Kiwi Talkz

Benson Russell was a former designer at Naughty Dog on The Uncharted Trilogy and The Last Of Us.He has now started his own consulting firm to help game developers navigate a lot of the pitfalls in game development.
#uncharted #thelastofus #naughtydog
WEBSITE FOR CONSULTING
https://www.unhandledexceptions.io/

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - The Most Important Aspect Of Design/Player Fantasy
02:50 - Why Games Take So Long To Make/North Star You Need For Development
05:45 - Why Naughty Dog Games Are So Well Made/Story Is Their North Star
08:18 - Games Shouldn’t Take So Long To Develop/Wandering
13:30 - Scope Neglect/The Doomsday Clock
16:00 - Why Intergalactic Crunch Happened/Naughty Dog Treats Internal Deadlines Like External Deadlines
18:23 - Bureauacracy/How Games Differ From Other Creative Outlets
23:13 - Naughty Dog’s Work Structure
26:20 - Planning/Core Mechanics
27:00 - Flexible Working Hours At Naughty Dog/Crunch At Naughty Dog
29:00 - Why Benson Left Naughty Dog
32:45 - Benson Was P!ssed Off With Naughty Dog Deleting His Work On Last Of Us Part 1
46:01 - Working With Evans Wells & Neil Druckmann
47:00 - Clashing With Neil Druckmann
50:14 - Working With Amy Hennig
51:20 - Uncharted 2’s Introduction/Creating Introductions In Games
56:00 - Focus Testing At Naughty Dog/Companies Interpret Data Wrong
1:02:30 Q+A - How Much Naughty Dog Looks At The Competition When Designing Games
1:06:10 - AAA Studios Pivoting When They Are Too Deep/Games Should Be Cheaper
1:10:00 - Cost Of Game Development On The West Coast/China’s Meteoric Rise
1:16:04 - Uncharted 2 Was Influenced By Resident Evil 5
1:16:48 - Q+A - What Is Naughty Dog’s Hiring & Training Process
1:24:00 - Why Naughty Dog Started Losing Talent
1:26:00 - Is Game Development A Young Person’s Game/Knowledge Isnt Being Passed Down
1:31:00 - Closing Comments

Rob Carr is an audio designer who is best known for his tenure at Rockstar Games on L.A. Noire, RDR1, GTA 5 and RDR2. He is currently living in Finland working on his game Nyrkkipöytä
#rockstargames #gta #gta5

WEBSITE - https://audioexpat.wordpress.com/

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:30 - How Rob Went From Being A Music Teacher To Working At Rockstar Leeds
07:51 - Moving From Handheld Games To Console Games/Rockstar Have Unlimited Resources
08:30 - The Psychology Of Sound/Finding Sounds That Sound Like Other Sounds
11:19 - There Are No Constraints On Audio With Rockstar Open World Games
13:10 - In Audio Everything You Can Use Is Recordable/Rob Has A 3TB Audio Library
15:17 - Tools & Workflow
19:50 - Technology Evolution/AI
23:51 - Rob Has Been Unemployed For Over A Year/Problems With The Game Industry/
25:50 - Learning A Coding Language
27:40 - Difference Between Numbers People & Creative People
30:30 - Working On Audio Bugs For Red Dead Redemption 1/Why It’s One Of Rob’s Favorite Games
34:30 - Playing A Game And Not Disecting It
37:30 - The Cost Of Buying Games
39:10 - GTA 6
43:21 - Why Rob Left Rockstar
45:24 - Crunch Culture/Europe Has Better Work Life Balance
46:45 - Moving To Finland/Rob’s Brother Has Motor Neuron Disease
51:35 - Rob Can’t Relocate For Work Anymore/Dire State Of The Game Industry
53:10 - Working From Home Has Ceased Because Of Security Reasons
55:20 - Why Rob Worked At The Office During Covid
56:51 - Dealing With Ear Fatigue During Crunch/How Audio People Deal With Crunch
1:05:30 - Q+A - Do You Physically Go On Location To Get Raw Recordings
1:08:00 - Q+A -What’s Rockstar Setup To Test Audio Systems
1:10:48 - Q+A - Is There A Particular Idea That Had To Be Cut
1:13:52 - Robs Game - Nyrkkipöytä
1:21:19 - Where To Follow Rob

I got some of the old devs who worked on Fallout to help review Season 2 of the Fallout series. Bruce Nesmith got the time wrong so didnt join until the last 20 minutes.

#fallout #falloutnewvegas #bethesda

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Fallout Is The Best Video Game Adaptation Of All Time
02:21 - Fallout S2 Thoughts Overrall
05:40 - Macauley Caulkins Acting
06:48 - Walton Goggins/The Ghoul
07:44 - Ella Purnell’s Accent As Lucy
08:40 - The Deathclaws
17:05 - The Prydwens/Factions
18:06 - Brotherhood Of Steel Tone Was Wrong
18:50 - Trust The Audience More/Have More Talking Instead Of Actions Scenes
20:21 - S2 Is A Setup For S3/The Roaches Were Scarier Than The Deathclaws
21:07 - Release Strategy
21:56 - Super Mutants/Ron Perlman
26:15 - Super Mutants In Fallout 4/Todd Howard’s Direction
26:50 - Deprioritize Brotherhood Of Steel In Fallout 5
28:10 - Bethesda’s Views On Fallout New Vegas
31:45 - Where Will S3 Go?/The Toddification Might Cause A Degrade
33:00 - Thaddeus/Keep The Show Low Key & Not Focused On Spectacle
35:55 - Casuals Buying The Games As A Result Of The Show
36:37 - Fallout 3 Remaster Will Release After S3/Remasters
37:50 - Bethesda Games Won’t Be Remade
38:57 - Deathclaw Differences Between Fallout 3 & 4
40:10 - Favourite Scenes
46:18 - Devs Give The Show A Score Out Of 10
47:00 - Making The Show Go On Indefinitely
48:13 - Bruce Nesmith Joins & Gives His Review
50:25 - Bruce’s Hopes For S3
50:45 - Will The Show Influence Fallout 5
51:56 - Bethesda Will Give Fallout 5 To Someone Else/Todd Howard
55:45 - Todd Howard’s Retirement 59:22 - Story Threads In S3 Will Be Less
1:01:20 - Hank’s Story/Will The Ghoul’s Story End In S3
1:03:30 - Practical Effects 1:04:59 - Actors Everyone Would Like In A Cameo
1:10:09 - Final Thoughts

Featurecast is a DJ turned video game composer, he is most associated with @BitmapBureau and his most recent work was his stellar work on Terminator 2D No Fate.

#terminator #terminator2 #terminator2dnofate

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:19 - How The Name Featurecast Came About
04:05 - Working With Bitmap Bureau
08:57 - Learning To Make SFX While Doing It
10:50 - Getting Creative Freedom On Terminator 2D No Fate
14:30 - Scrapping Music And Starting From Scratch/Reviews Praising The Soundtrack
15:45 - Trusting Your Gut
16:00 - How Featurecast Composed For Terminator 2D No Fate
18:10 - Researching The T2 Score/Recreating The Score For T2D No Fate
20:58 - Easter Eggs From T1 & T2 Score/T1000 Death
22:31 - Having The T2 Score On Loop To Prepare/Different Genres In The Music
24:15 - Melody/Terminator Film Scores Don’t Have Melody
26:50 - Blurring The Line Between Music & Sound Design
28:00 - Later Terminator Movies Didnt Capture Brad Fiedels Musical Identity
29:30 - Different Time Signatures/Police Station Time Signature/Future Level 3
31:20 - Writing & Mixing At The Same Time
34:56 - Making The Soundtrack Loud For Bitmap Bureau Games
36:00 - Playing The Game For Inspiration On The Music
38:05 - Music In The Escape From Hospital Level/Bitmap’s Custom Engine
40:10 - Recording The T1000 SFX/Creating SFX/Finding Your Own Way Of Doing Things
43:01 - Not Wanting To Be Influenced By Other Music
44:25 - Going Back And Listening To Your Own Music/LEGO Breakfasts
46:28 - It’s Not What You Know But Who You Know
48:12 - No Longer DJing In Clubs/Patreon/Mashups
51:49 - Q+A - What Drives Composition For Licensed Material
53:22 - Dealing With Imposter Syndrome
54:00 - Playing Music For The Devs The First Time
57:14 - Q+A - What Is Your Favourite Moment From Terminator 2
59:08 - Q+A - What Are Your 3 Favourite VST Instruments
1:00:42 - Changing VSTs For Every Project
1:03:26 - Closing Comments

Jay Epperson is a concept artist who is probably most famous for his concept art on Donkey Kong Country Returns and especially on Tropical Freeze.
#nintendo #donkeykong #donkeykongcountry
Thanks to the Patreon Producers for making this happen Stipe, Borkey, Magic8

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:35 - How Jay Went From Being An Illustrator To Becoming A Concept Artist At Retro
04:50 - Interview Process At Retro/Getting Artists To Draw In Interviews
07:22 - Coming In As A Concept Artist Towards The End Of DKC Returns
10:20 - Retro’s Environmental Artists Were Smart
11:13 - Jay’s Art Is In The DK Theme Park
13:15 - Working With Designers
16:10 - Doing Concept Art On Tropical Freeze
18:42 - Choosing Vikings Over Aliens For The Concept
19:57 - Tikis Vs Snowmads/Reusing Assets
21:20 - Why The Ice World Is The Last Level
22:00 - Sales On Wii U/Coming Up With The Different World Themes
25:06 - CONCEPT ART REEL - Juicy Jungle World
29:27 - CONCEPT ART REEL - Water World
31:11 - CONCEPT ART REEL - Mangroves World/Cut Concepts
32:38 - CONCEPT ART REEL - Savannah World
33:18 - Showing Portfolios To Potential Employers Without Breaking NDAs
33:50 - There Arent Limitations On The DK IP
34:35 - Referencing Rare’s Work
35:33 - Nintendo Japan Were Hands Off On Concept Art
36:22 - Working On Mario Kart 7/Jay Isn’t Included In The Credits
38:30 - Jay’s Outlook “My Next Piece Will Be My Best Piece”
40:25 - Japan & Retro Testing Mario Kart 7
41:06 - Jay Reviews DK Bananza
25:29 - Jay Thinks DK Bananza Is A One Off
47:00 - Jay Doesnt Like K Rool’s Character Design
50:39 - DK’s New Look
52:22 - Why Jay Left Retro Studios
53:20 - Retro Studios Is One Of The Best Studios To Work For
54:00 - Retro Studios Art Team/Metroid Prime 4
55:35 - Nintendo Are Art Forward Not Technology Forward
56:35 - Will Retro Work On Donkey Kong Again?
57:35 - Will Retro Work On Metroid Prime 5/Would Jay Work On DK Again If Retro Asked
59:40 - Closing Comments