While we were all getting ready to have a blast on the Destiny beta, a rather interesting thing happened to Jonty Barnes, Director of Production at Bungie, this past week. The production team at GOG.com found a secret message encoded by Barnes in a 17-year old game, which reveals the hard work and struggle that developers sometimes have to go through.
One day in June 1997 at 4am, Barnes encoded the following message into the original Dungeon Keeper game (full text here):
This project has destroyed the health and social lives of each member so I hope you like the game. Amazingly, after sixteen hours a day, 7 days a week, for nearly 5 months, we still do. Sleep is due to me… and I have a dream to live.
When Polygon approached Barnes, he expressed his delight at someone finally finding the message, and said that he has a similar feeling about the upcoming title, Destiny.
It’s funny. I’m feeling similar with Destiny. Both games have taken absolutely everything I have to give. Both I’m very proud to be part of. Both have changed my life.
Pretty emotional stuff right there. Often when criticizing games and developers, we forget the individual effort that goes into each project. Bungie has recently said that Destiny is its most ambitious project to date. You should be proud of yourself, Barnes.
[Source: Polygon]
