Dear Reader:
Miyamoto shares the secrets to how Nintendo creates their unique titles
Kotaku: What goes into making a Nintendo game special? How do you know when a game is good?
Shigeru Miyamoto: Ultimately I want a lot of people to enjoy the game, but the initial barometer and gauge is whether I enjoy it or not. Another thing is whether the uniqueness is maintained in a game as a Nintendo game, compared to [games from] other companies.
Kotaku: What do you mean by uniqueness? What do you think sets a great Nintendo game apart from other games?
Miyamoto: It could be how to play the game or some of the techniques or technology being used. There’s always a limited amount of things that we can use, so it’s how we use that and in what combination. So it’s really–instead of creating–a little more like editing, in a sense.
Kotaku: What is that core of a game? Is that, for you, something you actually feel with your hands, because it is about interactivity?
Miyamoto: I think it comes down to the experience of the customer or people playing the game. It’s something we do with the Wii U. You can only experience playing a game with two screens on the Wii U, and it’s really about using the past techniques and technology that we’ve used before. We keep at it, and at the end of that we discover something new.
This is part of a really large interview that truly gets into the nitty gritty of how Nintendo games are made. It's very interesting to see how Miyamoto approaches game creation and what elements are key. Check out the full interview here.