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.

Follow James on twitter and at NZXR.dev.

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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

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Find us at www.project-tempest.net/podcast

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