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Wen (center) with veteran Metroid series composers Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano.
Clark Wen is a freelance audio director and sound designer. He worked as the Audio Lead at Retro Studios for both Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
Metroid Prime series[]
Wen, a longtime Metroid fan himself, was led to apply to work at Retro after being impressed by the Space World 2000 demo. He was hesitant due to negative press surrounding Retro at the time, and having to relocate to Austin, but was convinced upon meeting the development team.[1] Wen directed the overall vision of the first two games and developed the technology for the sound engine, while creating a large amount of the in-game sounds and managing a team of audio contractors.[1] Having grown dissatisfied with Austin, Texas (where Retro is headquartered), Wen hired Scott Petersen as his replacement for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.[1]
Kenji Yamamoto stated that Wen and Petersen were his "best [email] friends" during the development of the Prime series, due to the extensive email exchanges and conference calls they shared.[2] Yamamoto asked Wen to make last minute changes to the game's audio despite it being hours away from going gold; Wen accomplished this and felt it was a good call on Yamamoto's part.[3] It was only after Wen left Retro that he met Yamamoto in person in Kyoto, Japan, where Wen was living at the time.[1] Wen and Petersen were nominees at the 2004 NAVGTR Awards in the category of Sound Effects for their work on Echoes.
Wen provided "voice acting" in Prime by recording himself making whispering sounds, and increasing the pitch of his voice by an octave. He used this sound for the Tangle Weeds, a non-hostile species in the game. This was done since he was too short on time to find an existing sound effect that could work.[4]
During the final stretch of development, Wen was known as the "Prince of Sleep Deprivation" due to the amount of work he was putting in. He would take breaks, such as returning to his home for naps, to ensure he did not overwork himself.[3]
In 2017, Wen revealed that the original Prime was meant to be played without music to maximize the feeling of isolation.[5] He later clarified that this was never an official direction but a worst case scenario. It took a long time to find a composer for Prime; Yamamoto did not step up until later in development. He says that the game should be played with the musical score turned on as intended.[1]
Wen was interviewed by Metroid fansite Shinesparkers in 2018,[1] and the podcast Kiwi Talkz in 2021.[3] Subsequently, he returned to Retro Studios as a Contract Sound Designer for Metroid Prime Remastered.
Subsequent career[]
Since leaving Retro, Wen worked on the sound of the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero games at at Neversoft Entertainment and Infinity Ward. Working on realistic sounds as opposed to the science fiction audio he had designed before was a challenge, but Wen felt it helped him grow as a designer.[3] In 2015, Wen founded Exile Sound, a sound services company, and he has also been the Sound Supervisor of the Formosa Group since 2017.
Trivia[]
- Personally, Wen prefers when Samus Aran has little to no dialogue, as that is how he remembers her from growing up.[1]
- Wen recognized the voice of one of the actresses who auditioned for Samus as that of Gabrielle Carteris, who he remembered from Beverly Hills, 90210.[1] His interview was the first to reveal that Samus had two actresses in Prime and Echoes: "JH" (Jennifer Hale) and "VM" (Vanessa Marshall).
- Wen is most proud of the original Prime, saying it "will always be like my firstborn".[1]
- Having studied Russian in college, Wen's first attempt at a spoken language for the Space Pirates consisted of Russian phrases with reversed syllables. However, it still sounded too similar to real Russian, so Wen ultimately used processed Yoruba spoken by Akintunde Omitowoju.[3]
- Wen hoped that Metroid Prime 4 would include the same open world concepts from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and "get wild" with the sound design.[1] Having enjoyed the work of Hildur Guðnadóttir on Chernobyl, Wen hoped that Prime 4 would have an experimental score blurring the line between music and sound design.[3]
Testimonials about Wen[]
| “ | I have rarely met a more dedicated and hard working developer. Clark developed the entire audio package for our product and worked insane hours to get it "just right". He welcomed feedback, actively sought it in fact, and never settled for "good enough". He is a priceless asset and a dedicated craftsman. | „ |
—Mike Wikan testimonial on Wen's website | ||
| “ | I think that Clark Wen (Lead Sound Designer for Prime 1) did an amazing job of staying true to the 2D Metroid franchise while establishing a new and compelling aesthetic for the 3D Metroid Prime. The game really hit all the right notes from every discipline. | „ |
—Scott Petersen[2] | ||
External links[]
- Website
- Wen on LinkedIn
- Wen on MobyGames
- Wen on Twitter
- Interview with Shinesparkers
- Interview with Kiwi Talkz
References[]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Interview: Clark Wen. Shinesparkers. 2018-06-02. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
- ^ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20090228072301/http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=174
- ^ a b c d e f Kiwi Talkz. "#112 - Clark Wen Interview (Metroid Prime, Sound Design, Kenji Yamamoto, Mixing, SFX, Game Audio )". YouTube. October 23, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
- ^ DidYouKnowGaming? "Metroid Prime Devs Share Secrets (EXCLUSIVE)". YouTube. April 17, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022. (starts at 11:54)
- ^ Wen, Clark (exile5ound). "Most people don't know it but Metroid Prime 1 was designed originally to be played without music. It's all about the isolation. #Metroid" 20 Jun 2017 7:54 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/exile5ound/status/877298609116532736