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adding dates for a few more citations; in some cases we only know the year, but that's better than nothing

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 Work on Oni began in 1997 when Bungie decided to found a second studio, Bungie West. The concept for their first project was devised by Brent Pease and Michael Evans, whose primary influence was the animé film ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]''.<ref>Pease discusses his role as Oni's creator and GitS' influence on the game [http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html here].</ref> Pease and Evans had been working at Apple on game-related technology, and their first step was to begin work on the engine, gradually hiring employees to produce concept art and author content for the game. The name "Oni" was originally intended only as a code name during development; Pease intended it to be a reference to their inspiration, believing its meaning to be "Ghost".<ref>The meaning of "oni" is usually given by those familiar with Japanese myths as either "demon" or "ogre". Pease explains the origin of the code name [http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html here], and seems to still think the word means "ghost"; however, Hardy, his eventual replacement, indicates [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19851 here] and [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=18292 here] that he understood "oni" to mean "demon" and had re-written the story with that in mind.</ref><ref>At one time during development, the name "Mnemonic Shadow" was considered according to the [https://marathon.bungie.org/story/newjan-feb01.html Marathon Story Page].</ref> The characters of [[Konoko]] and [[Griffin|Commander Griffin]], members of the Technology Crimes Task Force, are analogues to [[wp:Motoko Kusanagi|Motoko Kusanagi]] and [[wp:List of Ghost in the Shell characters#Chief Daisuke Aramaki|Chief Aramaki]] of Section 9 in ''Ghost in the Shell''. Early development presented Konoko as a [[wp:Cyborg|cyborg]], furthering her resemblance to Motoko.
-An additional influence came through Oni's concept artist Alex Okita, who was a big fan of ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'', calling it and ''Ghost in the Shell'' "the two main influences at the time."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170705124855/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/oni-bungies-classic-inspired-by-ghost-in-the-shell-w474297 Glixel, "Flashback: 'Oni', Bungie's Cult Classic Inspired by 'Ghost in the Shell'", Mar. 30, 2017].</ref> He particularly cited Kenichi Sonoda, character designer of ''Bubblegum Crisis'', as an influence on [[:Category:Art by Alex Okita|his work]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010118230100/http://www.onicore.com/interviews/alexokita.html OniCore, Interview with Alex Okita].</ref> Later, Lorraine Reyes also showed her familiarity with Sonoda's work with [[:Image:Konoko_Variants.jpg|a sketch]] that resembles her [[:Image:Konoko Kneeling Pre-Beta.png|finalized design]] for Konoko. In August of 1999, Hardy LeBel was brought in as Design Lead, and revamped the story.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010727151534/www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/lebel/ Inside Mac Games, "Interview: Oni's Hardy LeBel"].</ref> He cited ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' as a personal influence when doing so.<ref name=conquer>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041209033107/http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2001/02/oni/ Apple.com, "Conquering Demons: Bungie on Oni", Feb. 2001].</ref><ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=4618 OCF post by Hardy LeBel, "Re: The Analytical reasons behind Oni's influences", Sep. 2, 2000].</ref> The final version of Oni abandons the cyborg nature of the heroine and instead introduces original concepts such as the [[Daodan Chrysalis]] and [[SLD]]s.
+An additional influence came through Oni's concept artist Alex Okita, who was a big fan of ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'', calling it and ''Ghost in the Shell'' "the two main influences at the time."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170705124855/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/oni-bungies-classic-inspired-by-ghost-in-the-shell-w474297 Glixel, "Flashback: 'Oni', Bungie's Cult Classic Inspired by 'Ghost in the Shell'", Mar. 30, 2017].</ref> He particularly cited Kenichi Sonoda, character designer of ''Bubblegum Crisis'', as an influence on [[:Category:Art by Alex Okita|his work]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010118230100/http://www.onicore.com/interviews/alexokita.html OniCore, Interview with Alex Okita, 1999].</ref> Later, Lorraine Reyes also showed her familiarity with Sonoda's work with [[:Image:Konoko_Variants.jpg|a sketch]] that resembles her [[:Image:Konoko Kneeling Pre-Beta.png|finalized design]] for Konoko. In August of 1999, Hardy LeBel was brought in as Design Lead, and revamped the story.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010727151534/www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/lebel/ Inside Mac Games, "Interview: Oni's Hardy LeBel", 2000].</ref> He cited ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' as a personal influence when doing so.<ref name=conquer>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041209033107/http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2001/02/oni/ Apple.com, "Conquering Demons: Bungie on Oni", Feb. 2001].</ref><ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=4618 OCF post by Hardy LeBel, "Re: The Analytical reasons behind Oni's influences", Sep. 2, 2000].</ref> The final version of Oni abandons the cyborg nature of the heroine and instead introduces original concepts such as the [[Daodan Chrysalis]] and [[SLD]]s.
 ''Further reading:'' [[Oni/Early Story|Early story]], [[Oni/Positioning|Positioning statement]], [[:Category:Oni concept art|Concept art]].
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 In June of 2000, it was announced that Bungie had been acquired by Microsoft. This caused an upset among Bungie's fan base, which mostly consisted of Mac users. They considered Microsoft to be Apple's nemesis, and now the company behind the upcoming Xbox console had taken the most popular game developer from the Mac world and would be incorporating them into their offices in Seattle, Washington. The effect this had on Oni's development was dire: it meant that Bungie West needed to finish their work as soon as possible in order to join the rest of Bungie in Seattle.
-In order to ship the game by year-end, the Bungie West staff worked massive overtime for several months straight. During this "crunch" period, the unexpected departure of the graphics programmer led to his replacement and a minor overhaul of the graphics code.<ref>[https://archive.is/njEe3#:~:text=Fun%20fact eBay, "Bungie Oni for Macintosh - Autographed", May 17, 2021]. Stefan tells the story in the Description section.<!--By the way, we know that he replaced the previous programmer by August because that's when Stefan started asking questions on a 3D graphics forum about OpenGL ^_^ --></ref> Technical and/or gameplay issues required all 14 levels to have their geometry significantly altered over the course of 7 months.<ref name=conquer /><ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19648 OCF post by Hardy LeBel, "Re: Oni basic questionare", Jul. 6, 2002].</ref><ref>Also see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v_elVuwx0c&t=698s Hardy LeBel, "Learn Level Design Class 9 - Integrating Game Mechanics"], at 11'38", where he talks about a "month of weekends" spent adding the [[Jello-cam|jello-fix boxes]].</ref> According to Hardy LeBel, "It was as bad a crunch as there has ever been in the video games industry."<ref>[https://youtu.be/jbrPu15jjPs?t=960 mrixrt, "Bungie's Forgotten Franchise - Oni"], 16 minute mark.</ref> It is only due to this final push that a playable and enjoyable game was forged out of over two years of prior work.
+In order to ship the game by year-end, the Bungie West staff worked massive overtime for several months straight. During this "crunch" period, the unexpected departure of the graphics programmer led to his replacement and a minor overhaul of the graphics code.<ref>[https://archive.is/njEe3#:~:text=Fun%20fact eBay, "Bungie Oni for Macintosh - Autographed", May 17, 2021]. Stefan tells the story in the Description section.<!--By the way, we know that he replaced the previous programmer by August because that's when Stefan started asking questions on a 3D graphics forum about OpenGL ^_^ --></ref> Technical and/or gameplay issues required all 14 levels to have their geometry significantly altered over the course of 7 months.<ref name=conquer /><ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19648 OCF post by Hardy LeBel, "Re: Oni basic questionare", Jul. 6, 2002].</ref><ref>Also see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v_elVuwx0c&t=698s Hardy LeBel, "Learn Level Design Class 9 - Integrating Game Mechanics", Dec. 17, 2016], at 11'38", where he talks about a "month of weekends" spent adding the [[Jello-cam|jello-fix boxes]].</ref> According to Hardy LeBel, "It was as bad a crunch as there has ever been in the video games industry."<ref>[https://youtu.be/jbrPu15jjPs?t=960 mrixrt, "Bungie's Forgotten Franchise - Oni", Mar. 11, 2019], 16 minute mark.</ref> It is only due to this final push that a playable and enjoyable game was forged out of over two years of prior work.
 ==Completion==
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 Some of the game's content was cut as well. This included an entire planned level ([[BGI|BGI HQ]]) and the highly anticipated [[Iron Demon]], the large mech shown in-game in the 1999 trailer. Gaps in the numbering of the [[GameDataFolder|game files]] led fans to believe that at least five chapters were cut before release, but this was mainly due to content that was moved around or consolidated into other levels.<ref name=HL-cuts />
-Finally, Bungie did not hold to their usual practice of releasing level-building tools for their games, since professional and costly software was used to produce Oni's levels.<ref>[http://oni.bungie.org/special/part2/chrish.html Bungie.org, "Interview with Chris Hughes"].</ref><ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=2321 OCF post by Matt Soell, "Re: general questions....", Mar. 9, 2000].</ref> As Oni's release neared, it was pointed out by Matt Soell, Bungie's PR person, that since Bungie no longer owned the game, they were unable to release whatever supplementary tools had been developed. Early statements about releasing the file formats were probably also impossible to follow through on once ownership had transferred to Take-Two. Thus, it was left to the fans to create modding tools after investigating the inner workings of the game on their own.
+Finally, Bungie did not hold to their usual practice of releasing level-building tools for their games, since professional and costly software was used to produce Oni's levels.<ref>[http://oni.bungie.org/special/part2/chrish.html Bungie.org, "Interview with Chris Hughes", 1999].</ref><ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=2321 OCF post by Matt Soell, "Re: general questions....", Mar. 9, 2000].</ref> As Oni's release neared, it was pointed out by Matt Soell, Bungie's PR person, that since Bungie no longer owned the game, they were unable to release whatever supplementary tools had been developed. Early statements about releasing the file formats were probably also impossible to follow through on once ownership had transferred to Take-Two. Thus, it was left to the fans to create modding tools after investigating the inner workings of the game on their own.
 ''Further reading:'' [[Pre-beta content]], [[Pre-beta features]], [[Reviews]], [[Multiplayer]].