE folk personally, the family vibe you’ve established amongst yourselves and the community really make news of departure a sad thing. I suppose there’s the distant, yet strangely intimate tie between game creator and user that would make such a loss and gain (now that you’re back), something that can be felt.
I’m glad you respawned at BUNGIE.
It’s not too hard to see why a collective with people like you create such inspired art.
saw the tweet marcus.
when you have a break from the fun, let us know more about how the new project (yours) feels.
Unfortunately, it will be a long time until we can actually talk about game details. Until then, I’ll do my best to describe some major events or milestones.
No problem. I was really interested if you could share something of how playing a new creation was, not game details. I realise that would be way off. Got the gist from your tweet, but wondered if it was something you could reflect on. Thanks for the response anyway.
Sorry for the late response. We’ve been so busy I’ve been neglecting the blog.
It’s refreshing to be doing somthing completely different than what we did with halo for so many years. So, working on and playing the prototype has been such a fascinating experience. With our small team, we’ve been iterating on aspects of the game where it changes flavor multiple times daily. It is so important at this stage of the project to remain flexible and NOT plan out too many concrete milestones – just use them as guide points. There are so many little things that happen every day during early development. These are the sparks that start the fire of something special. We’ve already hit on a few fundimental parts of the game that make it feel like nothing else out there – so we’re super excited about the foundation we’re laying right now.
hey marcus, its been a while.
you did say to poke you into blogging, but i know you’re busy. i guess tweets are easier.
don’t want you to talk about detail, but wondered if you’d got any thoughts on how it compares to work on something new.
also, i remember noble actual. does joe have any thoughts about the new team, project or process?
Hey marcus, hope you’re just busy. Last comment still waiting moderation.