#184 - Shawn Layden Interview (Former CEO & Chairman of Playstation & SIEA)
Shawn Layden was former CEO of Playstation worldwide studios and former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment America. His career in Sony is legendary as a Japanese localizer that had a meteoric rise to be one of the head honchos of the whole company. #playstation #sony #ps5SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER -@SHAWNLAYDEN BLUESKY - @shawnlayden.bsky.socialTIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro01:02 - Why Playstation Used Numbers For Each Console Iteration03:26 - Being The Fix It Guy At Sony/What Motivates Shawn05:45 - Building A Reputation07:00 - Doing 18 Hour Days During The PSN Hack09:00 - Why Sony Is So Good At Marketing13:01 - How FOMO Is Used In Marketing14:00 - Why Sony Now Releases 1st Party Games On PC/Initial Pushback15:50 - Why Astro Bot Was Shawn’s 2024 GOTY18:30 - Why The Japanese Are So Good At Game Design 21:57 - Western Games Are Too Big In Scope/Dev Costs Come From Salaries23:05 - Why So Many Game Studios Are On The West Coast Of America/Environmental Costs24:57 - Game Devs Commute Times Create Major Sunk Costs/Working From Home28:30 - Shawn Pushed Realistic Graphics Well Acknowledging It’s Not Sustainable30:52 - How Sony Prices Games & When To Drop The Price33:40 - Concords Failure/Why Games As A Service Was Popular And No Longer Isnt37:31 - Why The PS6 Won’t Be Discless40:00 - Launching Handhelds Are Hard/Why The PS Vita Failed43:00 - Sony Characters Won’t Appear In Super Smash Bros44:20 - Why Playstation All-Stars Didn’t Sell Well46:48 - Q+A - How Will The Market Of Fortnite/Roblox Players Change As They Get Older49:28 - Q+A - Shawn’s Opinion On Microsoft’s Multiplatform Approach51:22 - Nintendo Are Best Positioned To Navigate The “Diminishing Returns” Problem54:18 - Q+A - What Games Did You Think Would Be Big Hits But Weren’t. 58:21 - You Learn More From Failures Than Successes59:43 - Closing Comments
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#182 - Dennis Mejillones Interview (Character Artist On Skyrim, Fallout 4, 76 & Starfield)
Dennis is an exceptional character artist who is best known for his tenure at Bethesda from Skyrim to Starfield. He has now retired from the video game industry. #starfield #fallout4 #skyrim SOCIAL MEDIA ARTSTATON - https://www.artstation.com/vsions INSTAGRAM - @vsions1 TWITTER - @Vsions YOUTUBE - @Vsions TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro00:30 - Rivalry With Jonah Lobe At Bethesda04:10 - Werewolf Was Almost Cut From Skyrim08:40 - Dennis Broke Work Protocol To Get Things In Bethesda Games Resulting In Burned Bridges12:40 - Work On NPC Eyes In Fallout 4 That Todd Rejected17:03 - Dennis’ Thoughts On Todd Howard20:48 - Creation Engine Has Been Rewritten Multiple Times/Misunderstanding Of Bethesda Development24:00 - Difference Between Rockstar & Bethesda Games26:00 - Bethesda Devs Agree With Fan Criticisms 28:48 - Modding Community29:50 - Beauacracy Has Changed Bethesda/Staff Are Underpaid34:30 - Fun Isn’t The Focus Of Games Anymore37:05 - Todd Is In A Tough Position With Elder Scrolls VI Cause Of Microsoft40:10 - No One Can Ever Replace Todd42:00 - Q+A - What Were The Teams Feelings Towards The End Of Developing Skyrim44:57 - Q+A - Why Heavy Gore Was Cut From Starfield47:22 - Q+A - Which Model Changes Most From Concept Art To In Game49:20 - Robots Age More Gracefully Than Humans50:58 - 3D Models/Full Sentry Bot Robot Malfunctioning Story55:20 - Fallout TV Show57:16 - Closing Comments
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#181 - Will Shen Interview(Designer On Skyrim, Fallout 4, 76 & Starfield)
Will Shen was a designer at Bethesda for over 20+ years and his story is amazing as he started off as an intern on Fallout 3 and became lead designer on Starfield. #starfield #fallout4 #bethesdagamestudios SOCIAL MEDIA X - @WillShen101 BLUESKY - @willshen101.bsky.socialJoin this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9jtZN92eGHA9Hxh-jYGqBw/joinTIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro00:30 - Will’s Internship At Bethesda Was A Trial By Fire02:08 - Who Interviewed Will Both Times02:56 - Will’s Relationship With Todd Howard09:20 - Emil Telling Will His Quest In Skyrim Was The Worst Quest In The Game/Redoing Skyrims Design11:44 - The Most Important Aspect Of An Intro & Tutorial13:30 - Bioshock Is An Example Of A Good Intro14:35 - In Leadership You Don’t Have Any Control16:30 - Bethesda Delegates Voice Acting To An External Company18:09 - Learning To Let Go From Being In Control Of Voice Acting/Guidance20:18 - Including Multiple Accents In Starfield22:30 - Maori Tattoo Controversy/Ballooning Of Bethesda Staff30:15 - How Will Would Become More Productive With A Bureaucratic System32:30 - Why Will Left Bethesda35:03 - Elder Scrolls VI/GTA VI Discussion37:30 - More Money = More Problems40:45 - Games Are Too Long Nowadays49:03 - Q+A - Has Bethesda Experimented With Other Game Genres51:34 - Settling On The Number Of Planets In Starfield/Procedural Content System55:16 - Q+A - Who Has Replaced Kurt Kuhlmann As Lore Master Of The Elder Scrolls58:52 - Q+A - Balancing The Main Quest & Side Quests1:01:50 - Production Pipeline/Curveballs1:05:15 - Where To Follow Will Shen
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/ SOCIAL MEDIA FOR NATE WEBSITE - https://www.justpurkeygames.com/home BLUESKY - @npurkeypile.bsky.social TWITTER - @NPurkeypile YOUTUBE - @justpurkeygames #skyrim #fallout #bethesdaTIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro00:53 - Working At Retro Studios On Metroid Prime 302:25 - Why Nate Left Retro Studios04:40 - Moving To Bethesda/Fallout 3’s Brown Colour Palette06:15 - Fallout 4’s Vibrant Colour Palette/Fallout TV Show09:24 - Nate Handed In Resignation To Bethesda On April Fools Day10:46 - Bethesda’s Inefficient Management Style13:23 - Unrealistic Expectations Of Elder Scrolls VI15:21 - Game Developers Who Don’t Play Games17:02 - Nate’s Relationship With Todd Howard18:06 - How Nate Mastered Quantity & Quality19:46 - Morons, Crunch & Insane Commutes22:30 - Remote Work/Forcing People Back Into The Office23:32 - Shadow Of The Colossus Influence On The Axis Unseen24:57 - The Scope Of The Axis Unseen26:50 - Timeline Of Axis Unseen27:53 - Useless Meetings At Bethesda30:45 - Being A Lead On Fallout 7632:05 - Todd Howard Obssesses Over UI/Convincing Todd Of Things33:59 - UI In The Axis Unseen34:20 - Working With Different Gaming Engines36:00 - Bethesda Should Migrate To Unreal Engine 540:20 - Nate Programmed The Edge Trimming For Fallout 341:30 - Working Within Constraints/Layoffs44:10 - Q+A - Favourite Project To Work On45:08 -Q +A - How Far Along In Development Would Elder Scrolls VI Be?47:01 - Q+A - Game Development Differences Between Nintendo & Bethesda50:38 - Fallout 3 Switch Port With Metroid Content52:34 - Console Ports Of The Axis Unseen/Certification/Logos57:09 - Vacations Aren’t Vacations With Bethesda1:00:10 - How Pay Works At Bethesda1:01:47 - Nate’s Blood Pressure Was Bad Due To Bethesda1:03:00 - Final Thoughts
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#179 - Kenny Young Interview (Composer On Astro Bot)
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.... #astrobot #littlebigplanet #ps5 KENNY YOUNG SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @kcmyoung FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/KennyYoungMusic/ BLUESKY - @kcmyoung Follow me KIWI TALKZ on Social Media TWITTER -https://twitter.com/kiwitalkz Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kiwi_talkz/?hl=en Discord - discord.gg/yWRCM2aDRT FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/KiwiTalkz TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@kiwitalkz Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9jtZN92eGHA9Hxh-jYGqBw/joinTIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro01:42 - Astro Bot Is A Culmination Of All His Work To Date04:20 - Blending Different Genres Seamlessly/Catchy Melodies07:40 - How Long To Make Melodic Tracks/Nic Doucet’s Advice11:05 - Relationship With Nic Doucet/Astro Bot Originally Had Licensed Music15:26 - Using The Vocoder & Talkbox In Astro Bot20:01 - Getting Access To The Stems For GOW, Uncharted & Horizon Themes22:14 - Working On The Remix Themes Of GOW/Uncharted & Horizon Themes30:00 - Using AI For Extracting Stems/AI Technology/Melodyne36:04 - Using The Nyckelharpa For Bot Of War & Tethered OST39:20 - How Many Times Kenny Had To Iterate On Themes42:46 - Leaving Sony To Do Freelancing 46:46 - Making Disco Schmisco In LBP253:01 - Q + A - What Are You Looking For From Game Devs In The Creative Process57:30 - Q + A - What Was The Main Inspiration With Astro Bot1:00:42 - Q + A - How The Gardens Theme Was Made In LBP 11:06:30 - Outro/Astro Bot
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