Kiwi Talkz
by Kiwi
Podcast with various Video Game developers as well as other people involved in entertainment such as TV/Film
Podcast episodes
#167 - Omar Fernandes Interview(Lighting Artist On Grand Theft Auto V)
Omar's story is amazing, he got an architecture degree before moving into video game art and film/tv vfx. He has worked on films such as Star Wars: Rogue One and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, he also worked as a lighting artist on GTA V. #gtav #rockstargames #starwars TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:01 - How A Degree In Architecture Helped Omar With VFX 04:51 - How Omar Ended Up At Rockstar Games/China 07:15 - Omar Had Never Played GTA Before Joining Rockstar/Learning What GTA Was 09:15 - Doing Cutscenes On GTA V 10:00 - Only 2 Artists Did Lighting On Cutscenes/The Shock Of Working On GTA V 12:05 - Crunch On GTA V/ Difference Between Games & Film 15:00 - Challenges Of Lighting/Omar’s Approach To Lighting 17:15 - Working On Star Wars: Rogue One 19:16 - ARTWORK REEL - Star Wars: Rogue One 21:25 - ARTWORK REEL - GTA V 32:07 - ARTWORK REEL - Rings Of Power 38:46 - ARTWORK REEL - Avengers: Infinity War 43:00 - ARTWORK REEL - LEGO 45:26 - ARTWORK REEL - Batman Vs Superman 46:09 - ARTWORK REEL - The Division 2: Warlords Of New York 48:27 - ARTWORK REEL - Aquaman 50:38 - Where To Follow Omar Fernandes
#166 - Jonathan Gwyn Interview (Senior Environment Artist On Grand Theft Auto V)
Jonathan Gwyn is a veteran artist in the video game industry having been in the industry for over 25+ years. He has worked on prestigious franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, The Matrix, Resistance etc. #rockstargames #gta #gtav TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:01 - Jon’s Favourite Art To Work On Is Environment Art 03:00 - Stylised Environmental Art 04:20 - Restrictions Working On The Matrix Games 06:40 - Referencing The Matrix Movies While Working On The Games 09:10 - Jon Loves Movies/Seeing Reloaded & Revolutions Material Before The Movies Release 10:40 - The Wachowskis Were Video Games Guys/Path Of Neo/Animatrix 11:20 - Jon Likes To Draw While Watching TV & Movies 13:15 - Jon Doesn’t Like Being An Art Director & Prefers Working Alongside Artists 15:00 - Ego’s Getting In The Way With Some Artists Due To Age/Jon Doesn’t Want To Be A Lead Again 16:40 - Why Jon Has Moved Across So Many Gaming Studios 19:10 - How Jon Got The Job At Rockstar 20:10 - GTA Is Made In Scotland/Artists Pipeline For GTA V/Red Dead Redemption 2 22:00 - Rockstar Has A Toxic Work Environment 24:30 - The High Pressure Of Working At Rockstar/Rockstar Crunch 25:20 - People Love His Boring Environmental Work Just Because Its GTA 26:00 - The Art Lead’s Job For GTA V Would’ve Been Hell 27:35 - Concept Room At Rockstar 28:15 - Meeting Sam Houser/Houser Brothers 29:15 - Video Game Celebrities/Ego’s Within The Video Game Industry 32:13 - Brutal Commute In L.A. & San Diego 35:35 - Working From Home 36:40 - Being Extroverted/Mistakes Extroverts Make At Game Studios 38:30 - ARTWORK REEL - GTA V Environments 50:15 - ARTWORK REEL - The Matrix Games Environments 1:00:10 - Where To Follow Jonathan Gwyn
#165 - Chandler Murch Interview (IT Infrastructure At Valve)
Chandler Murch worked at Valve for over 8 years in IT infrastructure; and oversaw a lot of esports Valve events specifically for Dota 2, he also did some work in the Dental AI space. #valve #steam #dota2 TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro/Being Associated With F.R.I.E.N.D.S 01:30 - How Chandler Ended Up At Valve 04:10 - What His First Job At Valve Was/Customer Service 06:59 - Valve’s IT Infrastructure When Chandler First Started 08:55 - How Chandler Improved Valve’s IT Infrastructure/Network Speeds 14:15 - Hitting Milestones With The Content Delivery Network/Capacity Planning 17:00 - Taking Into Account Internet Infrastructure Improvements Globally 19:09 - Organising E-Sports Events/DOTA 2 23:10 - Mitigating Problems With Live E-Sports Events/Audio & Player Problems 26:40 - Testing Live Setups With Players 29:20 - How Chandler Got Into Gaming & Steam 31:30 - Chandler’s Favourite Valve Games 32:45 - Chandler’s Involvement On Portal 2/How Valve Does Credits In Games 35:15 - Chandler’s Work On Left 4 Dead 2/Portal 2 Bugs 38:54 - Valve Games Have To Reach A Certain Milestone Before QA Testing 39:45 - A Valve Employee Did Wheatleys Voice Before Stephen Merchant 40:30 - Chandler Never Got The Passion For Game Design 41:35 - Chandler’s Interactions With Gabe Newell 46:45 - Steam Avoided Fragmentation Unlike TV/FIlm Streaming Platforms 49:35 - Misunderstanding That Valve Doesn’t Make Games Now 52:40 - The Cost Of Running Valve Servers/Valve’s Value 55:45 - What Chandler Did After Valve/Dentistry AI 1:00:37 - Dental Work Is Very Costly In The West/Dentistry AI Is Only Available In USA/Canada 1:04:00 - Where To Follow Chandler Murch
#164 - David Crislip Interview (Former Localizer At Capcom)
David Crislip has had quite the life! The man studied Japanese at Ohio University before moving to Japan to become an English Teacher there before ending up at Capcom Japan where he did localization for over 10+ years. #capcom #residentevil #streetfighter SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @DavidCrislip INSTAGRAM - @davidcrislip TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:20 - What Prompted David Wanted To Learn Japanese 02:50 - How Long It Takes To Be Fluent In Japanese/Being An English Teacher In Japan 05:20 - Early Days Of Localisation Capcom Japan 06:20 - Why Direct Translation Doesn’t Work 08:16 - Japanese Is A Very Dense Language 09:00 - How Localisation Has Changed From The Old Days 11:20 - Playing Games In Different Dubs 12:30 - Ghost Of Tsushima Is An Example Of A Western Game That Got Japanese Correct 13:20 - Lip Flapping In The Old Days Vs Now/David Is Glad He Doesn’t Have To Localise AAA Games These Days 14:10 - Immigration Officers Geeking Out Over David Working At Capcom 16:42 - David’s Favourite Capcom Games 19:45 - Resident Evil 4 Remake 20:30 - Capcom Were Aware Well Making Resident Evil 4 That It Would Be Special 22:20 - Capcom’s Renaissance Is Very Gratifying 24:00 - David’s Favourite Capcom Game To Work On 25:45 - Capcom Have Westernised Games With Japanese Flavour 26:15 - How David Ended Up Voicing Winston Payne/Recording Lines 28:10 - Difference Between Translating Text Vs Dialog 29:40 - The Misunderstanding Gamers Have Of Localisation 31:00 - How Long It Took David To Adapt To Japanese Culture 35:10 - Its Very Difficult To Get A Job At Capcom/Applying For Jobs In Japan 36:40 - Japanese Are Aware Of Western Culture/Language Shapes Your Behaviour 38:15 - David Doesn’t Translate In His Head Whether Its Japanese Or English 39:15 - Why Lay Offs Don’t Happen Often In Japan 42:00 - Japanese & Western Games Are Both On Equal Footing Now 43:00 - Consoles David Plays/David Shows Off His Game Collection 44:15 - David’s Favourite Game Of All Time/David Plays Games Most Days 46:09 - David’s Advice For Getting Into The Video Game Industry In Japan 48:07 - Where To Follow David Crislip
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze 10th Anniversary Interview With Former Retro Studios Devs
Happy 10th anniversary to DKC: Tropical Freeze!! Let's celebrate former artists on the game Eric Kozlowsky and Ted Anderson to go on a deep dive of working on it. TWITTER LINKS Eric Kozlowsky - @VoNKoZ Ted Anderson - @Pixel_Possum #donkeykong #donkeykongtropicalfreeze #retrostudios TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - DKC: Tropical Freeze Early Days/Wii U Hardware 04:55 - Artists Experimented Very Early On/Mangroves Were The First Levels Worked On 07:15 - Office Structure Of Retro Studios 08:50 - Artists Collaborating With Animators 10:00 - Playtesting/Brilliant Design Of The Levels/Meltdown Mayhem 12:40 - Ted & Erics Collaboration On The Steamship 14:05 - ARTWORK REEL - World 3 Boss Behind The Scenes Art 16:15 - ARTWORK REEL - World 2 Boss Behind The Scenes Art 17:20 - ARTWORK REEL - Updating DKCR Art 19:45 - ARTWORK REEL - Creating A Texture Map 22:20 - ARTWORK REEL - Difficulty Of The Fruit In World 5 23:15 - ARTWORK REEL - Ensuring Colours Don’t Blend In With Donkey Kong 24:20 - ARTWORK REEL - Foreground To Background 25:10 - ARTWORK REEL - Rocket Barrel/Barrel Cannons 26:30 - Will They Use Tropical Freeze Art For The DK Movie? 27:10 - ARTWORK REEL - Fruity Factory Level 28:30 - ARTWORK REEL - Wireframes/Nintendo Ninjas 29:48 - ARTWORK REEL - Steamship Level Of Detail 31:20 - Alternate Universe - Working On Metroid Prime 4/Metroid Dread 33:25 - Limitations Fosters Creativity 34:30 - Tropical Freeze’s Crunch Period 37:00 - Oversight From Nintendo Of Japan/DK Fur Tech 39:30 - How To Deal With Frustration Of Having To Redo Art Due To NOJ 41:30 - Sign Off For Easter eggs 42:21 - Backlash Of The Tropical Freeze Trailer/Tropical Freeze Was Made Due To DKCR Sales 45:20 - The Legacy Of DKC: Tropical Freeze 46:50 - Where Donkey Kong Goes From Here/DK Spinoff Film 49:00 - Q + A - Working With Vince Joly & Ryan Harris 50:20 - Q + A - Stuff That Was Discussed But Never Made It Into DKC:TF 52:50 - Q + A - How Did The Snowmads Idea Come Up/Ted Voicing The Penguins 55:36 - Q + A - Would A David Wise Track Or Level Layout Inspire The Artwork 59:58 - Favourite Level In DKC: Tropical Freeze 1:03:28 - Plugs For Ted & Eric’s Games