Nintendo’s top think-tank talks about upcoming software and Wii U happenings
Perennial star child Shigeru Miyamoto has had an illustrious career, no doubt about that. From creating Donkey Kong to busting on stage with Link’s sword and shield equipped, he has cemented himself as one of the most influential figures in all of gaming. So even though it appears that most of the projects he’s involved in lately are rooted in established Nintendo franchises, he still finds opportunities to flex his creativity.
In an interview with GameSpot, the Nintendo EAD manager discusses his happiness in addition to the upcoming games lineup. He’s quite candid in some of his responses, especially concerning the Pikmin 3‘s use of Wii U functions: “When I create a game, I don’t necessarily always try to approach it from the idea of leveraging every feature or every ability of that new piece of hardware. In the case of Pikmin in particular, the approach that we took was really less of an approach of how can we […] take advantage of what the Wii U is doing, per se, and instead how can we take what was that Pikmin experience and really make it a deeper experience for players.”
That right there ought to be drilled into the heads of any developer hoping to work on Nintendo hardware. Miyamoto himself says you shouldn’t feel forced to use every little gadget or doodad available to you, rather only using them to enhance an already conceived gameplay idea. You’d think that would be common knowledge by now.
Of course there’s no escaping the image problem currently facing the Wii U, so Miyamoto took a moment once again to talk about communicating Wii U’s value to customers. But when asked how he plans on doing that, he impishly points to the PR and marketing folks in the room and says, “Ask these guys.” Oh, you scamp!
The interview winds down with the topic of retirement, which we already know Miyamoto isn’t planning on entering just yet. In fact, at 60 years old, he has the same volume of work as ever. With his presence felt in so many projects, there is the tendency for younger staff to rely too much on his guidance. Thus, “[W]hat we’re doing internally is, on the assumption that there may someday be a time when I’m no longer there, and in order for the company to prepare for that, what I’m doing is pretending like I’m not working on half the projects that I would normally be working on to try to get the younger staff to be more involved.” He later adds, “[A]s I like to say, I try to duck out of the way, so that instead of them looking at me, they’re looking at the consumer and trying to develop their games with the consumer in mind rather than me in mind.”
It’s good to see that Miyamoto is still bursting with postive energy and passing that raw, gung-ho spirit on to future generations. Saw whatever you will about Nintendo’s struggles, but here is a guy with a good head on his shoulders.
Miyamoto: ‘I’m Creatively Satisfied’ [GameSpot]
