Metroid Prime 4 job ad mentions ’emotional scenes’ and ‘cinematic pillars’

Metroid Prime 4 developer Retro Studios is looking for a storyboard artist who can help define “emotional scenes” in the game’s narrative.

That’s according to a recently posted job advertisement (spotted by Wccftech), which is likely related to the first-person adventure sequel.

The job ad includes in its description of duties the requirement to “work with the cinematic lead to help maintain cinematic pillars,” “define emotional scenes that will resonate with audiences,” and “explore interesting and innovative scenes that elevate the narrative.”

The requirements could suggest a significant shift in focus for the new instalment, as previous Metroid Prime games featured almost no cinematics, with narrative almost entirely restricted to lore contained within its environments.

Nintendo later explored integrating a strong scripted narrative into the series with Team Ninja’s Metroid: Other M. However, the game was poorly received compared to Retro’s games.

Nintendo announced in early 2019 that it had decided to “restart development from the beginning” for Metroid Prime 4, with producer Kensuke Tanabe calling in series creator Retro to take over the project from its original, unannounced developer.

Retro has been hiring for Metroid Prime 4 ever since and its jobs page is still advertising for a lead animator and boss/AI designer, among other roles.

One recent recruit is Call of Duty: Black Ops veteran Bharathwaj ‘Bat’ Nandakumar, who joined as lead engineer having most recently served the same role for the PC version of Black Ops 4.

New Super Lucky’s Tale and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze lead designer Stephen Dupree also re-joined Retro in late 2019 after a two-year absence.

Around half of the full-time developers who worked on Metroid Prime 3 remain at Retro Studios, according to VGC analysis conducted in August 2019.

It found that a core team of around 50 people worked full-time on the 2007 Wii shooter and around 27 remained at the developer, including four contractors made permanent.