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Matt Manchester is an American Environment Artist who works for Retro Studios. He designed environments in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart 7, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Metroid Prime Remastered, and is now working on Metroid Prime 4.[1]
Early career[]
Manchester's career in games began at Firefly Studios, where he worked for a little over a year as an artist on the game CivCity: Rome.
Super Metroid was a favorite game of his growing up.[2] Manchester, as a college student, would drive to his local Wal-Mart to play the in-store demo of Metroid Prime on Nintendo GameCube.[3] In July 2005, Manchester moved to Austin, Texas to work for Retro Studios, where he has remained for eighteen years as of January 2024.
Metroid Prime series[]
Manchester's work in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption includes environments and objects. Rooms he designed include Substations East and West, Gateway Hall, G.F.S. Theseus, North and South Jungle Halls, Fiery Airdock, Imperial Hall, Gel Processing Site, Main Lift, Main Docking Access, Powerworks, Concourse Ventilation, Main Docking Bay, Maintenance Shafts AU, CC, GP, OB and TR, Save Station B, Metroid Processing, Creche Transit, Phazon Quarry, and Defense Access.
Manchester created all Dioramas but the one depicting Meta Ridley. He designed the celestial clocks in Save Station B, Zebetite-like tubes in the North and South Jungle Halls, the Korba creature, ceremonial armor in the Gel Processing Site, and wrote backstories for features in rooms such as Metroid Processing and Imperial Hall. Some of this content made it into the game, while most of it was scrapped due to scan text being reduced to three lines. The unused text is available on his blog (linked below) and on their respective Wikitroid articles.
Manchester was part of the development team for Metroid Prime Remastered.[4][5]
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze reference[]
Following the conclusion of the original Metroid Prime trilogy, Manchester hid a Metroid larva in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, in the underwater portion of level 4-3, Amiss Abyss. It was discovered four years after the game was first released, and he was happy to see it had finally been found.[6][7][8] Manchester, Sean Horton and possibly Teague Schultz added other Metroid easter eggs in Tropical Freeze and its predecessor, Donkey Kong Country Returns.[9]
Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Corruption[]
Other work[]
![Metroid vs. Beholder. [1]](/wiki/File:Metroidvsbeholder.jpg "Metroidvsbeholder.jpg (339 KB)")
![Manchester's Metroid larva amiibo, in which he keeps his Wacom pen.[11]](/wiki/File:Matt_Manchester_Metroid_amiibo_pen_holder.png "Matt Manchester Metroid amiibo pen holder.png (4.18 MB)")
![Recreation of original Metroid sprite with NES cartridges done prior to his employment at Retro Studios. Later donated to the company, where it now resides.[12] It appears in a GameSpot tour video.](/wiki/File:Hanging02.jpg "Hanging02.jpg (256 KB)")
External links[]
- Blog (inactive since 2011)
References[]
- ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "That's me." [in response to a meme about a Retro employee working on the game] 6 April 2021 1:00 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1379479184234446857
- ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "Nice. Super Metroid was the big one for me growing up. It's a titan of environmental/gameplay driven narrative." 29 January 2021 11:28 a.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1355191142523039755
- ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "Aww, thank you! I also love Prime. In college, we used to drive out to the local Wal-Mart to play through the GameCube demo, again. It was an honor to work on 3. I poured all my love of #Metroid into it." 11 July 2021 7:29 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1414366143788240897
- ^ Matt Manchester (oracrest). "#MetroidPrime Remastered is announced!
So excited I got an opportunity to work on this game.
The original was a favorite that I would play in college, driving out to the Wal-Mart late at night to play the demo over and over. Poured a lot of heart in this!
I hope you like it!" 8 February 2023 6:14 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1623460317287092226 - ^ Matt Manchester (oracrest). "Thanks for such a warm and loving response to #MetroidPrimeRemastered
Fun to see # of followers go above 3k because of the release. I’ll share this bit of info:
I am, in fact, an uncle that works for Nintendo :D" 11 February 2023 12:01 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1624453659399430144 - ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "Congrats on finding my easter egg, Shane. I was hoping for as long as possible to find it, and even open to it never being found. But 4 years is a good run I think." 3 Aug 2018 12:20 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1025401019340148737
- ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "Thanks @Kotaku Metroid’s a cool dude, and deserves to be found." 3 Aug 2018 4:04 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1025457498516541443
- ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "I hid a Metroid in Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, and as best as I can tell it took 4 years and a switch release before it was discovered. https://kotaku.com/four-years-later-players-found-a-metroid-hidden-in-don-1828087121" 5 Apr 2021 1:55 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1379130672762216456
- ^ Kiwi Talkz. "#136 - Ted Anderson Interview (Donkey Kong, Mario Kart 7, Artistry, Nintendo, Texture Libraries etc)". YouTube. May 14, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2022. (starts at 47:13)
- ^ (2023, January 27). Episode 26 - Bryan Walker [Podcast]. Shinesparkers. Shinesparkers. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. (starts at 4:14)
- ^ Manchester, Matt (oracrest). "Do you like my #Metroid Wacom pen holder?" 24 August 2021 1:26 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/oracrest/status/1430220068160524289
- ^ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uGD87H5sF1MJ:www.modelforge.com/MiscMetroid.html+http://www.modelforge.com&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a (dead link)