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 vast sci-fi world to build their fledgling Guardian. I still vividly remember the first time I faced a terrifying Fallen Walker at the Cosmodrome in the Destiny alpha all those years ago.
To celebrate the series’ 10th anniversary, we asked developers from PlayStation Studios to share their fondest memories of playing Destiny and their developer perspective on what makes the game so engaging and satisfying.
Needless to say, happy 10th anniversary, Destiny!
“When Destiny first came out, and after I had been playing for a while, I actually reached out to my old high school friends who lived in another town and convinced them to buy a PS4 and join me right away. We had such a great time that it kicked off our weekly game night that has been going on since 2014. Destiny is basically why we reconnected and became better friends.
I usually can’t play a game without analyzing the animations. I’m always impressed with the enemy cinematics and animations in Destiny. Each faction always feels very distinct and unique from one another, with different personalities coming through in their animations. Bungie’s use of full body, running IK rigs is always great too.“
– Bruno Velazquez, Game Director, Santa Monica Studio
“I got Destiny two months after its release as a birthday present to myself, and it has brought me so many fun moments over the past decade, as well as a squad of lifelong friends.
But one moment I’ll never forget is the opening quest of the Shadowkeep expansion. A friend of mine had exited the Hive tunnels first and said, ‘Oh my god, you guys have to come up here.’ I still remember the feeling of awe and dread as I turned the corner in the moon tunnels and saw a giant pyramid embedded in moon rock, and understood what it meant. One of the most amazing revelations I’ve ever seen.
As a lighting artist, Destiny is a huge inspiration to me, from the beautiful skyboxes to the amazing use of color and silhouettes to create interest, highlight, and guide the player through fantastical spaces. It would be my dream to work on a game with such freedom of color and atmosphere!“
– Jen Carlin, Lighting Artist, Insomniac Games
“Destiny is a game that I have been playing consistently since September 2014. I begged my aunt to buy it for me as an early Christmas present because from the very first trailers, I knew this game was special. Throughout high school, college, and my career at PlayStation, it was always there.
When I step into Tower, no matter how long the hiatus is, it feels like coming home. Of course, that makes me even more sad when we lost the first Tower, and even more excited when we found it again in Pale Heart. Destiny has achieved an incredible symbiosis based on the dedication of not only the developers, but also the players and community, allowing them to create this intense emotional bond.
As a Story and Quest designer, the length of the stories, the depth of the world building, and the memorability of not only the main campaigns but also the seasonal stories left such a deep impression on me that I wish I could experience it all again and hope to emulate it in my future career.“
– Sam Jordan, Designer, Insomniac Games
“My earliest memory of Destiny was running a Relic Iron loop on Mars for a friend, but my favorite memory is probably my raid team defeating Nezarac in competitive mode after we were wiped out in the final battle, all thanks to a friend’s insistence on using the Osteo Striga.
Player expression through buildcrafting is something that has always fascinated me about Destiny, especially the little details of how builds can vary from person to person. I love tweaking my support builds to help my teammates, whether it’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’re definitely a legend!“
– Matthew Makuch, Senior Technical Designer, Bend Studio
“Each raid has a physical jacket that you can buy if you complete it within the first week. My favorite jacket was the first one, the Crown of Sorrow jacket. The jacket had a cup and my gamer card on it. I didn’t have a clan, but it was worth it to try LFG. At minimum Power, the difficulty became ridiculous. Most hits would leave me one hit away from death. Eventually, the group kicked me out, and I went to bed feeling depressed and frustrated.
The next day I joined another LFG for a final run an hour before reset. The group included the speedrunners from Fast who had set the world record two weeks earlier. I only noticed them as they flew past and skipped the whole jumping puzzle!
In the final boss, random crystals spawn, requiring two players to melee them. I was so focused on surviving that I often missed the spawn, so I heard a constant chorus of “Behind you! Hurry up!” With ten minutes before the reset, we cleared out on enrage [an attack that’s unleashed if players take too long] right before we killed the boss. But we regrouped and killed the boss with just a few minutes left. In less than 24 hours, I went from the lowest point to the highest point of my Destiny journey.“
– Jeffrey Lininger, Senior Game Designer, Guerrilla
“One of my favorite things about Destiny is that it’s both a social sandbox and a TV show that I can’t stop watching. Guiding a group of my friends through the Vault of Glass, their first raid, was an amazing experience!
My first instinct when I find something interesting is to tell someone about it. So it’s been really fun to be able to share one of my all-time favorite experiences, taking them through each encounter and watching them, well, die over and over again but also get excited as they figure out each mechanic and eventually succeed.
At the same time, it’s an incredibly fascinating world to explore and delve into. Reading through the Books of Sorrow and the work of the wonderful writing team had as much impact on me as discovering Pale Heart or finally defeating Skolas when we foolishly (or bravely?) tried that week. Lightswitch was the modifier. Fun times. Telesto was also Besto.“
– Luke Gillard, Senior Functional Tester, Guerrilla/PlayStation QA
“The most memorable moment for me was when you enter the Witch Queen expansion as you fly (literally) through countless beautiful locations that left me speechless.
Destiny 2 is a masterpiece in terms of visual quality and graphical standards; carefully crafted environments, rich narrative design, and most importantly for me, lighting. The lighting art since Destiny began has had a significant influence on the ways I approach lighting in similarly rich environments. From the use of color, composition, and implementation to gameplay, the team’s artistic talent truly sets one of the highest standards for our industry, and they continue to prove it with each new expansion.
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– Daniel Sewell, Senior Lighting Artist, Haven
What is your first and most memorable memory of the past 10 years of Destiny?
