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Paul Tozour

Paul Tozour is an American software engineer. Tozour worked at Retro Studios as a Senior Engineer from 2003-2008, on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, as well as two unannounced projects, Adept[1] and Project X.[2]

Tozour was interviewed by Kiwi Talkz in 2022 about his work on the Metroid Prime series.

Early career[]

Tozour's career began at Brøderbund Software in 1994, where he was the lead designer and engineer for WarBreeds, and a programmer on In the 1st Degree. He then worked at Gas Powered Games (later Wargaming Seattle), Microsoft (as a Combat AI Developer for MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, and designer of two missions) and an AI developer at Ion Storm on Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Metroid Prime series[]

Extensive gameplay, AI, and tools development for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and two subsequent unannounced products. Responsibilities included custom AI development and tuning of dozens of creature AI systems and boss encounters. Designed and built an extensive real-time artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic and debugging toolset, a collision abstraction system and attachment management system, and refactored pathfinding systems for flying and jump-capable creatures. Rewrote the internal in-game debugging system to be fully hierarchical and make full use of the Wii remote pointer. Mentored several engineers involved in AI development.

—From Paul Tozour's resume

Tozour joined Retro Studios shortly after the release of the original Metroid Prime.[3] He created the artificial intelligence for several bosses in Echoes and Corruption, including the Chykka Larva, all of Dark Samus's battles in both games, the Defense Drone, Grapple Guardian, Helios, the Korakk Beast and "Beast Rider" (Pirate Hussar), Meta Ridley and Rundas. He used a navigation-mesh-cost-based avoidance system designed by Jeff Orkin of Monolith Productions on several creatures in Echoes;[4] these included the Grenchler, Lumite, Sandigger and Dark Alpha Splinter.[2] During his time at Retro, Tozour contributed to Game/AI, an AI-related blog.

Shortly after development of Corruption concluded, Tozour wrote a pitch for a strategy game in the Metroid series called Metroid Tactics. He revealed its existence in a late 2022 DidYouKnowGaming? interview.

Tozour and Rhys Lewis worked on Project X, a prototype of a game in The Legend of Zelda series[5], after Corruption. Tozour felt that the ideas in the game's design document did not work well together, and his repeated warnings about this to Mark Pacini were ignored. He later suggested that this was due to Pacini's imminent departure to form Armature Studio. The project was eventually cancelled, something Tozour was relieved by.[2] Tozour also created a prototype for Adept, a Portal-like game that was rejected by Nintendo.[6]

Subsequent career[]

Tozour left Retro Studios and the video game industry in June 2008, about two weeks into commencement of development on Donkey Kong Country Returns.[2] He joined the Intel Corporation as a Development Lead for six months. After two years as the Director of Development at Intelligence Engine Design Systems, LLC, he founded Mothership Entertainment in 2013 and currently serves as General Manager.

In 2021, Tozour announced that he was publishing a book, The Four Swords: A Parable of Leadership, Video Games, and Dead Dragons, currently scheduled for release in late 2022. It will also be released in audiobook form, with casting roles and the recording causing a delay from its planned release in 2021.[2] He launched an Indiegogo campaign to finance the book that year, but the campaign did not meet its goal.[7]

External links[]

  • "In this interview, Paul Tozour discusses his work on the AI of Metroid Prime 3, most notably the boss called Helios. He discusses the swarms in the game as the inspiration for Helios, and the various stages of the prototype. Paul also discusses the various levels of intelligence that goes into this multi-agent system, including the various forms of Helios: creature, shapes, swarm, multiple swarms, and particles system. You'll also learn about the various obstacles encountered, such as performance in collision or avoidance, and how they were resolved in practice."

Blog posts[]

References[]

  1. ^ DidYouKnowGaming. "8 Cancelled Nintendo Games from Retro Studios (New Discoveries)" YouTube. November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7P9nbOTvA
  2. ^ a b c d e Kiwi Talkz. "#138 - Paul Tozour Interview (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Boss Design, A.I., Leadership, Four Swords etc.)". YouTube. June 25, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  3. ^ GameDevsLikeYou. "GameDevsLikeYou Interview With Paul Tozour". Game Developer. June 29, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
  4. ^ Tozour, Paul. "September 1, 2005". Game/AI. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
  5. ^ DidYouKnowGaming? "Retro Studios' 2 Cancelled Zelda Games (Exclusive)" YouTube. September 3, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlROEEMvBs
  6. ^ DidYouKnowGaming. "8 Cancelled Nintendo Games from Retro Studios (New Discoveries)" YouTube. November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7P9nbOTvA
  7. ^ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-four-swords--3
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