Luke McKay continues to play with Halo images – a couple of weeks ago, he sketched up a great angle on the Master Chief, and today he released a shot done in a new style he’s been experimenting with. Pretty nice work! We’ve added both of these to his Gallery here. Update: Oops, almost missed this Cortana detail of the newer pic.(Louis Wu 12:56:08 UTC)

The 2009 Game Developers Conference kicks off in a little over a week – and here are the Bungie/Halo related presenters:

• Max Hoberman (former Multiplayer Lead for Halo games) has a talk called ‘From Bungie to Bootstrapping – Starting an Independent Developer Studio‘.
• Allen Murray (Producer, Halo 3) is sharing production challenges in a talk entitled ‘Building Your Airplane While Flying: Production at Bungie‘.
• David Hunt (Lead Character Rigger) is discussing ‘Modular Procedural Rigging‘.
• Artist Seth Gibson is participating in a panel on Technical Art Techniques.
• Luke Smith is participating in a panel on Game Design.

There might be more – but the search function isn’t nearly as friendly as it’s been in previous years. Thanks to Ssparks, over at NeoGAF, for the initial heads-up.(Louis Wu 12:31:56 UTC)

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from This Spartan Life – but they’re coming back! There’s a new trailer up on their website, showing off their unique combination of interesting interviews and… well, bullets to the head. Thanks to finalcutmin for noticing!(Louis Wu 12:17:19 UTC)

The Bungie Blog posted a fan-made video showcasing the Mongoose – it’s a lot of fun. Go watch it in HD!(Louis Wu 12:17:00 UTC)

Wow. Just… wow. vector40 (who was once a large contributor to our Fan Fiction section) stopped by last night to mention that the textbook being used in a course he’s taking on video game structure contains a Halo-based fan-written poem… taken from our Fan Fiction section. In fact, it was written by UNSC Trooper, who’s currently on our Story Page staff. Fan Fiction showing up in a textbook on game design… that blows my mind.(Louis Wu 12:16:30 UTC)

Went out to buy a new headset for my phone, came back to a batch of new posts on Bungie.net. Lessee here…

• There’s a writeup on My Halo Life, a series of montages being put together by a tight-knit community (though they’re happy to include your fun clips). Episode 1 is online now.
• There’s some news about a final live show coming from Bryan Simon – read it for details on when and where, and what.
• There’s a new Community Spotlight on the Halo 3 Wheelmen, including what sorts of fun they’re having, along with a new batch of files they like in the Bungie Favorites section. (There’s also a ‘hogtage’ from them.)

That urk… he’s a busy one.(Louis Wu 18:43:52 UTC)