Miyamoto Message Board older than one year ago

What legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto does at Nintendo is rather unclear. Back in December this lack of clarity led to rumours of him stepping down from his role as Senior Managing Director and General Manager of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development Division...

Miyamoto:

I’m afraid that I am being chosen to answer all of the difficult questions today. As for your question regarding allocation of my energy, the ideal situation is one in which I do not need to give any direction. If we look at such a situation from one perspective, my giving directions may hold back my subordinates’ independent and voluntary growth. Accordingly, sometimes I intentionally give them freedom. Of course, I do not let everyone go totally unchecked. I supervise whenever necessary. The basic idea is, I’m reminding myself to exercise patience (so that I will not state my opinion nor get myself involved in their work.) I end up using less of my energy and, as a result, I am starting to have time that I can spend for myself. When I recently chatted about some general things, including how I am taking advantage of the extra time that I have now, some misleading reports were made. Now, I am spending more time than before on finding new ideas for new developments rather than focusing my energy on work in my (development) teams in order to solidify the contents of (existing) franchise titles. After all, developing big hit titles must be the solution. I am acting with the understanding that one big hit title can change multiple phases of a situation in the entertainment business, and I feel that finding such one big hit is my basic job. If you ask me, “So, how is it progressing?,” well, I think this is common in any organization, but when we look at the team within which we work, the organizational structure has been set up so that it works with the premise that each individual’s role is there. In other words, it is difficult to find my alternative within this existing structure. Accordingly, for that specific purpose, we are trying to create a new structure. As a result, I feel confident that we are gradually making improvements, and we have already come to the stage where quality software titles with a high completion level have been developed without my active involvement.

On a related note, people often say that you can make excellent products when you gather excellent people. However, when they are fresh out of college, nobody really stands out. Of course, some graduates received very high scores at school, and some did not. Ten years after entering a company, however, rather than how they scored at school, what kind of work they do in which phase makes the difference in their ability, I believe. So the question is, “10 years after joining Nintendo, is the company able to take advantage of each individual’s ability?” Also, while a particular team’s overall performance may not be highly appreciated, I feel that there are a number of members within that team whose abilities are excellent. So, we are internally attempting such new things as organizing in-house seminars or gathering people who have not worked together before and letting them work on one mission. I do not know about the level of people who joined the company many years ago with me, but as far as employees who joined the company in the last 20 years or so are concerned, their basic abilities are pretty high. Today, I feel that I can trust them.

Iwata:

Some of you may not be able to follow one of the subjects Mr. Miyamoto just referred to, so let me supplement it. During one of the interviews he accepted abroad, Mr. Miyamoto commented that he always tells his subordinates that he’s going to retire soon, in order to nurture the young developers. Mr. Miyamoto’s intention in making these remarks is to change the developers’ mindset because they will continue to believe that “this is Mr. Miyamoto’s responsibility, not ours” unless he encourages them to envision the workplace without him. Unfortunately, the article was reported as if Mr. Miyamoto had made his retirement announcement. Follow-up articles were created one after another on the Internet. Before we knew it, articles containing completely different messages from Mr. Miyamoto’s original message were circulated, which once again reminded us how scary the Internet can be.

Also on Mr. Miyamoto’s answer, there are two big development divisions at Nintendo, and I am supervising one, and Mr. Miyamoto is doing so in the other. We are encouraging active communication between the two. We are actively doing so and observing what happens if we assign particular work to people who have never done such work before. So far, we have observed more solid results than originally anticipated. In the future, we may be able to disclose, “as the result of this endeavor, we are now able to make this happen.” Of course, no single person can replace Mr. Miyamoto instantaneously. They are living in a different age from Mr. Miyamoto and their experiences are different from Mr. Miyamoto’s. On the other hand, there have been many people who have observed how Mr. Miyamoto works, have worked with him or have been left in situations where they have to take on more significant responsibility without being allowed to be dependent upon Mr. Miyamoto. Those who have been close to Mr. Miyamoto have been making developments with the world as their target, and they have been coming up with a number of products. Because there are a number of people who have gained a significant amount of experience, I am confident that people are growing. Even for the development fields that required Mr. Miyamoto’s involvement in the past, the situation is changing. Of course, there are the areas that we have to say, “Mr. Miyamoto’s involvement certainly makes a difference here.” However, when we look at the culture and know-how held as a group, not just one particular person at any given time, the situation has significantly changed over the past 10 years. Please take this as a remark from an individual who has been watching Mr. Miyamoto.

- Link was named "Link" to convey the meaning of someone who connects. The idea was of a character that would cross time and link the energy spread around the world.
- Link is meant to represent the player.
- Impa's name came from the verb “to impart.”
- Impa, Link and Zelda were the original "three guardians of the Triforce.” The Triforce relationship nowadays is between Link, Zelda and Ganon, but that was established in Ocarina of Time; the first Ganon was a villain looking for the Triforce.
- Miyamoto fears that, with increasing production values, the most important parts of gaming will be neglected.
- He believes what matters in a videogame is the game system, the action, the sensations, the creativity, and the production values.
- He's been watching over the Zelda series like a guard to ensure the series goes in the right direction.
- As long as players are still interested in Zelda, new games will continue to be born.

#nintendo Nintendo talisman Shigeru Miyamoto is a busy man! Not only does he help in an overseer's role on many of Nintendo's biggest games, but he's also revealed he's working on something new. Really new. More »

It's becoming more and more clear that famed Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto is personally working on a new project, one that apparently is smaller in scope and will mark the creation of a new IP for Nintendo. But what exactly is he working on? While we have no way of knowing that, we have plenty of ideas. Here are some of them...

Shigeru Miyamoto is working on an unannounced project. We don't know platform or content, but it seems that this project is going to be separate from Nintendo's franchises. Is it going to be a new traditional game? Will it be another title like Wii Fit? Is it going to be shown at E3?

What you're seeing above is Kirby Face Adventure, the work of Fake Miyamoto. This Miyamoto has opened both a Tumblr and Twitter account, allowing you to follow his works. Yes, there are actually playable flash games on this site, all paying tribute to Nintendo classics.

Tumblr and Twitter info here
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As if the saga of Fake Peter Molyneux weren't an exciting enough Twitter story, today we were introduced to Faux Shigeru Miyamoto, who creates amazing Flash games using classic Nintendo characters. Both Mario and Kirby are lampooned in Flash on the impersonator's Tumblr site, as well as the legendary creator himself of course. Presumably the totally-not-retiring slash potentially retiring developer isn't just pulling a fast one on us all, and we very much doubt these are prototypes for that original game he's making.

Regardless, we suggest one thing before heading into any of the games on said site: turn your volume way, way down. Or up, if you're extremely hard of hearing, but otherwise, ya know, it's super loud. Deafeningly so.

Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that he is working on a new, unannounced game. According to ZoomIn, the famed creator of Mario and Zelda says he's working on an "original" title, in addition to the previously-announced Luigi's Mansion 2 and Pikmin 3...

A portion of a Develop-Online interview with Eiji Aonuma...

DO: And how do you keep yourself and those staff creatively motivated and enthusiastic when the Zelda series has been around for so long?

EA: My staff really are driven and kept motivated by the idea of seeing the players enjoy their creations. That is what I try and make them strive for and that is why they invest part of their life over many years into these games.
In my case, for me it is about impressing Mr Miyamoto; that’s the big one and that’s what keeps me motivated.

DO: So does bettering Ocarina motivate you?

EA: Yes, absolutely. But it’s not only Ocarina of Time. We look at every past Zelda title in the franchise, with a view to make people realise that the game has grown and improved. This is what we are aiming for with every release.

DO: What is most core to the Zelda experience? What is so sacred to the series it could never be changed?

EA: Well. Zelda has to be in the title. That’s something we could never change [much laughter].

That’s not everything though. There’s something that makes even the most distinct Zelda games feel similar in spirit.

Many people ask about that ‘Zelda-ness’, and I think Mr Miyamoto would say the same as me. What makes a game a Zelda game is the theme of uniqueness that we strive for.
A Zelda game should never be similar to anything else or resemble other games. This is always what we aim for, and that striving for uniqueness is the common denominator across the series.

Full interview here

A portion of a Mercury News interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...

Q One of the truisms of the video game industry is that after new game machines are released, it takes several years before developers are able to maximize their potential. Where do you think developers are in maximizing the potential of the 3DS, particularly its 3-D feature?

A When it comes to the 3-D effect itself -- or the surprise factor for people to be able to say, "Wow, this 3-D!" -- I think the mission has already been completed sufficiently. But when it comes to how the 3-D effect can be used for the sake of game play without distracting people's attention too much, I do not think that developers have done a sufficient job yet. Even with "Super Mario 3DLand," I think we were able to attain just about 50 percent of the entire goal we really have to achieve. So there's much more room for us to be able to improve.

Q A lot of gaming seems to be shifting lately from traditional consoles and particularly gaming handhelds to smartphones and tablet computers. What's your opinion on this trend? And have you seen any compelling smartphone or tablet games?

A To me, the utmost concern is how we can create games for dedicated game machines that are unique enough so that they can never be reproduced on any other devices. I believe as time goes by, the kinds of games people are expecting on smartphones are going to be largely different from what games people are expecting from the dedicated video game machines.

I recently purchased a smartphone and tried several games myself, but I just have not been able to find any games so far that I particularly like.

Another classic interview from way back in 1989 shows us just what Horii and Miyamoto were thinking in the very early days of their major franchises. Here are some juicy tidbits to whet your appetite.

- Miyamoto had always planned to return to the top-down view of Zelda 1, even before he started on Adventure of Link
- The concept of Navi has been around since the first Zelda game
- Miyamoto hates that Mario slides down the flag pole and walks into the castle by himself in Super Mario Brothers.
- Horii cuts everything out of his games that's already been used or thought of by others
- There's one spot in Dragon Quest III where the otherwise silent protagonist speaks
- Horii had ideas for games similar to Skyrim and the Sim titles

A portion of an LA Times interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...

LA: So — retiring? What exactly did you mean when you first made the statement?

SM: I’m sorry that whatever I said has been somehow reported in a way which causes some misunderstanding. To make it very clear, I have no intention of retiring right now at all, and I do not think that I’m old enough to think about retiring anytime soon. The fact of the matter is I’ve been really enjoying working at the forefront of video game-making at Nintendo, but I cannot work forever, and the current system is that when people see Nintendo, in the current structure of development, people see me as the sole person responsible for the entire development of series. There are other young developers who are being supervised by me, but thinking in terms of the future, we need to increase the number of people who can take on more responsibilities and more important assignments other than myself. One way to express what I’m doing right now is to say that I’m inspiring younger generations to take more of a lead and more important assignments for themselves by saying get prepared for the time I need to retire. That’s what I really meant to say, and once again I’m sorry if there was some misunderstanding.

LA: When developing a game nowadays, story is really important. Crafting a game like Zelda, is it coming up with a story then creating the technology to make it, or is it coming up with technology then building a story to utilize it fully?

SM: Among the many franchises that Nintendo has, Zelda is the one that makes the most use of a story. Each one of the franchise games has to make great use of the story because we want players to be involved. We’re [careful with them] because if there were any contradictions, for example, it might be awkward and become a distraction for [a gamer] to feel like they are in the game right now. Having said that, however, the most important thing is the gameplay and the experience through the gameplay itself. As far as the Legend of Zelda is concerned, one of the important factors is that the player has to think about a variety of different options. That’s gameplay and story. When they are encountering a riddle, they have to think hard and try out many different things. Of course, this time, it was really important to feature the sword, and we really wanted to highlight the movement of the sword. And because the story is evolving around the sword, we thought, ‘Why don’t we make this an Episode 1′ — that way we can tell the story of the master sword.

LA: So it all came together simultaneously. OK, tougher question: Give us your favorite Nintendo characters.

SM: It’s hard because every character is important to me. Mario, Peach, Luigi, Koopa. Zelda. Toad. Of course, Link. I should also mention Donkey Kong… it’s hard. To me, Mario is a very convenient character. I’m the type of person who thinks of gameplay first, then thinks about the most suitable character for the game. Mario happens to be a versatile character who can do anything. That’s how I think about things. Like in Wii Fit, I do not think that Mario would be suitable for that. He would be strange for the Wii Fit to me.

LA: Manga was your main influence before. Is it still, and do you have any current influences like TV, etc. that drive or inspire you?

SM: Japanese manga has made a great evolution. They are very well-prepared, starting from the basis of an idea, even before drawing characters, They have come up with solid characters and are so sophisticated right now that they have great influence on making TV dramas and dramatic scenarios today. Looking at the current media, including manga and TV dramas, I don’t think that I’ve been greatly influenced by them in terms of my way of making video games. I’m still being influenced from a long time ago. For example, we still have 4-frame manga in newspapers, and I’m still influenced by the Japanese format of funny storytelling called rakugo. Rakugo is a unique form of Japanese storytelling where only one storyteller is in front of you sitting on the cushion on the tatami floor and spends as little as 5 minutes or as long as 30 minutes in front of you. And using subtle movements of the hands and their faces, tell a story.

"When we started this project (Legend of Zelda) many, many years ago with the original NES, it was from the beginning about the sword fighting. Starting actually from the 'Ocarina of Time,' the developers were more eager to make more sophisticated movements of the sword competition." - Shigeru Miyamoto
Motion controls allow for better sophistication of moves, but Miyamoto also stated that this can make it tough when looking for the perfect balance.

"When we look at today's fighting games and many other games, sometimes we have to feel it's rather difficult for us to realize the perfect balance between what you are actually doing with your hand against what you can see and realize or reproduce on your TV set. In other words, I really want people to feel, 'OK, I'm doing better and better by practicing, for example, my sword fighting.'"

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“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.

"Whenever we try to create something brand new, we have to start from a very small, capable team. When a big company is trying to do something really new, it's not a good idea for many people to work on it from the start. Until the time that we are ready to commercialize it, it's not something we can disclose." - Shigeru Miyamoto

I have to admit, I'm dying to see what kind of new stuff Miyamoto is working on. The way he's talking, I wouldn't even expect an E3 2012 reveal!

"What we really have to do is try to be different. We are trying to create something that can never be reproduced on the smart phone." - Shigeru Miyamoto

That's going to be a very tough nut to crack. There's a lot that can be copied on smartphones in some way. If anyone can come up with something, I'd peg Miyamoto.

This is another portion of that 1989 interview between Miyamoto and Horii...

M: Do you think that RPGs and adventure games will become a substitute for novels?

H: Nah, I think that novels still have their place. Games are more active. If you were to write a novelesque story for a video game, players would feel that it dragged on and on. The sense that you were the one driving the story would disappear. I think the most important aspect of game design is to immerse the player in the game’s universe and make them feel like they’re actively driving the plot. That’s the reason I won’t risk having the protagonist speak, even though it would make writing the story much easier.

We shared the pics of Miyamoto signing Deadmau5' arm, and now we have the pic of him with the finished tattoo! Now that's a dedicated Nintendo fan.

Look at Miyamoto looking all gangster! You can check out more pics here, where you can see Deadmau5 getting his arm signed by Miyamoto! Thanks to Oscar for the heads up.

In this photo provided by Nintendo of America, legendary video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto settles behind the wheel of a life-size Mario Kart at the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga, Calif. on Dec. 9, 2011. Nintendo teamed up with West Coast Customs to create the vehicle in celebration of the Dec. 4 release of the Mario Kart 7 game for the portable Nintendo 3DS system. (AP Photo/Nintendo, Bob Riha, Jr.) No Sales



In this photo provided by Nintendo of America, legendary video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto sits on the bumper of a life-size Mario Kart during a surprise visit at the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga section of Los Angeles, Calif. on Dec. 9, 2011. Nintendo teamed up with West Coast Customs to create the vehicle in celebration of the Dec. 4 release of the Mario Kart 7 game for the portable Nintendo 3DS system. (AP Photo/Nintendo, Bob Riha, Jr.) No Sales

Here's part of a 1989 interview between Shigeru Miyamoto and Yuji Horii...

M: Basically, I intend to make a return to Zelda 1′s style. This is something I’ve had in mind since even before we began making Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

H: That’s awesome.

M: Ever since I started making the first game in the series, I’ve been saying that the third Zelda will feature a party, one that consists of the protagonist, who’s a mix between an elf and a fighter, a magic user, and a girl. The fairy that appeared in Adventure of Link was actually a party member designed for Zelda 3.

A girl who looked a little like a fairy and whose role consisted of reconnaissance. Like the characters in action games that don’t engage enemies in combat but rather go and scout out the surroundings and return to you safely. It’s also fun when action adventure games lets you choose who to send out. That’s the sort of thing I’m thinking I’d like to put in Zelda 3.

“There is no plan to retire. I have no intention to retire. (Jokingly) And probably they won’t allow me to retire. What I really meant by this was that people have to retire someday, sometime, and I am not the exception at all. The company really has to get prepared for that kind of thing.

It’s not just quite recently, actually, but for many years now I’ve been repeatedly telling this to the team at Nintendo so they can be more responsible. So they can take on more important assignments and take the initiative to make quality games to finalize and commercialize for the company.

In that process, I say ‘You’ve got to be prepared for the time I’m going to retire. In other words, I was spurring the younger developers to take on more important assignments.

As a matter of fact, when we look at the most recent work from the teams I’m supervising, games like Super Mario 3D Land and Skyward Sword, they were shaping up quite nicely, so I think they are coming very very close to what I want these teams to be. This is the thing I was trying to tell.”-Shigeru Miyamoto

Miyamoto also expressed confidence in Nintendo's dev teams when it comes to that fateful day when he does leave the company.

“That is a feeling (I have) that they are growing up so that sometime, someday, if I needed to retire, they are going to carry on the ultimate responsibilities — they are going to make Nintendo-quality games. After all, a game is not made by one single person. It is the result that reflects on the entire ability of the team. Now I think I have some meaning being involved in any development team. The question is, if I’m out of there, what sort of ability will the entire team be able to exercise? My impression is they are growing up today so that they are going to be able to make something really great without me.”

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