Community Spotlight: Omni42

Our latest Community Spotlight is now available! This month, we are highlighting the talented artist Omni42, who recreates environments and areas from Metroid, inside Halo 5’s Forge mode level editor. His portfolio includes redesigned power suits, and a really impressive comic. We were blown away by the creations of Omni42, and felt he was very deserving of a Spotlight.

We continue to look for talented creators across the Metroid fan community. If you are creating something that you think we might be able to promote, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Click here to read Omni42’s feature

Retro Studios has found a Lead Producer for Metroid Prime 4

Back in August, we reported that a Lead Producer position had opened at Retro Studios. Tonight, it has been reported that this job has been filled by Marisa Palumbo, a veteran game developer. Marisa worked for Blizzard Entertainment for six years as part of the Overwatch development team, and previously for eight years at Rockstar Games, where she produced Grand Theft Auto IV and V, L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption and other popular titles. Congratulations to Marisa on her new position!

Earlier this month, we reported that Retro was seeking to hire three Product Testers and a Storyboard Artist. These positions are still open, and Retro is still seeking to fill other jobs such as Lead Graphics Engineer, Senior Level Designer, Lead Animator, Boss / AI Designer and Environment Outsourcing Integration Artist. If we hear about any more hirings, we will let you know. You can see a list of open positions at this link.

Source: Video Games Chronicle/Nintendo Life

Feature: Becoming Zero Suit Samus

For our latest feature, our staff member and podcast host Amanda looks back at her experience cosplaying Zero Suit Samus at PAX West 2019. She reminisces over her time wearing the costume at the convention, and the challenges she faced getting it together in a short space of time, which may resonate with other cosplayers out there. She also shares her thoughts on how she might approach the same cosplay in the future.

You can check out the feature here

Retro Studios is hiring product testers and a storyboard artist

Over the past year, Retro Studios has been on a hiring spree, filling multiple positions from art director to director of development. Now, they are hiring for three product testing positions and seeking a storyboard artist, all contract. The testing jobs opened up on September 30, while the storyboard artist position was listed this past Monday.

What these listings tell us is that Metroid Prime 4 is now in a playable state. While it may not be ready for unveiling yet, it is getting closer. Perhaps Retro is now focusing development on cutscenes and ensuring that the game runs smoothly. We can’t wait to see the finished product.

Source: Nintendo Careers

Feature: Echoes of Appreciation – Learning to Recognise Metroid Prime 2

As we get older, our perspectives shift on things we experienced or games we played as children, sometimes for the better or the worst. This month’s feature, courtesy of team member KomodoZero, touches on that. In this feature, Komodo discusses his experience with learning to appreciate Metroid Prime 2: Echoes as an adult. He makes a case for how it built on the original Metroid Prime, mitigated unpopular aspects such as backtracking, and experimented with a darker atmosphere. Whether Echoes is one of your favorite or least favorite Metroid games, this feature makes the argument for why the game is one of the franchise’s boldest entries. We hope you’ll give it a read!

Click here to read the feature

God of War designer joins Retro Studios for Metroid Prime 4

Another new hire at Retro Studios has come to light. It has been reported that Jon Marcella, a veteran game designer from Santa Monica, has joined Retro Studios as an environment designer for Metroid Prime 4. Marcella came to Retro in July of 2020 according to his LinkedIn profile. His previous work includes level design, Lua and AI scripting, and puzzle design for God of War.

Marcella is one of several industry veterans hired by Retro Studios in recent times, including Dylan Jobe and others who were part of development on titles in the Battlefield, Halo, Call of Duty, Tomb Raider and Donkey Kong Country franchises.

We will keep you up to date on any new hires we hear about, as we await a full unveiling of Metroid Prime 4.

Source: Nintendo Life/VGC

Community Spotlight: Step

This month’s Community Spotlight features another talented musician from Harmony of a Hunter, Stephan Wells. Also known as Step, he created beautiful arrangements of classic Metroid tracks for Harmony of a Hunter: 101% Run, and served as the Assistant Director of Harmony of Heroes. Additionally, Step has been an asset to Shinesparkers in editing our content and podcast. We are incredibly proud to feature Step and hope you will take the time to read more about him by clicking below!

On a side note, we are always keen to feature talented Metroid focused projects in the community. If you are a cosplayer, speedrunner, artist, musician or someone that has a really cool and unique Metroid focused project that could do with a bit more attention, don’t hesitate to reach out to us on our Facebook and Twitter social media pages, we would love to hear from you!

Click here to read the Community Spotlight

Dylan Jobe joins Retro Studios as Metroid Prime 4 development director

It has been brought to light that Dylan Jobe, a gaming industry veteran, has joined Retro Studios as its Director of Development. Having been hired earlier in 2020, Jobe has more than 25 years of experience. Among his credits are Warhawk (2007) on the PlayStation 3, for which he was the director, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, and DOOM and ReCore (both 2016), for which he was a designer.

According to a job description from Retro, Jobe will be responsible for handling the development schedule and scope of Metroid Prime 4, while also overseeing employee performance reviews. He is one of a number of industry veterans who have been hired during the development of Prime 4.

We wish Mr. Jobe well in his new role and hope to hear more about the game soon.

Source: Twitter/VGC

Feature: Shinesparkers Tenth Anniversary

Today marks ten years since Shinesparkers was created. It’s incredible for me to think that our little community celebrating Metroid would still be around after all this time. Over the past decade, we have brought you interviews with the people that made our favourite games, highlighted the creative talents of the Metroid community by sharing their work with our Community Spotlight features, brought you opinion pieces written by our team, and created exclusive content to entertain you, such as our Metroid fan-arrangement albums like Harmony of a Hunter. To mark this occasion, I have shared my thoughts on ten years of Metroid, from how the community came to be, to the current and future ambitions of Shinesparkers.

We really love what we do, and we have enjoyed seeing our community grow and thrive. Whether you’ve been there from the beginning, or have just heard about us, thank you for engaging with us!

Click here to read the feature

Retro Studios is looking for a Lead Producer for Metroid Prime 4

Today, Retro Studios shared a tweet promoting an open position for Lead Producer on Metroid Prime 4. The job has been open since May 11, 2020, so it seems they have not been able to find one. The job listing is below. Some of the requirements include experience with JIRA, Confluence and MS Office Suite, communication and organizational skills, and a minimum of ten years of production experience in game development.

It is important to remember that jobs are filled and reopened all the time in game development. There was staff turnover during the development of the first Metroid Prime, with some team members leaving after completing their work and some staying onboard. This is no different, and should not be taken to mean that Metroid Prime 4’s development process is stalled. To anyone who applies for this job, we wish you good luck, and we hope that everyone at Retro Studios and Nintendo is staying safe and healthy during these challenging times.

Source: Twitter/Nintendo Careers