#116 - Jack Mathews Interview (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Prototypes, Business, Armature Studios etc.)

Jack Mathews is a game designer who is most well known for being
technical lead engineer on the Metroid Prime Trilogy. We went
onto found Armature Studios and work on games like Recore and
Batman Arkham Origins: Black Gate. He now works with his wife on
her cooking blog Love & Lemons.


 


SOCIAL MEDIA


TWITTER - @jack_mathews


FOOD WEBSITE - www.loveandlemons.com


 


TIMESTAMPS


00:00 - Intro


01:25 - How Metroid Prime Trilogy Consistently Kept 60FPS


05:05 - Jack Tried To Kill Skytown/How Skytown Was Created


08:55 - Jack Stopped MP3 From Having Water In It


10:22 - Jack Killed Off A Dark Water Effect That Tanabe Had For
Prime 2


11:52 - Original Concept For Dark Aether


16:49 - Dark Sanctuary Fortress Was The Only Area That Wasn’t
Based On Original Dark Aether Concept


18:12 - Tilt Of Camera During Platforming/Original Concept For
Platforming In First Person


21:10 - Original Concept For The Thermal Visor


22:13 - Scan Visor In Prime 2


23:16 - Michael Kelbaugh Hated Jack’s Original Dark Visor Idea


24:01 - Echo Visor Inspired By Ben Affleck’s Daredevil Movie


24:44 - Biggest Difficulty Of Visors Was Keeping 60FPS/Scan Visor
In MP3/How To Create Bloom Lighting


27:03 - How Nova Beam Worked Technically


29:18 - Visor Effects Weren’t Difficult To Implement


29:44 - Difference Between Specular And Diffuse Lighting/How
Samus Reflections Were Implemented


32:34 - How Fog Was Created For Splinter Hive Area


33:24 - Nintendo Never Wanted Metroid Prime To Be A TPS/Shigeru
Miyamoto Realising How Important Metroid Is In The West


35:10 - Creating The Morph Ball Camera/Mark Haigh Hutchinson
Needs More Praise


36:12 - How The R.U.D.E Engine Was Created/Early Days Of Retro
Studios


41:30 - Moments Jack Realised That Metroid Prime Was Something
Special


45:20 - Jack Left Retro Studios Because Of Metroid Fatigue &
Technical Limitations With Wii Hardware


49:35 - Retro Studios Overhaul During MP2 Reinvigorated The
Team/MP3 Was When Retro Got More Autonomy 


52:04 - Problems When First Forming Armature Studios


54:22 - Nintendo’s Approach To Game Design/Problems With Western
Game Design


56:30 - Financing Of Game Prototypes/Business In The West Vs
Japan


1:03:20 - A Lot Of People Can Design A Game But Cant Build A
Game/Time Is Needed To Polish


1:05:10 - Bluepoint Games Are Great At Remasters/Remastering
Games


1:06:56 - Jack’s Wifes Cook Books/Jack Does Miss Being In The
Game Industry


1:09:04 - Where To Follow Jack Mathews/Love & Lemons


1:09:40 - Jack Puts Rumours To Rest That He Doesn’t Like Metroid
Prime 2