The Usual Places Modcast - Episode 5: Pipeworks Studios

In this episode, we welcome Dan Duncalf and Dan White as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pipeworks Studios. These gentleman have worked on games such as Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Terraria, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and made the startup animations for the Original Xbox and Xbox 360 game consoles. We talk about their journey in the games industry, the projects they've worked on, how the industry has changed, and where it's heading.

Learn more: https://www.pipeworks.com
Follow:
  / pipeworksstudio  
  / pipeworks  
   / pipeworksstudios  

Speakers (in order of
appearance): Scotch, Haguero, Dan White, Dan Duncalf, Harcroft

Chapters:
00:00:05 Introduction
00:01:36 Founding of Pipeworks
00:05:05 Meeting Seamus Blackley
00:10:44 Early days
00:13:13 Football Pro 96 bug
00:15:29 Making the Xbox boot animation
00:20:13 Microsoft enlists Pipeworks
00:23:52 Envisioning the boot animation
00:27:14 Nuclear aesthetic
00:28:15 Working in DirectX
00:33:47 Alternate versions of boot animation
00:37:40 Working within constraints
00:43:55 Controlling with a gamepad
00:46:46 Undiscovered Easter egg
00:51:31 Scrapped shields elements
00:54:24 Xbox 360 boot animation
00:58:15 Games and Godzilla
00:59:36 GLOM for Palm Pilot
01:04:15 Coding back then
01:06:08 Looking to the future
01:10:43 Impact of generative AI
01:18:31 Advice for new game designers
01:22:19 Conclusion

The Usual Places is a podcast focusing on the Original Xbox game console, with detours into the Xbox 360 and modern Xbox consoles too. Our goal is to welcome guest speakers from the video game industry and from the homebrew/modding communities that have kept these classic consoles alive for decades. We discuss new projects coming out plus hear the history surrounding our beloved consoles from the people who worked on it.Interested in joining us as a guest speaker? Contact us viathe Xbox-Scene Discord or fill out this form:https://forms.gle/BNKPj7ujta8Zjhma7Come chat with us in the ⁠⁠Xbox-Scene Discord⁠⁠:   / discord