Technology
Bryan Walker is currently the Lead Producer at Deck Nine Games but is most well known for his tenure at Retro Studios where he was was Senior Producer on Metroid Prime 2 & 3 and Senior Director of Development on Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mario Kart 7. #retrostudios #metroidprime #donkeykong SOCIAL MEDIA LinkedIn - Bryan Walker TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:00 - Joining Retro Studios Right After Success Of Metroid Prime 1 03:02 - Correcting Retro Studios’ Toxic Environment 05:38 - Keys To Managing Game Developers/Management Tips 08:19 - Tanabe Is A Super Genius Of Boss Design 10:06 - Bryan Walker Can Beat The Boost Ball Guardian Outside Of Debug Mode 11:10 - Due To A Military Background Bryan Gave Input On The Galactic Federation Marines 12:13 - Bryan Praises Scott Peterson For Implementation Of Voice Acting 14:07 - It Didn’t Take Much To Convince Nintendo To Do The Metroid Prime Trilogy Package 15:05 - How Retro Studios Got The Donkey Kong IP/Miyamoto’s View On DK 20:21 - Nintendo Are Not Impressed Until They See Game Prototypes 22:00 - Western Publishers Are More Interested In Documents Than Prototypes 23:01 - Unreal/Unity Have Streamlined Development 24:00 - Mark Pacini’s Genius/Original Pitch For Metroid Prime 3 Was To Be Open World 26:06 - Bryan Feels They Fell Short With Prime 3 27:10 - Nintendo’s Slogan Is “To Delight And Surprise The Player” 28:03 - Bryan’s Experience With Satoru Iwata 29:03 - Most Gaming CEO’s Don’t Understand Whats Involved In Development 32:04 - Game Design Summed Up As “Turning Big Rocks Into Little Rocks” 33:22 - Hyper Mode In Prime 3 Took A Year To Implement 35:34 - Retro Studios Was The First Western Studio To See The Wii Remote 36:50 - Retro Studios Initially Were Really Worried About The Wii/Wii’s Success 38:28 - Iwata Was A Proponent Of The Blue Ocean Strategy/The Book - Innovators Dilemma 39:46 - Why Bryan Joined Deck Nine Games/Story Driven Games 41:45 - Writing Process Of Story Driven Games Like True Colour 43:10 - Giving Publishers The Reality Of The Cost The Implementing Certain Things 44:32 - Headcount Determines Budget/Cost Of Running An AAA Studio Per Month 46:03 - Cost Of Printing Discs, Retail and Marketing 48:30 - Digital Sales For Games 49:13 - Publishers Do Not Pay Out Bonuses Based On Metacritic Rating 49:44 - Retro’s Work On Mario Kart 7 51:12 - Mario Kart 7 Iwata Story 53:03 - Retro Did A Lot Of The Mario Kart Retro Tracks/Retro Were Huge Nintendo Fans 54:37 - Nintendo Were Inspired By Retro Studios Design Tool Kits 56:49 - Retro Studios Went To Japan Headquarters Quite A Number Of Times During Mario Kart 7 58:20 - Moment At Retro Studios That Sticks With Bryan Walker The Most 1:00:56 - Better To Have A Superstar Team Than A Team Full Of Superstars 1:03:11 - Deck Nine Games Going Forward 1:03:37 - How To Keep Up To Date With Bryan Walker