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Miyamoto interview - arguments with Yamauchi, current interests, game design process, industry competition, the beauty of big titles
The following are snippets of a Miyamoto interview with EDGE magazine. We’ve heard some of these snippets in the past, but I’ve only posted the more interesting/unheard snippets below.
The way he (Yamauchi, former Nintendo president) selected games was just like this: we had some new ideas, I approach him and share them with him and say: “I think people might be entertained in a new way”. And when Mr Yamauchi could really relate to that and agree, immediately it became the company’s shared project. So we could immediately begin development. Sometimes he couldn’t give me an immediate ‘yes’. In such situations, I secretly proceeded ahead with a project and at the time when it was forming into a more concrete thing, I tentatively approached Mr Yamauchi again, giving him the opportunity to pass everything. [Laughs] Well, after all, Mr Yamauchi is the same age as my parents, so I guess that he was maybe looking at me as a son or grandson doing something for him. I think he had a little of that kind of approach. But, having said that, of course the end result is sometimes very upsetting because there are business realities, too. My game could sell lower than Nintendo or Mr Yamauchi expected – then he became really, really upset. Furious, in fact.
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when I first showed him (Yamauchi) the demo of Super Mario Bros, he really, really liked it. I still recall him saying: “This is great – you can travel on land and in the sky and even in the water. This is going to be amazing.”
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In recent years what you can do by taking advantage of videogame technology has expanded. And I’ve also become more interested in the people surrounding me, and what sort of subjects they might be interested in. In my thinking I’m inclined to learn more about that. It’s not the case that I was intentionally trying to expand the boundaries of whatever videogames can do: rather, I was simply trying to expand whatever I could do to more people. Also, that feeling that other people might be appreciative happened to be something that personally interested me!
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Nintendo always tries to make something that other people have never made before. So, because of that, other people might want to copy us in the end. Whenever something we have created and presented is followed by copies, we always feel it is threatening. More than that, we’re concerned that others are trying to do something similar for the sake of it. It’s not encouraging to Nintendo. But there is one more important thing: we try to make something unprecedented every time. And we try to make it so that it can become the standard in our entertainment business one day.
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I first come up with some sort of theory, outlining unusual game functionality that people might enjoy. And as soon as I think of that sort of idea, I want that idea to be in the hands of the customers as soon as possible. So then I think, ‘OK, to realise this, is it really necessary for us to have the title or an introductory movie screen at all? Do we really need to incorporate a story that’s going to take up programming time?’ With this in mind, we can decide on the actual deadline for completion.
From that point I try to take the minimum number of steps because, as I say, I want to provide the customer with that unusual experience as soon as possible. So, I’ve had some strong disagreements, in my mind at least, when people say, “We are going to make this big title for this release date”, or, “We are going to make this small title”, because that is not the way I personally approach making games. Actually, it’s the complete opposite of how I make games.
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I have never denied the beauty of big titles. Nor have I ever denied the potential of the smaller – or ‘ichi’ – titles at all. However, whether it’s going to be a huge game or an ichi title must depend upon how you want it to be realised for the customer, to provide that experience you first thought of. You have to focus not just on the end result, but on the purpose, I guess.