At this year’s GDC keynote, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata addressed the common complaint that third party companies just can’t compete with Nintendo. Iwata explains that he used to feel the same way before he came to work at Nintendo, and saw Miyamoto’s creative process at work.
I sinceirly hope understanding his (Miyamoto’s)Â methods might be some help to you. Maybe even inspiring.
Iwata spent the first half of the keynote outlining Miyamoto’s development process – from prototype stages, to fine tuning, all the way through Employee kidnapping:
Sometimes Miyamoto “Kidnaps” employees. …The victim is handed a controller, and told to start enjoying himself ”“ but there are no questions, not topics, no need for the player to talk about his reactions to the game.
He elaborated by saying that Miyamoto is watching for what bores the player, what entertains them, what they find engaging – all by watching their reactions. This, Iwata explained, is how Miyamoto measures success in game development. It was just one point of many in hopes that third party developers might start looking at their creative process in a new way – maximizing their resources.
Do you want to hear more about Miyamoto’s development process and Iwata’s suggestions for third party developers? Let us know!
Miyamoto's fckin' awesome.
@ Jon
Couldn't have said it better myself!
Man is he from the old school. Imagine if developers only released stuff that they where addicted to playing. That use to be the case. If you are getting bored making a game then that should tell you some thing.
Also take notice how some developers actually try and stop a player from playing the game their way. Imagine if rocket jumps where seen as cheating in quake?
Development is focused on production rather than fun ideas that only games could do.
People don't market like Miyamoto anymore. Even his games are open-world, not just his development strategies. I think that might be what inspired him to make Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Pikmin. Don't you?