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April 12, 2021 79 mins

In episode 6,  Nicholas Zippmann, a Senior Staff Systems Designer for Sony's Bend Studio talks about his career working in the industry on Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption, Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and more.

He talks about how to approach game systems design, where he got his start, and we both admire open world systems design and the various approaches to it on Unreal, Rage, and other game engines. We even give some travel tips for navigating Amsterdam, and more.

This episode is dedicated to the hip hop legend Earl DMX Simmons & founder of Rockstar Leeds and beloved colleague Gordan Hall. Both men who will live on through their art and the impact they had on the people's lives around them, and through their children.

 

Chapters:

(00:00) Dedication to Earl DMX Simmons & Gordan Hall

(00:52) Who is Nicholas Zippmann?

(02:11) Home Office Setup

(05:16) Tea & Sony Swag

(12:54) First Day at Rockstar

(20:17) Game Design & Combi Scopes

(31:47) Game Dev in Amsterdam with Guerrilla

(40:22) Unreal Tech Design

(52:28) Systems in Days Gone

(01:05:39) Full Sail Program Advisory Committee

(01:15:45) John's Final Thoughts

 

Episode External Resources:

Connect with Nicholas Zippmann on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nzippmann/

Follow Nicholas Zippmann on Twitter - https://twitter.com/NickZipps

Nic's Moby Games Credits - https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,429515/

Follow John Diaz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/elkingpin

To be a guest book a meeting here: https://calendly.com/outofplayarea/preshow

Connect with us http://outofplayarea.com

 

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