Halo: Spartan Assault among first Havok powered games on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8

We’ve been enjoying Halo: Spartan Assault on both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 the past few weeks. How about you? We’re a handful of weeks away from the first update to the title that will bring support for 512MB devices on Windows Phone. If you’re on Windows 8 playing the game you’ll be using your Xbox 360 controller then. We also suspect either new levels or more game modes. Of course we’ll let you know when the update hits. In the meantime, here’s the answer to a question I know every single one of you has been wondering. What’s powering the AI?

Havok, as you may know, is a physics engine used by many video games. Depending on the game, a studio can use different tools from within the Havok portfolio. There’s Havok Physics, Animation Studio, Cloth, Destruction, AI, Script, and Vision Engine. Developers may only need to use one particular product (or all) within the Havok product range. Halo 2, 3, ODST, and 4 have used Havok Physics and Animation in the past, with Halo 4 also using the Havok AI. What’s Halo: Spartan Assault using? Havok AI.

When Halo: Spartan Assault launched two weeks ago it became one of the first games on both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 to be powered by Havok. We last touched on Havok coming to Windows Phone back in late April, when we sat down with Microsoft’s Larry Lieberman and Casey McGee to talk game engines. And Havok was announced for Windows Phone way back last October at Build 2012.

Here’s what Dan Ayoub, Executive Producer at343 Industries has to say about Spartan Assault and Havok:

Since the series began in 2001, the Halo universe has been populated by a variety of powerful and cunning enemy combatants, and Havok is the perfect partner to provide the smarts that control these dangerous foes. The AI is an important ingredient in what makes the world of Halo so lively and thrilling, our collaboration with Havok and Vanguard Games has helped bring that giant expanding universe to smartphone screens.

We can’t wait to see more advanced games come to Windows Phone and Windows 8. Havok will help game developers on that journey. Be sure to visit the Havok website if you’re a game developer and want to learn more about using Havok in your next Windows or Windows Phone game.

Source: Havok