Kynan Pearson

This article is written from the Real Life point of view

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Participating in the Iwata Asks interview for Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Kynan Pearson is a video game designer and former employee of Retro Studios.

Metroid Prime series

Pearson was a level designer for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, also assisting with world planning and mechanics for both and event planning (including of SkyTown, Elysia) for the latter. He came to Retro Studios at the invitation of Jason Behr. Pearson had left Retro a year into development of Corruption to pursue another opportunity, but returned three months later at the invitation of Mark Pacini, and was credited under additional thanks.

After the original Metroid Prime series concluded, Pearson was the lead designer for Donkey Kong Country Returns and an unknown, unannounced project.

In 2021, Pearson gave interviews to Shinesparkers and the Kiwi Talkz podcast. He also appeared on the Talk Nintendo podcast in 2021, sharing his thoughts on Metroid Dread, and the Shinesparkers Podcast in early 2022, discussing his ideas for future Metroid games after Dread.

Subsequent career

Pearson left Retro in December 2010 and joined 343 Industries the next month, becoming the lead multiplayer level designer for Halo 4 and 5: Guardians, before working at Bluepoint Games (founded by former Retro Studios employees) for a few years, and as a creative consultant and the creative director at Playful Corp. He is currently the Creative Director of Discord.

Thoughts on Metroid

“	Metroid was incredibly influential to me as a game series, that I grew up playing. I love Super Metroid, but I loved the original Metroid. I had some great, basically moments experiencing that in a social setting, playing with friends. We were all passing the controller back and forth, exploring this crazy alien world. You didn't know what to expect, and it was very different in format from other games at the time. I think that, for me, the core of Metroid revolves around the idea of exploration and wonder and being isolated in an alien world. There's an element of isolation and kind of discovery where you're in an alien setting, you don't have a frame of reference for things that you relate to in the everyday world. Everything is an opportunity for surprise. You're discovering what creatures do as you travel through the world. You're discovering what these abilities and tools do and there's this sense of place and a mystery around everything, so that you're solving things in a very visual way just from the information that's provided. But there's constantly moments that imprint on you, like when you run across a Chozo Statue. Let's just take Super Metroid, where in its hands is an orb that you break open, and then get a new ability. The questions that start coming up in your mind, that's like what are the Chozo, what are these things? You don't even see the names listed, so it's something where you talk to friends about, and try to come up with your own theories about what these meanings are, and then maybe do some research and read a little bit, and then learn more of some of the fictional elements, but it's still a very personal thing for people. That idea of being alone somewhere distant and having to kind of survive.	„
—Kynan Pearson

Trivia

• Pearson estimates blocking in "a little under a third of all of the rooms and halls" in Echoes. He also came up with the names for Amorbis and Quadraxis, and conceptualized the Bryyonian Golems.
• He is a good friend of Jason Behr and previously worked with him at Iguana Entertainment (now Acclaim Studios Austin).
• Pearson said that he was "very social" during the development of both Prime games and would amplify the ideas of other staff. He learned a lot from Todd Keller, including how to guide other employees to reach success rather than dictate how they would do so.
• Regarding the perceived hard difficulty of Echoes and critics of the Context Sensitive Interaction used in Corruption, Pearson said some appreciated the difficulty of the former, and pointed to Corruption's use of the unique Wii hardware.
• At one point, Pearson went into Pacini's office and found him working on a pitch document, putting more polish into it than what Pearson thought was necessary. Pacini explained that he wanted to do everything, such as create that document, better than the previous attempt. His philosophy of "always do better" greatly influenced Pearson.
• Regarding Jack Mathews' criticism of the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Multiplayer, Pearson disagreed, stating that a Metroid multiplayer mode could be exciting, depending on its uniqueness and how well executed it was.
• On Twitter, Pearson has commented that he prefers the Japanese covers of each Prime game, particularly Echoes. He said that Retro Studios has a larger version of the Japanese Echoes cover on display as a poster inside the studio, but was unsure if such a poster was officially released to the public. He also commented his belief that the Amorbis boss in Echoes would be an excellent toy or action figure.
• Datamining of the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc has revealed that PFC G. Haley, one of the deceased Federation Marines in the final game, was originally named K. Pearson. This is a clear reference to Kynan Pearson.
• Interviewed by fanzine Switch Player in 2017, Pearson revealed what he wanted to see from Metroid Prime 4, which was announced during Nintendo's Spotlight conference in June. He hoped it would reimagine Metroid similarly to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with a "fully realised planet featuring a vast surface and a deep subterranean world to explore".
• Pearson makes a cameo on track 10 of Harmony of a Hunter Returns, "Prophecy of the Forgotten", voicing the Artifact of Chozo hint.
• In 2019, Pearson released a guide he wrote to creating a Metroidvania game. Part 1 can be viewed here: [1], and part 2 here: [2].

Gallery

Metroid Fusion store display autographed by the game's staff, in Pearson's possession. Kensuke Tanabe and Risa Tabata had it signed for him at his request.

Closeup of the display.

"Donnie Darko" Samus

Miiverse posts by Pearson in the Super Metroid community.

Pearson's Japanese copy of Echoes.

Pearson's Super Smash Bros. Samus amiibo.

Metroid Prime Trilogy Title Screen

Echoes cover, autographed by Retro Studios employees. This was given to all staff after development finished.

Pearson with Samus Aran cosplayer Chelsea Mills at PAX West 2017.

Pearson's copy of Metroid: Samus Returns.

Whiteboard sketch of Samus and Ridley drawn on February 25, 2018.

Pearson wearing the Universal Bounty Hunters T-shirt.

Pearson playing Super Metroid via Nintendo Switch Online.

External links

• Shinesparkers interview
• Shinesparkers Episode 20
• Kiwi Talkz interview
• Talk Nintendo episode 269
• Convincing Creatives episode 47
• Pearson on LinkedIn
• Pearson on MobyGames
• Pearson on Twitter
• Pearson on Blogspot
• Interview with The Game Design Roundtable