Development Photos

Goldeneye 007 was developed in the village of Twycross, England. Twycross is about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Birmingham. You might imagine the developers worked in a modern office building, but actually at the time Rare was based at an old farm. The central farm house was about 300 years old! (Source: Nintendo Power Volume 85, p. 37)

The core Rare team was nine members, though many others contributed to the GoldenEye project. Many developers were recent college graduates and most had never worked on a game before. The following is a list of the developers with their roles and how they are credited in-game in parentheses:

  • Martin Hollis — Project Lead, Programmer (Produced and Directed by)
  • Mark Edmonds M.A. — Programmer (Director of Photography)
  • Dr. David Doak — Programmer, Scripter, Designer (Original Screenplay)
  • Karl Hilton — Environment Artist, 3D Artist (Scenic Art Director)
  • Duncan Botwood — 3D Artist, Motion Capture, Designer (Scenic Art Director)
  • B Jones — Character Artist, Environment Artist (Costume Designer)
  • Stephen Ellis — Programmer (2nd-Unit Director)
  • Graeme Norgate — Composer, Sound Effects (Original Music, Sound Effects)
  • Grant Kirkhope — Composer (Original Music)

Programmer Mark Edmonds was inspired to apply to Rare after seeing their advertisement in Edge magazine, quite possibly this exact one from the November 1994 issue. (Source: GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr, p. 24)

Special mention to Adrian Smith who left Rare before GoldenEye was released, but created the explosions, muzzle flashes, and some weapon models, and health gauge design.

Set Visits

Developers Karl Hilton, Duncan Botwood, Mark Edmonds, and Brett Jones visited the GoldenEye movie sets several times. Hilton took hundreds of reference photos on 35mm film and Jones used an early digital camera to gather yet more photos. (Source: GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr, p. 36) On one occasion they brought along a VHS camcorder, stills of which are seen below. GE Movie Sets

Developers Karl Hilton and Mark Edmonds visit the GoldenEye movie sets. (Source: Nintendo 64 Anthology by Math Manent)

The following set and game comparison images come from Nintendo's old official GoldenEye website.

Rare Studio

Development team
GoldenEye team group photo. Image credit: Brett Jones
(Source)
Karl Hilton at his desk
Level artist Karl Hilton at his desk. Image credit: Dr. David Doak
(Source)
Challenger XL computer
Challanger XL.
(Source)
Rare office
Rare office. Image credit: Dr. David Doak
(Source)
Rare office
Duncan Botwood in his office.
(Source)
Dr. Doak and Martin Hollis
Martin Hollis handing Dr. Doak the secret GoldenEye game prototype.
(Source)
GoldenEye office
Rare office.
(Source)
N64 dev cart
Extra tall Nintendo 64 development cartridge.
(Source)
Onyx Workstation
Silocon Graphics, Inc Onyx workstation.
(Source)
GoldenEye team photo
GoldenEye team photo.
(Source)
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