Analysis: Who’s working on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond?
With the recent announcement that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is due for release next year, it’s worth taking a closer look at the team working on it.
Nintendo announced back in 2019 that it had decided to “restart development from the beginning” for Metroid Prime 4, with producer Kensuke Tanabe calling in Retro Studios to take over the project from its original developer.
Although Nintendo and Retro Studios have remained tight-lipped on the game’s development to date, VGC analysis gives some idea of the staff who have been contributing to the game’s development.
Since this analysis deals with public-facing information, there are some caveats. The nature of non-disclosure agreements means it’s currently unclear if Metroid Prime 4 is the only game Retro Studios is currently working on, so there’s always the possibility that some of the staff listed below are working on something top secret.
Some of the staff listed may also have left Retro Studios since they last updated their employment history. However, everyone listed was at least listed as working at Retro within the past couple of years, meaning they will almost certainly have contributed to the development of Metroid Prime 4. This list also doesn’t include staff from other Nintendo departments likely to be contributing to the game.
Some notable previous appointments were already reported on VGC. Back when it was announced that the game’s development was restarting and moving to Retro Studios, VGC analysis found that around half of the full-time developers who worked on Metroid Prime 3 were still at Retro at the time.
Later that year, Retro appointed veteran Halo creative Kyle Hefley as the studio’s new lead character artist.
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 role at Retro, however, was his nine years at Microsoft’s 343 Industries.
Hefley acted as senior character modeller for the Halo series and modelled many of 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.
In 2020, Stephen Dupree, the lead designer of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, returned to Retro Studios after a two-year absence, during which he helped design platformer New Super Lucky’s Tale.
The designer had previously contributed to the creation of Wii title Donkey Kong Country Returns at Retro, as well as Mario Kart 7 for Nintendo 3DS.
Dupree was soon joined by another Super Lucky’s Tale designer, Mark Capers, who had previously acted as a designer for Epic Mickey and its sequel.
Indeed, our analysis shows that a number of veterans from Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios moved to Retro Studios following its closure in 2013.
Other notable appointments included Call of Duty: Black Ops veteran Bharathwaj ‘Bat’ Nandakumar, who joined Retro in 2020 as lead engineer, having most recently served the same role for the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
The programmer had spent a decade at Activision working across every Black Ops instalment to date and specialises in online, tools and gameplay programming.
Shortly after this, Retro hired Jon Marcella, who joined as an environment designer following a decade at Sony’s Santa Monica studio, where he also worked on 2013’s God of War Ascension and 2010’s God of War III.
The Metroid Prime 4 dev team
Production
- Michael Kelbaugh, president and CEO (Metroid Prime 2 & 3)
- Nathan Ramos, senior producer (The Callisto Protocol, Horizon Forbidden West)
- Monty Goulet, outsourcing producer (2K)
- Jeff Moreaux, lead producer (Zynga, EA, Bioware)
- Jessica Spence, senior producer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Halo 4)
- JoAnna Frazar, producer (Guild Wars 2)
- Ryan Harris, director of planning (Metroid Prime 1, 2 & 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze)
- Korri Kopsi, concept art producer (Satellite Game Studios)
Art
- Jhony Ljungstedt, senior art director (Battlefield V, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst)
- Sasha Nodia, lead external environment artist / outsourcing manager (Demon’s Souls remake)
- Chris Lewis, senior environment / material artist (Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo Infinite)
- Rodrigo Brea, 3D environment artist (Amazon Games)
- Nicholas Reynolds, technical artist (Striking Distance Studios, Turn 10)
- Chris Hahn, associate art director (Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda, Star Wars: The Old Republic)
- Jennica Derksen, senior environment artist (Arkane Austin)
- Kevin Decatoire, concept artist (New World, Diablo Immortal)
- Jonathan Garcia, senior environment artist (Call of Duty: WWII, Telltale Games)
- Ryan Metcalf, technical animator (id Software, Gearbox)
- Bryan Erck, senior VFX artist (Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Marvel’s Avengers, COD Advanced Warfare)
- Randy Bernard, 3D artist
- Teague Schultz, senior environment artist (Metroid Prime 2 & 3)
- David Salaiz, senior character artist (Midnight Studios, Certain Affinity)
- Mark Capers, environment designer (Super Lucky’s Tale, Disney Infinity 1-3, Epic Mickey 1 & 2)
- Mookie Weisbrod, senior lead animator (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
- Rick Blankenship, animator (Red Fly Studio, Bluepoint Games)
- Chris Medina, environment artist
- Matt Manchester, artist (Firefly Studios)
- Will Petrosky, senior environment artist (God of War: Ragnarok, Call of Duty WWII / Modern Warfare Remastered / Black Ops 3)
- Miguel Garcia Pandal, cinematics producer (The Callisto Protocol, Marvel’s Avengers)
- James Reed Ketcham, environment artist
- Rachel Doda, storyboard artist (Nickelodeon, Rooster Teeth)
- Ryan Powell, senior staff artist (Metroid Prime 1, 2 & 3)
- Enrique Rivera, concept artist
- Matthew Tovar, character animator (The Last of Us, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Ghosts)
- Edward Tejeiro, environment artist (Naughty Dog, EA)
- Nina Morris, UI artist
- Adam Poole, cinematics and narrative producer
- Gray Ginther, character artist (Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze, Ratchet & Clank, Remnant: From the Ashes, Darksiders 3)
- Tyler Siemers, environment artist (Sony Santa Monica Studio)
- Luis Ramirez, senior artist (Metroid Prime 1, 2 & 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Titanfall)
- Kenneth Kozan, environment artist (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
- Robert Kovach, staff technical artist (Arkane Austin, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Epic Mickey 1 & 2)
- Steven Ray, animator (The Last of Us: Part I & II, Crash Bandicoot 4)
- Kat Gray, environment artist (IllFonic)
- Shawn Melchor, concept artist (Epic Mickey 1 & 2)
- Greg Frizzell, environment art manager (Rift)
- Tiffany Lee Griffith, environment artist (Metroid Prime Remastered)
- Raphael Perkins, animator (Donkey Kong Country Returns, Metroid Prime 3, Duke Nukem Forever)
- Charlie Victoria, gameplay animator (Naughty Dog)
- Kyle Hefley, lead character artist (Halo 4, 5 & Infinite, Call of Duty: Black Ops, DJ Hero)
- Sylvia Rowland, artist (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 7)
- Robert Kovach, staff technical artist (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Epic Mickey 1 & 2, Arkane Austin)
- Ian Connell, animator (Lego 2K Drive, Thor: Love and Thunder)
- Sean Horton, senior environment artist (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 7)
- Taylor Rohrig, cinematic artist (Deck Nine, Sony Santa Monica Studio, Walt Disney Imagineering)
- Dax Pallotta, technical staff animator (Metroid Prime 1, 2 & 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 7)
- David DeCoster, senior environment artist (Metroid Prime Remastered)
- Bryce Homick, senior environment concept artist (Firaxis Games)
- David Chen, technical animator (Rift)
- Madison McElfish, technical artist
- Rebecca Flannery, technical artist (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Epic Mickey 2)
- Mike Abahazy, technical art manager (Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed)
- Kyle Ruegg, animator (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Dungeon Hunter 3)
- Stephen Zafros, senior animator (Metroid Prime 1, 2 & 3)
- Alex Petrulis, environment artist (Deep Silver Volition, High Voltage Software)
- Kyle Lopez, cinematic layout artist (Ms Marvel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)
- Kiko Buyo, senior animator (Metroid Prime Remastered, Star Wars: The Old Republic)
- John Sheblak, lead graphics engineer (Mario Kart 7, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze)
- Marina Czarnecki, 3D artist (Apex Legends, Clash of Clans)
- Tony Bernardin, graphics engineer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
- John Carter, VFX artist (Remnant 2, Darksiders 3)
- Jon Marcella, environment designer (God of War PS4, God of War: Ascension)
- Dan Wallace, lighting artist (The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, God of War Ragnarok, Overwatch)
- Thomas Haase, lighting artist
- Tom Wright, lighting artist (IllFonic)
- Elizabeth Baxter, lead lighting artist (Epic Mickey 1 & 2)
- Brandon Habib, lighting artist (Halo Infinite)
- Farhez Rayani, senior lighting artist (Pixar)
- Josh Slezak, lighting artist
- Ayesha Baugh, real-time lighting artist
- Chad Orr, senior lighting artist (Dreamworks Animation, God of War 4)
- Alex Gold, technical designer (God of War: Ragnarok, MediEvil PS4)
- Jon Wofford, lead UI artist (Anthem, Star Wars: The Old Republic)
Design
- Richard Terrell, designer (Remnant: From the Ashes)
- Nestor Hernandez, senior designer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
- Bill Vandervoort, design director (Metroid Prime 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart 7, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
- Brandon Strong, senior designer (Junction Point Studios, Sensory Sweep)
- Scott Hafner, senior level designer (Obsidian)
- Stephen Dupree, principal game designer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Lucky’s Tale)
- Patrick Krefting, technical designer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Epic Mickey 1 & 2)
- Shawn Wingler, technical designer (Mass Effect Trilogy, The Sims on console)
- Jay Fuller, designer (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart 7)
- Ethan Smith, designer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Epic Mickey 1 & 2)
- Wayland Fong, technical designer (Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War / Vanguard, Black Ops 4)
- Russell O’Henly, staff technical designer (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Mario Kart 7)
Audio
- Geoffrey Belcher, sound designer
- Scott Petersen, audio supervisor (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Bobby Arlauskas, sound designer (Metroid Prime 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Halo 4)
Engineering
- Bharathwaj Nandakumar, engineering manager (Treyarch)
- Ben Johnson, tools engineer (Hangar 13)
- Matt Frank, tools engineer (A Hat in Time)
- Eric Sebesta, director of engineering (Unity, Bethesda, BioWare)
- Ryan Dunagan, technical designer (Remnant: From the Ashes, Darksiders 3)
- Jeffrey Joyce, software engineer (NBA 2K)
- David Plunkett, programmer (The Matrix Online)
- Gary Scanlon Jr, software engineer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Disney Infinity 2.0, Mass Effect Trilogy)
- Jim Richmond, senior software engineer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze)
- Taylor Yust, gameplay engineer
- Andy Hanson, software engineer (Metroid Prime 3)
- Michael Kelley, software engineer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11)
- Daniel Habig, technical engineer (Bethesda)
- Jose Guerra, staff software engineer (Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze)
- Andrew Orlando, software engineer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Star Wars: The Old Republic)
- Jordan Johnson, UI engineer (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Medal of Honor: Frontline)
- Rio Velarde, programmer (Rockstar Games)
- Ryan Kirschman, gameplay engineer (Telltale Games)
- Robert Walker, gameplay engineer (Halo 2L Anniversary, Doom 2016, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered)
- Ryan Cornelius, senior lead gameplay engineer (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze)
- Jim Gage, software engineer (Metroid Prime 1, 2 & 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze)
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