 In 2006 , in acknowledgment of the " wealth of influences adopted by the Bungie team " , a list of Bungie employees ' favorite science fiction material was published on the company 's website . The developers acknowledged that the Halo series ' use of ring @-@ shaped megastructures followed on from concepts featured in Larry Niven 's Ringworld and Iain M. Banks ' Culture series ( of which Consider Phlebas and Excession were said to be particularly influential ) . In a retrospective article in Edge , Bungie 's Jaime Griesemer commented , " The influence of something like Ringworld isn 't necessarily in the design – it 's in that feeling of being somewhere else . That sense of scale and an epic story going on out there . " Griesemer also explained , " One of the main sources of inspiration was Armor [ by John Steakley ] , in which a soldier has to constantly re @-@ live the same war over and over again . That sense of hopelessness , a relentless battle , was influential . " The Flood were influenced by the assimilating alien species in Christopher Rowley 's The Vang ; it has also been speculated that the Master Chief 's name " John 117 " may have been a reference to a character named Jon 6725416 in Rowley 's Starhammer , or to the John Spartan character of Demolition Man . An IGN article exploring the literary influences present in the Halo franchise commented on similarities between Halo and Orson Scott Card 's Ender 's Game : aspects of the SPARTAN Project and the design of the Covenant Drones are perceived as reminiscent of the super soldier program and Buggers found in the novel . Bungie has also acknowledged James Cameron 's film Aliens as a strong cinematic influence . 
