GDC 2013 Panel

On March 28, 2013, Bungie held a panel at the 2013 Game Developer's Conference (GDC) entitled "Building a Brave New World," focusing on art and story conception and design for Destiny. Though the presentation focused on game design and conception, much concept art was revealed as well as several tidbits and details about Destiny.

Below is a synopsis of important Destiny-related details from the Bungie panel at GDC 2013:


 * Unlike the Halo campaigns, each of which encouraged players to run quickly through a narrow "pipe" through a much larger world and never come back, Destiny is intended to have players "explore a big world" that evolves and "always gives [players] a reason to come back."
 * Destiny's world rests on four pillars:
 * A world that is hopeful and inviting;
 * A world of "idealized reality";
 * A world filled with mystery and adventure; and
 * A world where you can become a legend in a world with millions of other heroes.
 * The City was originally intended to be a massive floating Spaceship, but designers found that it worked better as a city on Earth.
 * Destiny's style guide was created using several different influences:
 * Mood, palette, and costumes were influenced by Western films because Bungie liked the idea of "treating Earth as a frontier."
 * Composition, lighting, mood, and cinematography are influenced by the film works of Andrei Tarkovsky, whose visuals depicted the idealized reality that Bungie wanted to evoke.
 * Inventiveness, imagination, set design, humor, and the idea of ancient maps superimposed on science fiction contexts are all influenced by the film and television works of Terry Gilliam, whose movies such as Time Bandits inspire the same sense of adventure, humor, and inventiveness as Destiny hopes to.
 * Destiny's palette and art, including its epic and larger-than-life elements, esoteric and abstract imagery, and large monolithic shapes mixed with organic elements are influenced by science-fiction artist John Harris.
 * Architecture, surrealistic landscapes, and Destiny's darker moods were influenced by the art of painter Zdzislaw Beksinski.
 * Destiny's patterns, surrealism, order/chaos relationships, and timelessness were inspired by the art of Peter Gric.
 * Style, armor, and vehicles were influenced by Japanese Anime.
 * Destiny's color palette is meant to look aged and timeless.
 * Hints, minor details, and concept art of several locations in Destiny were shown, including:
 * The City
 * The Hellmouth
 * Mumbai Push
 * Old Chicago
 * A frozen city occupied by an army of machines, where "skyscrapers have become dungeons, their lower floors buried in snow."
 * The Moon
 * A short video of Grognok was shown in action.
 * Concept art of both player and non-player Species was shown, as well as descriptions of the process of creating them.
 * For the first time, the name Hive was revealed as the official name of the species formerly known only as "Space Zombies."
 * Player species, including humans, Exo, and Awoken were revealed for the first time, as well as the cut species Tiger Man.
 * Player Classes were detailed a bit further. Bungie stated that there are only three "main" classes, but did not address speculation regarding possible sub-classes.
 * The design and development of Weapons was detailed.