Bungie's next project is 'comedic' and 'whimsical'

That’s according to job ads on the studio’s website for its new franchise, which also includes loot, combat, and some kind of online multiplayer, but isn’t a Destiny sequel.

Like a puzzle box tipped out over the kitchen floor, Bungie’s careers page has a number of “incubation” vacancies available in multiple departments, each one describing a different part of the same project.

Art director:

Would you like to work on something comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters? Do you think a lot about how art impacts gameplay, how character design can enable fan cosplays, or how character poses and environments speak to different cultures all around the world? As the Incubation Art Director, you will define the look of a new Bungie IP and work on all aspects of art to guide a prototype on the path to production.

Investment designer:

You are the glue between the sword and the reward. You will work in tandem with our sandbox and economy teams to build and distribute items to our players. Living inside a giant database of hundreds of baubles, weapons and armour is nothing new to you. Neither is building a system to cleverly distribute those items in a necromancer’s dungeon.

Senior online engineer:

Are you inspired to create a hopeful new game world that brings players together from all over the planet? Do you seek out the latest technologies to see what they are capable of? Do you dream of game engines that enable new experiences the world has never seen?

Lead combat designer:

Do you obsessively replay great combat encounters in the latest action-adventure game? Do you spend hours hitting the combat dummies in MMOs with every ability in your spellbook? Are you at pinnacle skill ranking in your favorite competitive game? Is “TTK” written obsessively in your notebooks?

And it’s, what? Loot, combat, and online multiplayer don’t exactly mix up into a diverse genre table, even with “comedic” and “whimsical” features. So, we can probably assume it’s an RPG-with-other-things like Destiny, but not Destiny, because, you know, it’s something else. Maybe Matter. Maybe not.

Whatever it is,the project is obviously very much in the pre-production phase so it’s not like everything isn’t going to be dumped and started over three times in the next week or so.