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Metroid Prime 4 team secures artist behind Halo’s Spartans

Bullet Club

Member
Metroid Prime 4 team secures artist behind Halo’s Spartans

Retro Studios hires senior modeller responsible for Master Chief, Spartan Locke and more

Metroid Prime 4 developer Retro Studios has appointed veteran Halo creative Kyle Hefley as the studio’s new lead character artist, VGC understands.

Hefley is a vastly experienced character modeller who has worked on more than 20 titles, including Call of Duty: Black Ops and Sleeping Dogs. Most relevant for Hefley’s new role, however, is his nine years at Microsoft’s 343 Industries.

Hefley acted as senior character modeller for the Halo series and modelled many or the armoured super soldiers and alien warriors that appeared in Halo 4, Halo 5 and the upcoming Halo Infinite, including Halo 5’s Master Chief.

The artist’s portfolio, which includes many sci-fi designs reminiscent of the Metroid Prime series, seemingly makes him a good fit for the Nintendo franchise.

Nintendo announced earlier this year that it had decided to “restart development from the beginning” for Metroid Prime 4, with producer Kensuke Tanabe calling in Retro to take over the project from its original, unannounced developer.

Retro has been hiring for Metroid Prime 4 ever since and its jobs page is still advertising for an art director, environment designer and more.

Around half of the full-time developers who worked on Metroid Prime 3 remain at Retro Studios, according to VGC analysis conducted in August. It found that a core team of around 50 people worked full-time on the 2007 Wii shooter and around 27 remained at the Texas-based developer, including four contractors made permanent.

Crucially, five of Metroid Prime 3’s 11 designers were still at Retro and potentially working on the upcoming Metroid Prime 4.

However, from the original Metroid Prime – which released almost two decades ago – less than 10 of the 40-plus team members remained at Retro and virtually all of the lead creators had moved on.

vWieZE8.png


Source: VGC
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Sounds like a good hire. For all my problems with 343, I wouldn't say the modeling is one of them. In fact, the visuals have ranged from technically stunning, to seemingly great stuff, and he seems to be a part of that.

Really looking forward to seeing Samus in modern tech glory.
 
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Ixiah

Banned
Wait, how long is Mp4 in development, 1 or 2 years ?
And only now they get a modeler ?
 
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Barnabot

Member
Wait, how long is Mp4 in development, 1 or 2 years ?
And only now they get a modeler ?
Reminds of a certain company which likes to announce Final Fantasy games years before they actually start going in actual development cycle. Can't remember the company name though :pie_thinking: .

/s
 
I can't say I'm really impressed with any of those designs, the chief design didn't bother me as much as other halo fans, I just thought it was alright.
 

Quezacolt

Member
Wait, how long is Mp4 in development, 1 or 2 years ?
And only now they get a modeler ?
they restarted the development this year, after they noticed the other studio wasnt doing such a good job, so now Retro studios is making it, as it should have been from the start
 
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tkscz

Member
Didn't several of the modelers/artist who worked on the MP series move on to Halo 4? I remember reading that and it's the reason why Halo 4 looked very similar to Metroid Prime

Wait, how long is Mp4 in development, 1 or 2 years ?
And only now they get a modeler ?

It was, but the the team Nintendo had out sourced the project to were screwing it up pretty badly and Nintendo announced earlier this year they will be having Retro Studios do the game instead. However, rumors gave more details, Namco was supposedly heading the project, but had split it up into different teams located all over the world. They'd finish a part and hand in what they've done to have it checked by Namco, and then Nintendo. However, none of the teams communicated and pretty much handed Nintendo a jumbled mess after a year and a half of development, with some teams not even turning anything in. But those parts are just rumor.
 
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EDMIX

Member
Why is this news?

Because apparently no developer ever goes from one team to another, its very, very rare and never really happens /s


If folks think this is news worthy, they legit could spend the next few years going thru credits making threads and articles like "Did you know the artist on Need For Speed Most Wanted also worked on Assassins Creed?" (proceeds to try to find cars drifting in Assassins Creed to build imaginary correlation to push narrative) lol
 

FeldMonster

Member
Two of my favorite series cross pollinating again. First Metroid Prime developers worked on Halo 4, now Halo developers working on Metroid Prime 4.

I love the look of Spartan Locke's armor, which in Halo 5 is referred to as "Hunter" armor. Coincidence, I think not. ;)
 
Metroid Prime 4 team secures artist behind Halo’s Spartans

Retro Studios hires senior modeller responsible for Master Chief, Spartan Locke and more

Metroid Prime 4 developer Retro Studios has appointed veteran Halo creative Kyle Hefley as the studio’s new lead character artist, VGC understands.

Hefley is a vastly experienced character modeller who has worked on more than 20 titles, including Call of Duty: Black Ops and Sleeping Dogs. Most relevant for Hefley’s new role, however, is his nine years at Microsoft’s 343 Industries.

Hefley acted as senior character modeller for the Halo series and modelled many or the armoured super soldiers and alien warriors that appeared in Halo 4, Halo 5 and the upcoming Halo Infinite, including Halo 5’s Master Chief.

The artist’s portfolio, which includes many sci-fi designs reminiscent of the Metroid Prime series, seemingly makes him a good fit for the Nintendo franchise.

Nintendo announced earlier this year that it had decided to “restart development from the beginning” for Metroid Prime 4, with producer Kensuke Tanabe calling in Retro to take over the project from its original, unannounced developer.

Retro has been hiring for Metroid Prime 4 ever since and its jobs page is still advertising for an art director, environment designer and more.

Around half of the full-time developers who worked on Metroid Prime 3 remain at Retro Studios, according to VGC analysis conducted in August. It found that a core team of around 50 people worked full-time on the 2007 Wii shooter and around 27 remained at the Texas-based developer, including four contractors made permanent.

Crucially, five of Metroid Prime 3’s 11 designers were still at Retro and potentially working on the upcoming Metroid Prime 4.

However, from the original Metroid Prime – which released almost two decades ago – less than 10 of the 40-plus team members remained at Retro and virtually all of the lead creators had moved on.

vWieZE8.png


Source: VGC

Very good
Now ask Bungie to help Retro with shooting sections, similar to how for example Monolith helped with BotW, mantain MP1 atmosphere intact, and mp4 could be the best ever
 
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