Miyamoto still not retiring, Zelda might be good for a Retro collaboration, voice acting talk, new game ideas
“He jokingly mentions retirement to motivate his staff to excel. His ability to focus on smaller projects reflects the confidence he has in all of Nintendo’s development teams … Mr. Miyamoto will continue to provide oversight to those teams and get deeply involved in projects when the situation warrants, ensuring that the quality of Nintendo projects is maintained at a high level. But he will also be able to explore new innovations on his own and in smaller design groups.” - Nintendo statement
A portion of a Wired interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...
Wired.com: It’s come out since Mario Kart 7 came out, there have been some articles about how Retro Studios was very deeply involved in the making of this game, and it’s considered a landmark for the series because you had this collaboration between EAD and Retro. And I’m curious as to whether you think that this would be an interesting model for more games, like a Mario platformer or a Zelda game, to have a Western team and a Japanese team working in close concert to produce a game like that.
Miyamoto: First of all, let me talk a little bit more in detail about how we collaborated with Retro Studios this time. Of course, they were taking care of the game designing aspect. Specifically, they were taking care of the design of the courses and the artwork about that. But when it comes to the gameplay and the control mechanism itself, that’s being taken care of by EAD once again.
People often say that videogames made by Western developers are somehow different in terms of taste for the players, in comparison with Japanese games. I think that means that the Western developers and Japanese developers, they are good at different fields. And that resulted in a different taste in [their games]. Mario Kart, I believe, was good in order to express that kind of different taste because we have many kinds of different courses for the Mario karts to run and race around. So for each of the different courses, we could identify: Retro is supposed to take care of this course, and EAD is going to do that, and such and such. Then, we were able to join forces in order to realize a variety of different courses, a variety of different tastes. I think that’s one reason how it worked out well between a Japanese development team and a Western development team.
As you know, we have already collaborated with Retro for the Metroid Prime series in the past. And I think when we talk about any other franchise, Zelda might be a possible franchise for that collaboration.
Wired.com: So with Skyward Sword, a lot has been said about pushing the series forward with orchestrated music. One of the only complaints I’ve read about the game, and this was something I noticed, is that I think in the five years since Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword… when Twilight Princess came out nobody really said anything about this, but when Skyward Sword came out and the game had no voice acting, it makes an impression now because it’s one of very very few games in that genre which do not have the characters actually speaking in full voice. And I’m curious, I know we’ve probably spoken about this before in the past and I know Nintendo has very deliberate — it’s not a question of technology, it’s a question of artistic style and there are reasons you do it that way. But I’m wondering if there’s any pressure now as games keep evolving to add voices to Zelda to keep it current.
Miyamoto: After all, it’s a question of, what do we really want to make? As the director, of course I want to be getting involved, have direct hands on as many parts and as many things as possible. So it depends upon what kind of direction we are taking for certain projects. For example, if we are pursuing photorealism, I do not think that the director can do a lot — in other words, the staff working on the forefront of development are having their hands on, and the director cannot have their hands on, these details.
But what kind of game, it totally depends on what kind of direction I really want to [take]. And … whether the voice actors should play a key role right now is one of the elements that we’ve got to decide in terms of entirely what things we’d like to make. And talking specifically about the possibility of hiring voice actors to play over the roles of the main characters, we have to ask ourselves, after all, what kind of things do we really need them to speak out? Are they important, and are they really doing anything good for the expanding of the attraction of the Zelda franchise itself?
My opinion is actually against that. I mean, by having the voice actor speaking out the main character’s opinions and messages, I’m afraid that they are going to narrow down the actual characteristics that people can imagine or apply to each character they are controlling, for example. But after all, it depends upon how much work the developer has to show, how many things the director can do, and is it going to do anything good to expand the charm or attraction of The Legend of Zelda? So once again, in terms of all these, if you ask me, isn’t it important for Link and other main characters to speak? I just cannot think so, because of, in terms of what I can do and what Zelda should do.
Wired.com: You’ve narrowed down — you used to do every single game at Nintendo and have input into it and I know recently you’ve narrowed down into a few games that you work on. And all of these games are big retail boxed games that are sold in stores. I see, with Iwata-san talking more about downloadable games and digital games, that becoming more important. I’m curious as to whether you in the near future want to work on games that are smaller, maybe downloadable games, to raise the profile of those games. We see games by the B-teams, but in order to get more people buying games that way, do you feel there need to be Miyamoto download games?
Miyamoto: I just don’t care — as long as I can make something new and interesting, and if it can become a social topic, and spread to so many people, I’ll be working on anything. That’s my attitude. Of course, the situation today is rather different, many companies are simply looking around and seeing what’s trending, what’s hot. Inside that kind of frame, managers demand developers work on similar games. It’s rather difficult for me to say something exact, because unless I can fix my complete idea, I just cannot decide which media is going to be appropriate. What kind of size is going to be appropriate for development. But I think that is actually the right course for us to choose — in other words, developers first come up with a fresh idea. And then, once complete idea is fixed, they should decide, okay, in terms of a new idea, this media is most suited, and the size of the development teams should be just like that.
And after all, I’m aging right now. Yes, I’m in a stage, in a position to be able to take some distance away from the forefront of the development teams right now and see things from a much broader perspective right now. In other words, I think I have many more options than before. In my head, myself. I am now in a position to make things much more freely right now, but the fact of the matter is I have ideas but I have not come to the stage where I can say exactly which one is going to be good for the network games, or what kind of final format shall be appropriate for social gaming. I even have some ideas about Flipnote Studio, things like that, but I [don't] have a complete idea for that. Until I can decide, okay, this is going to be the way each one of these ideas is going to be combined and take shape, I just don’t say that it’s good for digital, it’s good for download. That’s all.
A portion of a Wired interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...
Wired.com: It’s come out since Mario Kart 7 came out, there have been some articles about how Retro Studios was very deeply involved in the making of this game, and it’s considered a landmark for the series because you had this collaboration between EAD and Retro. And I’m curious as to whether you think that this would be an interesting model for more games, like a Mario platformer or a Zelda game, to have a Western team and a Japanese team working in close concert to produce a game like that.
Miyamoto: First of all, let me talk a little bit more in detail about how we collaborated with Retro Studios this time. Of course, they were taking care of the game designing aspect. Specifically, they were taking care of the design of the courses and the artwork about that. But when it comes to the gameplay and the control mechanism itself, that’s being taken care of by EAD once again.
People often say that videogames made by Western developers are somehow different in terms of taste for the players, in comparison with Japanese games. I think that means that the Western developers and Japanese developers, they are good at different fields. And that resulted in a different taste in [their games]. Mario Kart, I believe, was good in order to express that kind of different taste because we have many kinds of different courses for the Mario karts to run and race around. So for each of the different courses, we could identify: Retro is supposed to take care of this course, and EAD is going to do that, and such and such. Then, we were able to join forces in order to realize a variety of different courses, a variety of different tastes. I think that’s one reason how it worked out well between a Japanese development team and a Western development team.
As you know, we have already collaborated with Retro for the Metroid Prime series in the past. And I think when we talk about any other franchise, Zelda might be a possible franchise for that collaboration.
Wired.com: So with Skyward Sword, a lot has been said about pushing the series forward with orchestrated music. One of the only complaints I’ve read about the game, and this was something I noticed, is that I think in the five years since Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword… when Twilight Princess came out nobody really said anything about this, but when Skyward Sword came out and the game had no voice acting, it makes an impression now because it’s one of very very few games in that genre which do not have the characters actually speaking in full voice. And I’m curious, I know we’ve probably spoken about this before in the past and I know Nintendo has very deliberate — it’s not a question of technology, it’s a question of artistic style and there are reasons you do it that way. But I’m wondering if there’s any pressure now as games keep evolving to add voices to Zelda to keep it current.
Miyamoto: After all, it’s a question of, what do we really want to make? As the director, of course I want to be getting involved, have direct hands on as many parts and as many things as possible. So it depends upon what kind of direction we are taking for certain projects. For example, if we are pursuing photorealism, I do not think that the director can do a lot — in other words, the staff working on the forefront of development are having their hands on, and the director cannot have their hands on, these details.
But what kind of game, it totally depends on what kind of direction I really want to [take]. And … whether the voice actors should play a key role right now is one of the elements that we’ve got to decide in terms of entirely what things we’d like to make. And talking specifically about the possibility of hiring voice actors to play over the roles of the main characters, we have to ask ourselves, after all, what kind of things do we really need them to speak out? Are they important, and are they really doing anything good for the expanding of the attraction of the Zelda franchise itself?
My opinion is actually against that. I mean, by having the voice actor speaking out the main character’s opinions and messages, I’m afraid that they are going to narrow down the actual characteristics that people can imagine or apply to each character they are controlling, for example. But after all, it depends upon how much work the developer has to show, how many things the director can do, and is it going to do anything good to expand the charm or attraction of The Legend of Zelda? So once again, in terms of all these, if you ask me, isn’t it important for Link and other main characters to speak? I just cannot think so, because of, in terms of what I can do and what Zelda should do.
Wired.com: You’ve narrowed down — you used to do every single game at Nintendo and have input into it and I know recently you’ve narrowed down into a few games that you work on. And all of these games are big retail boxed games that are sold in stores. I see, with Iwata-san talking more about downloadable games and digital games, that becoming more important. I’m curious as to whether you in the near future want to work on games that are smaller, maybe downloadable games, to raise the profile of those games. We see games by the B-teams, but in order to get more people buying games that way, do you feel there need to be Miyamoto download games?
Miyamoto: I just don’t care — as long as I can make something new and interesting, and if it can become a social topic, and spread to so many people, I’ll be working on anything. That’s my attitude. Of course, the situation today is rather different, many companies are simply looking around and seeing what’s trending, what’s hot. Inside that kind of frame, managers demand developers work on similar games. It’s rather difficult for me to say something exact, because unless I can fix my complete idea, I just cannot decide which media is going to be appropriate. What kind of size is going to be appropriate for development. But I think that is actually the right course for us to choose — in other words, developers first come up with a fresh idea. And then, once complete idea is fixed, they should decide, okay, in terms of a new idea, this media is most suited, and the size of the development teams should be just like that.
And after all, I’m aging right now. Yes, I’m in a stage, in a position to be able to take some distance away from the forefront of the development teams right now and see things from a much broader perspective right now. In other words, I think I have many more options than before. In my head, myself. I am now in a position to make things much more freely right now, but the fact of the matter is I have ideas but I have not come to the stage where I can say exactly which one is going to be good for the network games, or what kind of final format shall be appropriate for social gaming. I even have some ideas about Flipnote Studio, things like that, but I [don't] have a complete idea for that. Until I can decide, okay, this is going to be the way each one of these ideas is going to be combined and take shape, I just don’t say that it’s good for digital, it’s good for download. That’s all.
