Steve Malpass's Thoughts on Grunty Industries

THE DEVELOPERS KNEW BANJO-TOOIE HAD SOME UNUSER-FRIENDLY DESIGNS PRIOR TO LAUNCH.

 

Under The Game Maker's Toolkit video for The World Design for Banjo-Kazooie, Steve Malpass replies in the comments giving some insight into the design work of Banjo-Tooie.

"As the other designer of Banjo-Tooie, I salute anyone that persevered to finish it. It was always intended to be more of an adventure game than a platform game (hence everything being interconnected), thanks in part to Ocarina of Time, which influenced us a lot," Malpass said in his initial comment. Gregg Mayles would be the primary designer for the game.

 "Grunty Industries was the first level I ever designed and it was an exercise in proving myself (though it was refined and approved by Gregg). What made sense on paper in the literal form of a map was much more difficult to navigate in-game and in-head."

 Malpass confirms that the team "knew almost immediately," that the game was over-complicated and user-unfriendly. His comment states the reason the change couldn't be made was time restraints. 

Initially warp pads were not planned to be in the game, Malpass continues "the warp pads were added right at the end to aid navigation after all the other paths and connections were designed." and that "the QA department soon made us aware there might be issues."

 When asked about the difficulty of Grunty Industries, Steve Malpass states, "Grunty Industries wasn't really intended to be that difficult." Some of the ideas according to Malpass were Gregg Mayles, such as entering the building with the train and most of the interconnected areas.

Concept art released by Gregg Mayles: https://twitter.com/Ghoulyboy/status/618132770393575424/

 

 In the article Feature: Banjo-Tooie Turns 20 - The Rare Team Tells The Story Of Bombs, Bugs And Bottles, Steve Malpass says that the level, "caused me a lot of headaches". He continues to say "It was spread over several factory floors, so I had to think in terms of height as well as from above in 2D, and all on paper. I was determined that the location of things, like the lift shaft, had to be consistent from one floor to the next, even though they are separate sub-levels and not actually physically modelled together."

Image created using NoClip. https://noclip.website/

Years prior at the Rocket Jump 2016, Steve Malpass was interviewed by Lauren Carter, during this interview he spoke about how he had joined Rare in 1998, and that Banjo-Tooie was slated for 1999.

The boss Weldar was initially scrapped but Gregg Mayles had spotted it in the trash and said to use it. Steve Malpass then tells the audience, "No matter if you have a really shitty idea, in the end don't throw anything away because someone else might see something else in it."