A wide-ranging conversation with James Everett, game designer, creative producer, co-founder of NZXR (the XR stands for Extended Reality). His Canada-New Zealand journey has included Ubisoft, Sidhe Interactive, Magic Leap/Weta Workshop, and Dr Grordbort's Invaders.
Outline
Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(00:48) - Pikpok, Ubisoft, Montreal and New Zealand
(08:17) - Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Magic Leap
(12:50) - Operating rhythm and SiSSYFiGHT 3000 workshop
(19:11) - Systemic Design: Dishonored 2’s clockwork mansion, Arkane Studios, Looking Glass, Thief
(30:31) - Visual design and combined vision: Ubisoft, Hades
(34:55) - The Inheritance trilogy by N.K.Jemisin
(41:58) - Formative experiences: Dune by Frank Herbert, J.G.Ballard, G.I.Joe, Animaniacs
(51:22) - Connections with novels and games: Tana French, Passage, Fez
(66:26) - What goes into a project: working vs creating
(70:47) - Magic Leap: Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders.
(92:27) - NZXR Collective: VR, Aardvark, experience accessibility, cultural change
(104:41) - Information accessibility: Adam Greenfield, classism via information, smart cities, and moral responsibility
(120:05) - Finishing up
Mentioned
The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Dishonored 2, a masterpiece of systemic game design and worldbuilding
Dune by Frank Herbert
Passage, a 5 minute game about life and death
A brief history and overview of XR (Extended Reality), the umbrella term encompassing Virtual & Augmented Reality technologies
James at the NZXR Summit talking about core principles of XR design
James at the Game Developer's Conference talking about Invaders
Follow James on twitter
