343 Studios' Frank O'Connor, Dan Ayou, Martin De Ronde, Greame Jennings, and Brian Reed stopped by the San Diego Comic Con yesterday to talk Halo 4, Halo: Spartan Assault, and expanding upon the Halo fiction, and they borught along Dark Horse Comics' Nick McWhorter for the ride. The result was a panel that divvied up attention between the various Halo properties quite nicely.

The panel began with a look at Spartan Assault, which launched yesterday evening for Windows Phones, Windows 8 PCs and Windows tablets. The title was built from the ground up for touch, and designed to feel true to the core Halo experience. This forced the designers to go back to the drawing board again and again - how to you make a mobile, top-down shooter "feel" like a traditional Halo game?

For designer Dan Ayou, it's all about developing the "right game for the right screen." The studio is "taking how people play mobile into account," and building up a UI and a mission structure that supports that. Adaptive control systems will actually move the controls across the screen as the player's fingers wander, eliminating the worry that the less tactile touch joysticks won't be up to the task of controlling the characters. 

Additionally, Spartan Assault should "change the paradigm" for mobile games in terms of visuals. 343 hopes to introduce a new standard for graphics on the platform, and although the visuals of Spartan Assault didn't look as impressive as something like Epic's Unreal-powered Infinity Blade, they certainly were colorful and popped with particle effects during battle.

Another interesting fact about the development of Spartan Assault - the game's isometric viewpoint and flow of action were actually inspired by the team watching multiplayer matches of Halo: Reach in the game's Theater mode, zooming the camera out to as far as it'd go and tilting it to 85 degrees. This ensured that they achieved the utmost authenticity in the flow of the game's action, which should mimic that of a traditional Halo title. 

Halo comics were the next target. Dark Horse's Nick McWhorter took the spotlight to discuss his area of expertise. A new Halo comic called 'Initiation' will "make room for stories that couldn't fit" into games like, for example, Halo 4. 'Initiation' and Spartan Assault will combine to tell the many stories of Sarah Palmer, the series' brand-spanking-new Spartan soldier.

In Halo 4, we found it confusing and incredibly random that another Spartan soldier joined Master Chief in battle for about five seconds before wandering off to do something else. This new media should explain how Palmer became a Spartan, why there are new Spartans at all, and give some insight into the character's past to boot.

Finally, these new products will serve to expand "the Halo 4 ecosystem," 343's Frank O'Connor promised. Purchasing Spartan Assault will provide you with a code that you can redeem for in-game XP and weapon skins in Halo 4. There's nowhere else to get these DLC bonuses. 

Additionally, completing Spartan Assault on various difficulty levels will unlock various bonuses, including new Armor Powers, for use in Halo 4's multiplayer modes. 343 hopes that these bonuses, along with the promise of a new Sarah Palmer story, will drive players into exploring games and media outside of the standard Halo Xbox games. The upcoming 'Champions Bundle' DLC for Halo 4 will also tie in to the new media.

Check out a trailer for Spartan Assault below.