#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