#109 - Bryan Walker Interview (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart 7, Project Management etc.)

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