Destiny 10th Anniversary: PlayStation Studios devs reflect on their time as Guardians
Can you believe it’s been 10 years since Destiny first launched on PS3 and PS4? 10 years since players first chose Hunter, Titan, or Warlock and jumped into Bungie’s expansive sci-fi world to build up their fledgling Guardian. I can still vividly remember my first time facing off against a daunting Fallen Walker in the Cosmodrome during the Destiny alpha all those years ago.
To celebrate the series’ decade-long run, we asked developers from PlayStation Studios to share their fondest memories playing Destiny and their developer perspective on what makes the game so sticky and satisfying.
With no further ado, happy 10th anniversary, Destiny!
“When Destiny first launched, and after I played for a bit, I actually reached out to my old high school friends who live in another town and convinced them to buy a PS4 and immediately join me. We had such a great time that it kickstarted our weekly game night that has been going on since 2014. Destiny was basically the reason why we reconnected and became even better friends.
I usually can’t play a game without analyzing the animations. I’ve always been impressed with Destiny’s cinematics and enemy animations. Each faction has always felt very distinct and unique from each other with varied personalities coming through their movement. Bungie’s use of runtime, full-body IK rigs has always been amazing as well.“
– Bruno Velazquez, Game Director, Santa Monica Studio
“I got Destiny two months after release as a birthday present to myself, and it gave me so many moments of joy throughout this past decade, and a fireteam of lifelong friends.
But the one moment I will never get over is the opening mission of the Shadowkeep expansion. One of my friends made it out of the Hive’s tunnels first and said: ‘Oh my god, you guys gotta get up here, now.’ I can still remember the awe and horror of turning the corner in the tunnels of the moon and seeing a huge pyramid embedded in the lunar rock, and processing what it meant. One of the best reveals I’ve ever seen done.
As a lighting artist, Destiny is a huge inspiration for me, from the beautiful skyboxes to the excellent use of color and silhouette to create interest, focal points, and lead the player throughout fantastical spaces. It’s a dream of mine to work on a game with such freedom of color and atmosphere!“
– Jen Carlin, Lighting Artist, Insomniac Games
“Destiny is a game I’ve been playing on and off since September 2014. I begged my aunt to get it for me as an early Christmas gift because even from the early trailers, I knew this game was special. Through high school, college, and my career at PlayStation, it’s always been there.
When I enter the Tower, no matter how long of a hiatus it’s been, it feels like coming home. Which of course made it all the more devastating when we lost the first one, and all the more elating when we found it again in the Pale Heart. Destiny has achieved an incredible symbiosis based on the dedication of not just the developers but also the players and community, which allows them to create this intense emotional connection.
As a Narrative and Mission designer, the longevity of the story, the depth of the world-building, and the memorability of not just the main campaigns but the seasonal stories have left a profound impression on me that makes me wish I could experience it all over again and hope to emulate in the future of my career.“
– Sam Jordan, Designer, Insomniac Games
“My earliest memory of Destiny is running Relic Iron loops on Mars for a friend, but my favorite memory would have to be my raid team beating Nezarac on contest mode after we wiped during the final stand, all thanks to one friend’s insistence on using Osteo Striga.
The player expression through buildcrafting is what keeps me constantly interested in Destiny, especially the minutia of how a build can differ from person to person. I love fine-tuning my support builds to help my teammates, whether that’s printing orbs on Arc Hunter, locking down the battlefield on Stasis Warlock, or creating safe havens on Void Titan. Happy 10th anniversary Destiny, you’ve definitely become legend!“
– Matthew Makuch, Senior Technical Designer, Bend Studio
“Each raid has a physical jacket you can buy if you complete it in the first week. My favorite is my first, the Crown of Sorrow jacket. The jacket features a chalice and my gamer tag. I didn’t have a clan, but that was worth trying LFG. At minimum Power, the difficulty got ridiculous. Most hits would put me one shot from death. Eventually, the group kicked me, and I went to bed dispirited and disappointed.
The next day, I joined another LFG for one last shot an hour before reset. In the group were speedrunners from Fast who’d set the world record two weeks later. I only realized when they flew across and skipped the whole jumping puzzle!
At the final boss, random crystals spawned which required two players to melee them. I was so focused on surviving I’d often miss the spawn, so I heard a constant chorus of “Behind you! Hurry up!” With ten minutes before reset, we wiped on an enrage [an attack that’s unleashed if players take too long] just before we killed the boss. But we rallied and got the kill with only minutes left. In less than 24 hours, I had gone from the lowest to the highest point in my Destiny journey.“
– Jeffrey Lininger, Senior Game Designer, Guerrilla
“One of my favourite things about Destiny is that it’s like a social sandbox and a TV show I can’t get enough of rolled into one. Guiding a group of my friends through Vault of Glass, their first raid, was a brilliant experience!
My first instinct when I find anything cool is to tell someone about it. So it was so much fun to be able to share one of my all time favourite experiences, take them through each encounter and watch them, well, die over and over but also get excited as they figure out each mechanic and eventually succeed.
At the same time, it’s a world that’s so fascinating to explore and delve into. Reading through the Books of Sorrow and the work of the amazing writing team is as impactful to me as exploring the Pale Heart or finally defeating Skolas when we foolishly (or bravely?) tried that week Lightswitch was the modifier. Good times. Telesto is also the Besto.“
– Luke Gillard, Senior Functional Tester, Guerrilla / PlayStation QA
“The most memorable moment for me is the entrance of the Witch Queen expansion as you cannonball (quite literally) through an endless bound of beautiful locations that left me speechless.
Destiny 2 is a masterpiece in visual quality and graphical standards; the carefully crafted environments are rich with narrative design and especially to me, the lighting. The artistic lighting since Destiny began has had such a significant influence on the methods that I use to approach lighting in similarly enriched environments. From the use of colour, compositions and implementation to gameplay, the artistic talent of the team truly sets one of the highest standards for our industry and they continually prove that with each new expansion.
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– Daniel Sewell, Senior Lighting Artist, Haven
What are your earliest and fondest memories from Destiny’s past 10 years?