Nate Purkeypile is a former world artist and art lead at Bethesda who worked there for over 14 years. He has now released his indie game The Axis Unseen that you can purchase here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1807810/The_Axis_Unseen/
00:53 - Working At Retro Studios On Metroid Prime 3
02:25 - Why Nate Left Retro Studios
04:40 - Moving To Bethesda/Fallout 3’s Brown Colour Palette
06:15 - Fallout 4’s Vibrant Colour Palette/Fallout TV Show
09:24 - Nate Handed In Resignation To Bethesda On April Fools Day
10:46 - Bethesda’s Inefficient Management Style
13:23 - Unrealistic Expectations Of Elder Scrolls VI
15:21 - Game Developers Who Don’t Play Games
17:02 - Nate’s Relationship With Todd Howard
18:06 - How Nate Mastered Quantity & Quality
19:46 - Morons, Crunch & Insane Commutes
22:30 - Remote Work/Forcing People Back Into The Office
23:32 - Shadow Of The Colossus Influence On The Axis Unseen
24:57 - The Scope Of The Axis Unseen
26:50 - Timeline Of Axis Unseen
27:53 - Useless Meetings At Bethesda
30:45 - Being A Lead On Fallout 76
32:05 - Todd Howard Obssesses Over UI/Convincing Todd Of Things
33:59 - UI In The Axis Unseen
34:20 - Working With Different Gaming Engines
36:00 - Bethesda Should Migrate To Unreal Engine 5
40:20 - Nate Programmed The Edge Trimming For Fallout 3
41:30 - Working Within Constraints/Layoffs
44:10 - Q+A - Favourite Project To Work On
45:08 -Q +A - How Far Along In Development Would Elder Scrolls VI Be?
47:01 - Q+A - Game Development Differences Between Nintendo & Bethesda
50:38 - Fallout 3 Switch Port With Metroid Content
52:34 - Console Ports Of The Axis Unseen/Certification/Logos
57:09 - Vacations Aren’t Vacations With Bethesda
1:00:10 - How Pay Works At Bethesda
1:01:47 - Nate’s Blood Pressure Was Bad Due To Bethesda
1:03:00 - Final Thoughts
#179 - Kenny Young Interview (Composer On Astro Bot)
Episode 179
Tuesday, November 26, 2024 • Duration 01:08:43
Kenny Young is the composer on the Astro Bot series including the recently acclaimed new Astro Bot game. He has also worked on games such as Tethered, Little Big Planet, Tearaway and more....
01:42 - Astro Bot Is A Culmination Of All His Work To Date
#170 - Shawn Green Interview(OG ID Software Programmer & Designer)
Episode 170
Sunday, August 4, 2024 • Duration 01:09:40
Shawn Green was a former developer at ID Software, ION and Escalation Studios. He was part of the original ID Software team and worked alongside legends such as John Romero and John Carmack
#doom #idsoftware #johnromero
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:36 - How Shawn Ended Up At ID Software/Commander Keen
05:05 - Learning The DOOM Editor
06:40 - Doing The Ports For DOOM
10:55 - Designing Levels For Ultimate DOOM
13:10 - Making E4M8 - Unto The Cruel
16:25 - How Shawn Learned To Design DOOM Levels
18:15 - Working With John Romero
21:30 - Romero & Carmack’s Differences
23:40 - ID Software Didn’t Have A Hierarchy
27:00 - John Carmack Is A Monster
28:30 - The Circumstances Of Crunch Matters/Carmack Is A Workaholic
30:30 - John Carmack Sacrificed A Lot To Be Who He Is
32:30 - Getting Into A Zone/Working On Halo: Combat Evolved
38:30 - Shawn Puts His Programming Hat On While Playing Games
39:31 - Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s Amazing Physics Engine
41:15 - The QA On DOOM Ports
43:20 - The Hardest Thing About Programming
#79 - Dean Hall Interview (DayZ, Rocketwerkz, Game Design, Icarus, Military, Social Media etc.)
Episode 80
Thursday, January 28, 2021 • Duration 54:41
Dean Hall is a video game designer who came into prominence for his game DayZ. He has founder video game company Rocketwerkz and are releasing Icarus there first AAA game in 2021.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter - @rocket2guns
Instagram - @thedeanhall
Website - rocketwerkz.com
Twitch - @rocket2guns
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:34 - How Serving In The Military Influenced Dean’s Video Game Design/Military Training
01:55 - How Day Z Idea Came About
03:01 - When Dean Realised Day Z Would Become Big
04:47 - Online Hate/Criticism That Hurts
06:45 - Social Media Is A Necessity
08:07 - Pros & Cons Of Social Media
08:41 - What Dean Focuses On First On A Gaming Project
09:48 - How Long Icarus Has Been In Development/Release Date
12:11 - Why Cyberpunk Is A Success/Mistakes CDPR Made
14:05 - Difference Between NZ & Singapore Military/Trying To Psych You Out
17:40 - Kiwis Good & Bad Qualities
20:59 - NZ On Air Should Fund Kiwi Gamers & Youtubers
22:54 - Competing For WETA Staff/Cashbacks For Films
25:26 - Dean Isnt Good At Playing The Political Game
Tiffany Vollmer was the original voice actress for Bulma in Dragonball Z. She now mentors a lot of young people at MediaTech. In 2020 she went through the ringer as she caught covid and her life fell apart around her.
01:07 - Previous Pandemics/Pandemics Without Internet
02:27 - How Tiffany Got Into Performing Arts
05:05 - Feeling Good When You Prove Someone Wrong/Losing Friendships
07:09 - 2020 Was A Bad Year For Tiffany
08:49 - Tiffany Gives Her Backstory
15:15 - Tiffanys Life Came Crashing Down Due To Covid/Friends Dying
17:05 - Tiffany’s Symptoms When She Had Covid
21:34 - Coming Out Of The Otherside Of Covid
25:28 - Mentoring/Giving Back/MediaTech
27:05 - Tiffany’s Students Knowing She Voiced Bulma/Teaching Performing Arts Classes
30:20 - Tiffany Loves That She’s Not A Celebrity/Bringing Joy To People
#77 - Rob Vickery Interview (Venture Capital, Start Ups, Entrepreneurs, Tall Poppy Syndrome, California etc.)
Episode 78
Sunday, January 17, 2021 • Duration 01:09:03
Rob Vickery is a venture capital investor who has been primarily based out of Silicon Valley for the last 10 years. He moved to NZ in 2020 to help start up businesses in NZ to thrive. He is on a mission as managing partner at Hillfarrance to help create a billion dollar NZ business.
05:05 - Rob’s Reason For Moving To NZ From California
07:57 - Cultivating NZ Entrepreneurs/NZ Capitalising On How It Handled Covid
09:53 - Trying To Educate Government On Venture Capitalists
11:37 - Rise Of E-Sports/Why Rob Doesn’t Invest In E-Sports
13:58 - Difference Between Entrepreneurs Of NZ Vs California/What NZ Entrepreneurs Don’t Do
17:57 - Rob Loves His Job/Honour Of Working With Entrepreneurs
20:05 - Venture Capitalists Are Entrepreneurs As Well
20:29 - Working With Maori & Pasifika Entrepreneurs/Maori & Pasifika Are Amazing Salesman
23:18 - Hillfarrance Will Be Opening In Hamilton
24:21 - Roadshow With Entrepreneurial Community Over The Next Few Months
25:35 - Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
#76 - Martin O'Donnell Interview (Halo, Bungie, Microsoft, District 9, Film, Royalties, Bill Gates etc.)
Episode 77
Thursday, January 7, 2021 • Duration 01:06:51
Martin O'Donnell is a video game composer who has worked on numerous game but is famous for composing the original Halo up until Halo Reach, he also was audio director and oversaw sound effects and dialogue. He is considered one of the greatest video game composers of all time for his work on Halo.
Fraser Grut is on an ambitious mission to film 10,000 peoples dreams and isn't due to finish this task until 2044.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram - frasergrut
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro/Technical Difficulties
00:54 - How 10,000 Dreams Project Started
02:25 - Fraser Has Wanted To Quit Multiple Times
04:30 - Family & Friends Forced Fraser To Keep Going
06:32 - What Fraser Does Behind The Scenes/Fraser Loves Talking To People About Dreams
07:50 - How Fraser Got Celebrities To Do It
08:44 - Guessing Emails/How Many Emails Fraser Sends A Day
12:05 - Time Of Day Fraser Sends Emails/App So You Know When People Have Checked It
13:56 - Kaley Cuoco Blocked Fraser
14:30 - Domino Effect Of Getting Celebrities
15:33 - Wording Emails Correctly/Being Turned Down Multiple Times
16:50 - How Reece Gets Guests On Kiwi Talkz
17:51 - How Reece Got The Composers Of Dragonball Z On His Podcast
20:02 - The Guests Reece Would Like To Get On Kiwi Talkz The Most
21:05 - Fraser Uses An Email Template/Name Drop
22:25 - Reece & Frasers Email Screw Ups
24:11 - Fraser Screwed Up With Jack Goodhue
25:26 - Being A Perfectionist Filming Dreams
#74 - David Wise Interview (Donkey Kong Country, Tropical Freeze, Kenji Yamamoto, Film, HEX etc.)
Episode 75
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 • Duration 57:12
David Wise Is considered one of the greatest video game composers of all time primarily for his score on the Donkey Kong Country games, he is also one of the sampled video game composers as artists such as Drake & Childish Gambino have sampled his music in songs.
01:58 - David Didn’t Realise How Big His Donkey Kong Soundtrack Was Until The Internet Blew Up
02:29 - OC-Remix
02:47 - Donkey Kong Country 2/Pushing The Tech For SNES
03:52 - Jamming Sam Miller/Compressed Sounds
06:06 - Delay Had To Be Simulated
06:52 - Chucking Grant Kirkhope In The Deep End With HEX
07:48 - Haunted Hall
09:43 - Being Isolated/Covid
10:14 - David Would Hum Tunes Before Recording In HEX
11:05 - Krooks March/Castle Theme
12:15 - Problem Solving
12:45 - Tropical Freeze Is What DKC Would Sound Like Without Limitations
13:29 - Live Instrumentation On Tropical Freeze
14:04 - Collaboration With Retro
14:45 - Kenji Yamamoto’s Involvement In Tropical Freeze
#73 - Jim Johnston Interview (WWE, Undertaker, Ultimate Warrior, Film, Stage Fright, Hall Of Fame, etc.)
Episode 74
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 • Duration 01:09:29
Jim Johnston was the main composer for over 30 years at WWE and is responsible for some of the iconic themes from Ultimate Warrior & Undertaker to Stone Cold & The Rock.
WEBSITE jimjohnston.com
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:28 - Jim Johnston Wants To Come To New Zealand/Lord Of The Rings
01:19 - Yellowstone Park
02:46 - How Jim Composed At WWE & Post WWE/Having To Many Ideas
05:33 - Jim Realises In Hindsight He Needed WWE’s Strict Deadlines
06:17 - Jim Doesn’t Get Writers Block
07:27 - Vince McMahon/Information Jim Got About WWE Superstars
09:00 - WWE Superstars Would Try To Pitch Music To Jim
10:33 - Jim Wasn’t Approachable
11:38 - Deadlines To Compose/Jim Liked The Pressure
14:10 - Jim Didn’t Just Compose The WWE Entrance Music
14:52 - Jim Johnston Would Love To Compose For Hollywood Films
16:40 - Jim Always Wants To Convey Emotion Through Music
18:08 - Politics Of Hollywood/ Jim Is Confident He Could Score Well For Hollywood
20:22 - Stigma Of Composing For WWE
21:32 - Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
24:29 - How Jim Johnston Is Able To Easily Write Different Styles
27:50 - Every Instrument Jim Can Play
04:20 - Blending Different Genres Seamlessly/Catchy Melodies
07:40 - How Long To Make Melodic Tracks/Nic Doucet’s Advice
11:05 - Relationship With Nic Doucet/Astro Bot Originally Had Licensed Music
15:26 - Using The Vocoder & Talkbox In Astro Bot
20:01 - Getting Access To The Stems For GOW, Uncharted & Horizon Themes
22:14 - Working On The Remix Themes Of GOW/Uncharted & Horizon Themes
30:00 - Using AI For Extracting Stems/AI Technology/Melodyne
36:04 - Using The Nyckelharpa For Bot Of War & Tethered OST
39:20 - How Many Times Kenny Had To Iterate On Themes
42:46 - Leaving Sony To Do Freelancing
46:46 - Making Disco Schmisco In LBP2
53:01 - Q + A - What Are You Looking For From Game Devs In The Creative Process
57:30 - Q + A - What Was The Main Inspiration With Astro Bot
1:00:42 - Q + A - How The Gardens Theme Was Made In LBP 1
1:06:30 - Outro/Astro Bot
44:30 - Integration Is An Important Part Of Coding
46:30 - The Curve Balls Of Running Escalations Studios
48:35 - The Pros And Cons Of AI
53:10 - Design Differences Between Japan & The West/Layoffs
1:06:40 - Shawn’s Final Thoughts/Working For Nintendo
27:48 - Dean Approaches Gaming Differently Now Compared To Day Z
29:15 - How Covid & Lockdown Affected Rocketwerkz & Development Of Icarus
32:10 - Rocketwerkz Developed A Plan When Covid First Appeared
33:50 - Cybersecurity Is Important
34:40 - Dean Thinks NZ Was Lucky In Handling Covid/Capitalising On Luck
37:34 - NZ Accountants & Lawyers are Terrible Advisers Of Risk
39:03 - Kiwis Don’t Know How To Deal With Failure
42:05 - Being A Product Of Your Environment
43:12 - Kiwis Need To Be More Pragmatic
44:20 - Dean Does Introspection
45:33 - Icarus Is influenced By Skyrim And Ark
46:49 - Game Design Is About What You Dont Put In
49:27 - Game Design Is A Team Effort
51:07 - Where To Follow Dean
52:30 - Dean Wont Release Icarus Until Its Complete/
32:40 - DBZ Not Paying Well
34:10 - Being Replaced For DBZ Kai
36:55 - Christopher Sabat/ Tiffany Has Moved On Now
38:04 - At The Time Tiffany Thought Her Career Was Over/Opportunities Arose In Hindsight
39:00 - Tiffany Is Grateful For Bulma Role/Tiffany Gets Mistaken For Amy Schauer
40:30 - Anonymity
41:14 - Backstory Of Tiffany’s Bulma Audition
46:02 - Tiffany’s First Recording Of Bulma
46:50 - Realising Bulma Is The Main Female Of The Series
47:58 - Carol Burnett Inspiration For Bulma
49:18 - Screaming As Bulma/Lost Registers Of Her Voice
52:00 - Raising The Pitch To Play Young Bulma In Dragonball
53:34 - Tiffany Doesn’t Remember Dragonball GT
54:24 - Recording Vocals For Video Games Is Tedious
56:40 - Reece Commends Tiffany For Not Being On Her High Horse
57:45 - Evolution Of Make-Up
1:00:06 - Digital Make Up Classes/Future Of Acting Classes
1:03:01 - Evolution Of Technology & Creative Arts
1:03:57 - Tiffany Got To Do Everything She Wanted To Do
1:06:18 - Where To Follow Tiffany/Facebook Is Bigger In NZ
1:08:16 - Reece Gets Emotional About Tiffanys Story
30:07 - Thinking Global Instead Of Local
32:17 - Things About NZ Rob Was Surprised By
33:44 - Rob Was Surprised By NZ’s Poverty & Housing Problem
35:01 - Tall Poppy Syndrome Is A Huge Risk To Entrepreneurs In NZ
46:28 - How Trump, BLM & Covid Affected The Entrepreneurs In California & Silicon Valley/Why Rob Left America
54:50 - Arranging To Come To NZ Took Quite A Long Time/Rob Is Thankful To NZ
59:24 - Rob Doesn’t Like American Billionaires Taking Refuge In NZ Without Investing In The Country
1:03:25 - Gabe Newells/James Cameron Investment Into NZ
1:04:48 - Wealthy People/How Much Wealth Do You Realistically Need
1:06:30 - Northland Needs More Investment/Investing Into People
1:07:34 - Where To Follow Rob Vickery/Hillfarrence
18:30 - Halo Was The Golden Egg & Bungie Was The Golden Goose
20:23 - Marty’s Employee Contract With Microsoft
21:42 - Marty Butted Heads In His Last Year/Was Somewhat Aware He Would Get Fired
24:03 - Marty Was Shocked & Relieved At The Same Time From Being Fired
25:33 - Working On Sound Effects & Dialogue
28:29 - Marty Never Changed Any Of The Music By The Higher Ups
32:12 - Marty Open To Scoring For TV & Film
33:19 - Marty Met Peter Jackson For Halo Film
34:06 - Background Behind The Halo Film
37:19 - Halo Film Ideas Ended Up In District 9
39:20 - District 9 Being A Great Film
40:29 - WETA Designs For District 9
41:39 - Marty’s Relationship with Bungie & Microsoft These Days
43:30 - One Individual Can Influence A Whole Company/Bill Gates/Steve Jobs
45:66 - Geniuses Still Being Flawed
46:43 - Marty’s Future Endeavours/Highwire Games
48:59 - Tolkien Estate Contacted Highwire About Golem Game
51:00 - The Pain Of Trademarks/Copyright
52:20 - Getting Royalties For Halo Soundtrack/Music Publisher Tried To Pull Marty’s Own Music
54:40 - Marty’s Early Demos/Advice To Young Composers
58:01 - Marty’s Inception Stage
59:34 - Meeting Fans Expectations/Going Viral
1:03:58 - Marty’s Wife Keeps Him Grounded
1:05:06 - Where To Follow Marty/Highwire Games
1:05:45 - Marty Wants To Come To NZ
27:51 - Doing 10,000 Dreams Took A Toll On His Relationship
29:00 - Having Deadlines Can Be A Good Thing
32:07 - How Fraser Gets Out Of A Negative State Of Mind
35:04 - Fraser Tells Story About Mark Cuban
37:19 - Dreams Randomly Appearing In His Email Inbox
38:32 - Having To Complete The Mission Of 10,000 Dreams
39:56 - Being Young And Playing The Long Game
40:56 - Doing 1 Year Was Harder Than Doing 4 Years/Making The Impossible Possible
42:29 - Fraser Got Hate For His Camera Style/Reaction To The Project
44:00 - People Giving Up On Podcasts/Advantage That Fraser Has
47:43 - People Who Dont Have A Dream
49:14 - Fraser Runs A Freelancing Film Company
50:09 - A Lot Of People Reach Out To Fraser Now/Bigger It Gets The Lesser The Chase
51:50 - Fraser Only Wants To Film One Person A Day So It Takes Longer/Being An Historian
53:44 - Covid Can Be An OpportunityAdapting To Zoom
55:42 - Took Fraser A Long Time To Realise Its About The Dream Not About The Filming/Wiggles Story
1:00:34 - Taking NZ For Granted
1:01:31 - Where To Follow 10,000 Dreams/Fraser Grut
15:56 - Translators With Kenji Yamamoto
17:08 - David Praises Kenji’s Music On Metroid
17:47 - Time David Would Spend At Retro
18:28 - Writers Block
19:20 - Visual Cues To Composing Well Working On Donkey Kong
20:55 - Time It Would Take To Compose On One Track
21:33 - High Tide Ride
22:36 - David Was Largely Left To Do What He Wants
23:23 - Felt Nice To Do Tropical Freeze As Donkey Kong Put Him On The Map
24:14 - Doing Different Genres
25:34 - David Would Like To Work On Film/Advantages Of Scoring For Film
26:50 - Film Scoring Process Vs Game Scoring Process
27:40 - Escaping The Stigma
28:05 - David Would Like To Score For Smash Bros
29:00 - David’s Time In Japan/Nintendo Are Secretive
29:46 - Rare & Retro Culture Difference
30:40 - So Many Rappers Sampling His Music In Hip-Hop
32:05 - David Is Working On Multiple Projects Right Now
32:50 - Covid Has Caused Him Delays
35:40 - David’s Process To Compose
38:30 - What Instruments David Uses To Compose
39:06 - Collaborating With The Former Rare Composes
40:25 - David Tries To Outdo His Previous Compositions
41:45 - Working Under Pressure/Mixing
43:39 - A Lot Of Different Instruments Used In Tropical Freeze/Quantising
45:26 - Stickerbrush Symphony Credits Music In Tropical Freeze
46:33 - Nintendo Told David When To Remix Previous DKC Tracks For Tropical Freeze
46:55 - Aquatic Ambience
48:17 - How Remixes In Tropical Freeze Ended Up There
49:58 - No 2 Days Are The Same When Composing
50:39 - Aquatic Ambience Took 5 Weeks To Write
52:38 - David Will Never Go Back To HEX
53:20 - Saving Time When Composing
55:17 - Where To Follow David Wise
29:06 - Jim Johnston Rarely Collaborates/Jim’s Stage Fright
32:10 - Stage Fright Hasn’t Improved Over The Years
34:38 - Jim Would Be Less Nervous Performing Virtually/Jim Is Anti Lip Singing
36:06 - Jim Does Want To Perform LIVE
36:43 - Jim Hasn’t Been Asked To Be In WWE Hall Of Fame
37:31 - Jim Doesn’t Understand Why He Hasn’t Been Asked In WWE Hall Of Fame
38:39 - Jim Was A Contractor/Workforce System Between NZ & America
40:57 - Jim Composed To Cope After Being Fired From WWE
43:31 - Jim’s Daily Schedule
45:02 - Ultimate Warriors Theme
48:10 - Simple Ideas Are The Most Effective
48:50 - Undertakers Theme
51:50 - Undertaker Walkout Wouldn’t Work Without The Theme
53:41 - Wrestling Isn’t Fake/The Ring Is Hard
57:18 - Social Media/Being Stopped In The Street
59:00 - Jim Still Loves Composing
59:40 - Jim Is Doing An EP Of Themes
1:01:48 - Jim Open To Composing For Video Games
1:03:58 - Melody Isn’t Heard As Much In Film These Days/Jaws
1:06:06 - Jim Likes Normal Conversations
1:07:30 - Cliche Interviews
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