Kiwi Talkz

Matt T. Wood is a video game developer who is best known for his tenure working at Valve on some of its most prestigious franchises, he is currently working on his own indie open-world title Little Kitty Big City. #csgo #halflife #portal2 SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @matttwood   Timestamps 00:00 - Intro/Matt Being A Common Name 02:10 - Matt Doesnt Like Cellphones 04:40 - Choreography/Scripted Scenes In Half Life 2 07:30 - Crafting Out The Scripted Sequences 08:50 - Episode 2 Scenes/Most Challenging Scenes To Choreograph 13:30 - Privilege Of Working On Half Life 2/Working At Valve 15:00 - Interactions With Gabe Newell 16:00 - Working On Portal 2 Co-Op 19:20 - Co-Op Team Never Referred To The Campaign Well Designing It 21:17 - Mapping Out Designs On The Whiteboard 24:00 - Balancing The Difficulty Of A Puzzle/Puzzles In Portal 2 Co-Op 28:45 - How Counter Strike:Go Came About 31:40 - Evolution Of First Person Shooters/FPS Influences On CS:GO 37:30 - Borrowing Game Ideas Subconsciously  41:40 - How Little Kitty Big City Game Idea Came About 46:30 - Little Kitty Big City Will Be Open World 48:20.- Open World Influences 49:28 - Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Is Influencing Little Kitty Big City 50:35 - How Matt Finds Time To Play Games Despite Not Having Time 53:15 - Matt Is Overly Motivated And A Workaholic 54:40 - Matt Cant Shut His Brain Off And Always Having Ideas/Sleeping 57:20 - Where To Follow Matt & Little Kitty Big City

Yannis Brown is a composer, sound designer and programmer. He is best known for composing DBZ: Legacy Of Goku II and Buu's Fury.  WEBSITE - http://www.yannisbrown.com/ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro/SAE  01:30 - How Yannis Got Into Music/Sound Design 04:10 - Learning How To Compose For Handheld Chip Set 05:20 - How Yannis Got The Job To Compose For Legacy Of Goku II 07:17 - Bruce Faulconer/OST Took A Month To Make/Ear Translations 09:00 - Devs Picked The Music To Use For LOGII 09:34 - Yannis Loved Working On The DBZ Theme Song 09:55 - Emulating Guitar Samples 10:55 - When To Keep DBZ Music The Same And When To Deviate/Music Tracking 13:03 - Translating Pieces 16:20 - Memory Management Of Music For LOGII 17:40 - Fans Remixing His Music 19:19 - Perfect Cell/Track Breakdown/LOGII Was A Sidegig 21:10 - How Yannis Got Into Sound Design 23:10 - Blurring Music & Sound Design 24:40 - Working On Star Wars Imperial Academy 25:59 - Process Of Composing 28:20 - Cutting Corners But Still Saving Quality 29:40 - Yannis Is Both Spontaneous & Analytical With Composing & Sound Design 30:00 - Royalties 31:30 - Yannis Always Has Work 32:20 - Yannis Is Unsure If He Could Work On AAA Projects/Imposter Syndrome 34:10 - Imposter Syndrome 35:30 - Yannis Forgets Writing Music For Certain Games 36:20 - Yannis’ Does Try To Keep His Work In A Vault 37:39 - Evolution Of Composing For Handhelds Compared To Mobile Games 39:40 - Restrictions Allowed More Creativity Back In The Day 41:40 - Yannis Listens To Reference Material Before Starting A Project 42:20 - Yannis Would Love To Compose For Zelda 43:10 - Enjoying Other Games Without Being Analytical About It 44:10 - Multiple Mixes/Implementation 47:10 - Writers Block 48:10 - Ear Fatigue 49:43 - Atlas Reactor Story 50:38 - Working With A Co-Composer/Gauntlet ROM 52:15 - Composers That Inspire Yannis 53:00 - Networking At Gaming Events 54:10 - Transporting Music When Moving Countries 56:12 - Where To Follow Yannis Brown

Mike Morasky is a composer at Valve who worked on franchises such as Left 4 Dead, Portal, Half Life, Team Fortress and more. Before his time at Valve he was VFX supervisor on the LOTR film trilogy and has also composed music for short films.    #valve #lotr #halflife SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER- @MikeMorasky   TIMESTAMPS   00:00 - Intro 01:00 - Transferring VFX & Programming Skills To Composing Music 04:05 - How Mike Structures Music/LOTR VFX Structures 07:45 - Physical & Mental Interaction 08:45 - Challenge Of Composing For Half-Life:Alyx 10:45 - Half-Life:Alyx Was The Hardest Project Mike Ever Worked On 12:40 - Mike Found It Hard Adapting To Valve’s Work Structure 15:37 - Valve Does Have A Hierarchal Structure Its Just Not Traditional  17:35 - Mike’s Views On Deadlines & Structure/Film Music Structure 21:50 - How Mike Structured The Music For Half-Life:Alyx  23:00 -Mike Didn’t Know Music Was His Calling Well Working On LOTR/Working On LOTR 25:20 - What Made Mike Change From VFX To Composing Music 28:00 - How Mike Ended Up Working At Valve 30:40 - How Mike’s Interview Process Went To Get Hired At Valve 35:45 - Working With Peter Jackson & Wachowski Brothers 37:22 - Working With Gabe Newell 42:15 - Meetings In Regards To Setting Up A Valve Office In NZ/Other Offices 44:44 - Journalists/Being Careful What You Say 46:15 - Why Mike Didn’t Get NZ Residency/Attending The LOTR Film Premiere In Wellington 47:15 - Mike Clears Up What His Role Was On LOTR 48:30 - Fear Of Failure/The Gravity Of Working On LOTR 50:45 - Dealing With Imposter Syndrome 54:45 - Finding A New Musical Palette With Every Valve Franchise 57:20 - Mike Has Synesthesia  59:39 - Mike Wants To Do Portal 3 But Doesn’t Want To Do Team Fortress 3 1:00:30 - Where To Follow Mike Morasky

Ellen McLain is an accomplished singer and voice actress who is best known for voicing GLaDOS in Portal 1 and Portal 2.   #portal2 #valve #glados SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @ellenmclain   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro/Kiwi Talkz Name 01:23 - Original Intention Of Robotic GLaDOS Voice 03:35 - How To Sound Like A Robot/Initial Recordings 06:07 - Candide Operetta/Broadway 08:05 - Throwing Out Ideas In The Studio 09:02 - Dynamic In The Studio With Valve Devs 10:32 - Advocating For More Valve Games/Erik Wolpaw 11:45 - Ellen Worked On Portal 2 From The Very Beginning Of Development 14:42 - Working On Other Projects Well Working On Portal 2 15:20 - Studio Sessions Never Became Monotonous/Ellen Never Gets Bored 16:40 - Books Ellen Is Currently Reading/Russia & Putin 20:02 - Drawing On Your Own Life To A Voice Project 21:00 - Ellen Has Dreams Of Murdering People 22:50 - Working With Valve 24:20 - How Still Alive Song Came About//Jonathan Coulton/Turret Choir 29:00 - Approaching Recording GLaDOS different for the Portal Songs 32:00 - Recording Dialogue Out Of Order 34:00 - Ellen Got Given Recordings Of Stephen Merchant & JK Simmons For Portal 2 34:38 - Outlaws/Stephen Merchant/Not Disappointing Fans 38:00 - Whiplash/JK Simmons/Juiliard School//Teaching 40:34 - Ellen Is Keen For Portal 3 41:10 - The Job Of The Actor Is To Not Make A Role Stale/Ellens Marriage 43:30 - Bickering Couple In Left 4 Dead/Valve Not Knowing Ellen Was Married To John Lowrie 45:58 - Improvising On Portal 48:20 - Getting The Call To Come Back For Portal 2/How GLaDOS Influenced Ellens Work On Pacific Rim 51:22 - Projects Ellen Has Worked On Recently 54:50 - Ellen Loves Working & Rehearsing  56:24 - Ellens Favourite Performance Was Opera 58:40 - Ellen Doesn’t Like Watching Her Own Performances 1:01:00 - Where To Follow Ellen McLain

Paul Tozour is a former engineer and video game developer with over 25 years of experience. He is most well known for his work on Metroid Prime 2 & 3. He is currently in the process of finishing his book The Four Swords: A Parable of Leadership, Video Games, and Dead Dragons which is due for release at the end of 2022. SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @fourswordsbook   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - What His Role Was At Retro Studios 02:30 - Challenges Between Retro & Nintendo/Dark Samus Fight In Prime 3 06:16 - Working With Tanabe/Western Vs Eastern Design 09:02 - Adapting To Nintendos Design Philosophies 10:55 - Project X And How It Fell Apart 17:17 - Michael Kelbaugh’s Influence On Retros Culture/How Paul Got Into Leadership  21:00 - No Evidence To Show Crunch Is Productive/Cultural Norms 24:58 - Leadership Is Building Culture Intentionally 25:55 - Paul’s Crunch Stories/Underlying Problems Of Leadership 28:44 - Game Studio Values/Fear Of Conflict 31:35 - Leadership Is Leaving Your Ego On The Table 32:20 - Activision’s Scandal A Symptom Of A Deeper Problem 33:20 - Day Courses For Studios/Devs Having 100% Ownership Of Studios/Unions 35:50 - Andy O’Neills Saying/Mark Heigh- Hutchinson 37:15 - Michael Kelbaugh’s Leadership 38:25 - Different Disciplines  41:40 - Pauls Book THE FOUR SWORDS And How It Came About 47:34 - Aven Colony/Helios Boss In Prime 3 50:15 - Pauls Frustration With A.I. In Gaming 53:31 - A.I. Gaming Evolution Is Very Slow/Flowchart Of Boss A.I. While Working On Prime 2  57:01 - Idol State Of Dark Samus Battle In Prime 2 59:40 - Tanabe Didnt Like The Original Design Of The Pirate Homeward 1:01:44 - In Nintendo Meetings You Never Reference Another Game In Design Pitches 1:03:30 - The Game Is The Design Document With Nintendo 1:06:20 - Massive Design Documents Never Get Read 1:07:29 - Retro Devs Were Halo Fans And So It Influenced Prime 3/East & West Design Meet In Metroid Prime Trilogy 1:08:50 - You Gain New Perspectives From Working With Nintendo 1:10:30 - Wrap Up/FOUR Swords Book Promotion 1:11:45 - Where To Follow Paul Tozour

Eric Kozlowsky is an artist who has worked at multiple game studios and is most well known for his short but important tenure at Retro Studios on Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. He is currently Art Director at Fuzzybot.   SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER -@vonkoz INSTAGRAM - @von_koz ARTSTATION - https://www.artstation.com/vonkoz WEBSITE - https://www.landofkoz.com/   #tropicalfreeze #nintendo #retrostudios   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:00 - Deadlines/Crunch 03:30 - Early Days At Retro Studios 06:00 - Working On Mangroves For Tropical Freeze 07:40 - Intimidation Factor/Camaraderie At Retro 09:20 - Eric’s Collaboration With Ted Anderson On Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze 12:31 - Eric’s Work On Windmill Hills 14:55 - Working On Rodent Ruckus 15:46 - Crunch At The End Of Tropical Freeze/Meltdown Mayhem/Destructive Terrain 17:29 - Working With Tanabe 19:40 - Tropical Freeze Levels Being Worked On Out Of Sync/Creating & Working With A Kit 23:59 - Learning From Your Peers/Nintendo Doesn’t Let You Share RAW Files 27:00 - Why Eric Left Retro Studios 29:10 - Eric Is Gutted He Isn’t Working On Metroid Prime 4/Eric Wasn’t A DK Fan Until Working On Tropical Freeze 30:40 - Eric’s Thoughts On Metroid Dread/Super Metroid 33:40 - Pacing In Games/Artist’s Should Understand Basic Design 34:40 - Layoffs In The Industry/Why Eric Moved From Studio To Studio 38:18 - Fans Starting False Rumours When Eric Started At Retro/Being Adaptable 39:30 - Retro Studios Staff Laughing At Stupid Rumours/Wrong Expectations Affected Tropical Freeze 40:30 - Differences Between Stylised & Realistic Graphics 45:00 - Eric Struggles To Stay Up With With Technology/Tunic/Having A Critical Eye 46:50 - Eric Tries To Be Broader Than Just Games/Looking At The Source 48:54 - Catch The Essence But Not Have Direct Influences/Link’s Awakening Rip Off Indie Game 50:40 - Trying To Stay Up With Artists He Mentors/Some Artists Shouldn’t Be Directors 52:40 - Keep Your Skills Sharp As An Artist/Having Tunnel Vision With Art Sometimes 55:00 - Where To Follow Eric Kozlowsky 55:57 - Eric’s Book Arma

Ted Anderson is an artist who is most well known for his tenure at Retro Studios working on both Donkey Kong Country games and Mario Kart 7. He currently works for Pixel Pushers Union 512 and recently released the game Tonight We Riot. SOCIAL MEDIA Pixel Pushers - @ppu512 Twitter - @pixel_possum Tonight We Riot - https://tonightweriot.com/   #donkeykong #mariokart #retrostudios   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:45 - How Ted Ended Up At Retro Studios 02:45 - Nintendo’s Philosophy On Art/Retro Helped Form His Artstyle 06:00 - Stylised Art/Warhammer’s Art Helped With Artstyle Of DKCR 08:15 - Dynamic With The Artists At Retro 09:20 - Creating Texture Libraries For DKCR 12:20 - Challenges Of Migrating Over To The Wii U Hardware 15:45 - Why Concept Art Is Needed/Boundaries Of An Artist 17:00 - Designing Grassland Grooves In DKCTF 19:50 - Working On World 5(The Fruit World)  20:45 - Collaborating With Eric Kozlowsky 22:45 - Ted Struggles With Water Levels/Specialty In Mechanical Structures 24:15 - Stylised & Realistic Art Challenges 26:30 - Dynamic Between Retro Studios & NOJ/DK Blow Mechanic Story 28:45 - Ted Got Given All The Assets For The Entire Mario Kart Franchise While Working On MK7 30:15 - Many Of Retro’s Staff Didnt Want To Work On Mario Kart 7/Early 3DS Development Kits 32:29 - MK7 Tracks Ted Worked On 33:18 - Ted Went Above And Beyond To Make Shy Guy Bazaar Track 36:10 - Ted Is A Quick Artist 36:40 - How Ted Works Fast But Still Maintains Quality 39:30 - How To Work Around Hardware Limitations 41:10 - How To Design Machinery  45:50 - Ted Worked Off Hours On Shyguy Bazaar To Make It Special 47:12 - How The Metroid Easter Eggs In Donkey Kong Came About/Crocomire Reference 48:45 - Retro’s Design Team/Artists Killing Some Designers Ideas 50:40 - Collaborating With Designers 52:10 - Foreground & Background Design In DKCR 53:50 - Making DK The Focus In Levels With Destructive Terrain 56:40 - Its A Fireable Offence To Work On Personal Games Well At Nintendo 1:00:00 - Publishers Should Encourage Developers To Work On Personal Projects Off Hours 1:01:00 - Certification  1:03:30 - Ted Shows Off His Retro Mementos  1:04:20 - Where To Follow Ted Anderson/Pixel Pushers

Chet Faliszek who was a former writer at Valve for over 12 years. He is now Co-Founder and CEO of Stray Bombay and are currently working on Anacrusis.   SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @chetfaliszek ANACRUSIS WEBSITE - https://www.theanacrusis.com/ Discord - https://discord.com/invite/straybombay   #valve #left4dead #anacrusis   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro/Anacrusis Correction & What It Means 01:41 - Big Dictionary Of Slang 03:19 - Proper Pronounciation Of Faliszek 04:46 - Being Approached By Gabe To Join Valve/Gabe’s Personality 06:08 - Chet’s First Day At Valve 07:15 - Dynamic Between Chet & Erik Wolpaw 08:10 - Work On Half Life Universe 09:30 - Gabe Initially Didnt Want Chet To Do A Zombie Game 11:37 - Conception Of Left 4 Dead 13:20 - What Chet Would Change On Left 4 Dead Based On The Pandemic 15:41 - Planting Seeds For A Sequel In Left 4 Dead 17:30 - How He Ended Up Writing For Portal 2/Writing For Portal 2 20:45 - Challenge Of Writing For Left 4 Dead 22:00 - Valve’s Culture/Certification 24:46 - Valve’s Influence On Stray Bombay/Flat Hierarchy Pros & Cons 27:43 - Misperceptions/Collaboration 31:00 - Working With Sensitive People/Nothing Is Cool & Suck/Feedback 33:17 - Chet Doesn’t Get Affected By People Screaming At Him/Dealing With Tensions 35:40 - DOOM’s Impact On Chet/Improving Your Comedy/Old Man Murray 38:20 - Chet Loved Living In Cleveland 39:01 - How Being A Painter Transferred Over To Game Design 41:00 - Chet Has A Lot Of Respect For Trade Workers 42:25 - Self Imposed Crunch/You Can’t Finesse Crunch  45:02 - Retail Releases Are What Causes Crunch 45:05 - How Chet Ended Up Working On HTC VR 51:10 - Defining The Goals On Anacrusis 52:30 - What’s On The Horizon For Anacrusis 56:50 - Where To Follow Chet Faliszek/Stray Bombay

Jim Wornell was a former graphic designer at Nintendo who created the logos for franchises such as Metroid, Animal Crossing and Paper Mario. He also was a localiser, bug tester and manual editor on Ocarina Of Time. #nintendo #ocarinaoftime #metroidprime SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @jimbob_crachit WEBSITE - https://www.jimwornell.net/   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:07 - How Jim Ended Up Working At Nintendo & Became A Graphic Designer 04:00 - The Hardest & Easiest Graphics To Design 05:50 - Iterations Of Animal Crossing Logo/Logo Design Phase 08:00 - Working On The Metroid Prime Logo 13:00 - What Graphic Design Jim Does Now/Nintendo Has All Of Jim’s Unseen Designs 14:30 - The Hardest Parts Of Learning Graphic Design 15:30 - The Big Green Book Of Maps/Learning Design Before Youtube 17:20 - Friendly Rivalry With Other Graphic Designers 17:55 - Working On Ocarina Of Time 23:35 - Bugs Found Well Play Testing Ocarina Of Time 24:55 - Being Credited For Work Jim Didn’t Do 25:25 - Design That Was Made But Game Was Cancelled 26:54 - Jim Did The Metroid Prime Logo Entirely Solo/Other Work He Was Doing At The Time 28:07 - Time Management/Advice For Designers 29:50 - Checking Your Ego 31:44 - What Jim Asks Of Clients When They Request A Design 33:10 - Dealing With Clients Who Don’t Know What They Want 35:15 - Metroid Prime Logo Font 36:56 - Metroid Fusion/Metroid Prime 2 Logo 38:00 - Paper Mario Logo 39:04 - Never Stop Learning With Adobe Programs 39:48 - How Jim Ended Up Being The Announcer On F-Zero X  42:48 - Voice Acting Bug/Voice Acting Is A Tough Business 43:15 - Doing Different Accents/ 44:35 - Connecting With The F-Zero Community 46:05 - Tips For Voice Acting 47:50 - Jim Is Learning About Mixing 49:20 - Meeting Shigeru Miyamoto 50:49 - Meeting Owen Hart 3 Weeks Before He Died/Meeting Dwayne Johnson 52:51 - Where To Follow Jim Wornell 53:25 - Who Drew Jim Wornell’s Graphic

Erik Wolpaw is a writer at Valve and has worked on franchises such as Half Life and Portal. He recently worked on Half Life:Alyx and Aperture Desk Job   SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER - @wolpaw   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Being A Database Programmer Before Being A Writer 01:00 - Procrastination/Psychonauts 03:10 - Coming Up With Names Is Easy/Keeping Up Energy Is Hard/Jokes Being Cut 04:50 - Erik Doesn’t Like Writing 05:55 - Erik’s Ideology In Terms Of Writing For A Game 07:50 - Time Between Portal & Portal 2/Don’t Write Yourself Into A Corner 08:25 - Erik Wants To Work On A Portal 3/Valve’s Corporate Structure  10:01 - Portal 3 Might Not Happen/Why Valve Doesn’t Release Many Games 11:45 - Valve’s High Quality Bar/Development Cycle 12:20 - Portal 2 Almost Didn’t Happen/Portal 2 Project Cycle 15:45 - Games Are Terrible Until Near The End 17:04 - Struggling With Ideas For Portal 2 Until Wheatley Idea Came About 19:14 - Working With Stephen Merchant On Wheatley/Writing To An Actors Strengths 23:30 - People Involved In Directing An Actor In The Studio 25:00 - Working With Rhys Darby On Russell/Meeting Rhys Darby In L.A. 27:45 - The Original Writing For Half Life:Alyx Didn’t Work/Writing Half Life:Alyx 31:47 - Original Ending Of Half Life:Alyx And Tweaking It 34:15 - Connecting Half Life:Alyx Ending To Half Life 2 38:10 - Gabe’s Involvement/Erik’s Relationship With Gabe 39:45 - Writing With Jay Pinkerton 41:22 - Erik’s Easiest  Character To Write Is The Institution Voice In Portal 2 42:36 - Writing Something And Thinking Its Horrible When Said Aloud 43:40 - Nate Bargatze Struggled With The Word Turret On Aperture Desk Job 44:08 - Convoluted Lines Of Portal 2 45:00 - Erik Appreciates The Work It Takes To Write Something Good/God Of War Caused Erik Stress 46:00 - Erik Is Always Stressed/Erik Hates Letting People Down 47:45 - Comedic Obsessions With Writing/Erik Wants To Improve On His Writing 49:40 - Re-Purposing Dialogue 50:10 - Erik Respects The Valve Artists/Picturing An Image Well Writing 53:00 - Jay Pinkerton Is A Good Designer/Comics 54:09 - Erik Wants To See A Sunset Overdrive 2/The Game Industry Is Quite Small 55:50 - Why Erik Left Valve & Became A Contractor Instead 56:50 - Erik’s Son Being Born During The End Of Portal 2’s Development 1:00:15 - Where To Follow Erik Wolpaw 1:02:09 - Petition To Gabe Newell To Start Portal 3