Exclusive: Behind the Art and Atmosphere of ’Destiny’

Destiny, the live-service sci-fi shooter from Bungie—makers of games like Halo, Myth, Marathon, and the criminally underrated Oni—is having a moment. This week is the franchise's seventh birthday, and the announcement of Destiny 2's upcoming expansion, The Witch Queen, was met largely with praise from old-school Destiny fans and New Lights alike. But a franchise that's been around for this long doesn't just appear fully-formed. Its visual language and design have evolved over the years along with its story and its players, and WIRED spoke to the game's art team to learn how.

Early designs for a “rogue,” which look very much like today's playable Hunter class.

First of all, let's back up a bit. For those who don't play, Destiny is a sci-fi "looter shooter," where part of the goal of playing is to level up your character, take on more challenging combatants and puzzles, and, of course, get better loot in the process—usually in the form of armor and weapons. The story of the franchise can be convoluted at times, to the point where game developer and speaker Rami Ismail wrote a 50+ tweet thread recapping the entire story. (He also turned it into a YouTube video, if you'd prefer to catch up that way.) And, full disclosure, I've made no secret about exactly how much I play Destiny 2.