Destiny originally featured a third-person only viewpoint

Bungie’s upcoming sci-fi space epic Destiny began its life not as a first-person shooter, but a third-person only game, technical art director Ryan Ellis recently told Game Informer.

Ellis has been part of the development team, which began with only four staff members, since the game’s beginning. According to Ellis, Bungie has “maintained the core” of what Destiny is, but still changed much of its original design.

“We actually at one point were third-person only,” Ellis said. “There [are] some third-person elements in the game still. That’s important for gameplay, but also to show off your cool moves and show off the cool armor that you get.

“We wanted to make a kick-ass action game, and we decided first-person was the right place to do that.”

Ellis also talks about the game’s environments, its solar systems and why the team decided against a photorealistic approach. You can watch the full video interview on Game Informer’s website.

Destiny is currently slated for launch Sept. 9, 2014, on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A beta is expected first for PlayStation consoles in 2014. Learn more about the game through our reveal feature and our in-depth preview from E3 2013.