Miyamoto interview

Elyaradine

There's a pretty cool interview that happened last week, and there were a few quotes in there that got me thinking a lot about the kind of games I want to be working on.

“These younger game creators, they want to be recognised,” he sighs. “They want to tell stories that will touch people’s hearts. And while I understand that desire, the trend worries me. It should be the experience, that is touching. What I strive for is to make the person playing the game the director. All I do is help them feel that, by playing, they’re creating something that only they could create.”

Afterwards, the assembled critics and journalists give the film a warm round of applause, but for Miyamoto, who takes to the stage, it’s clear that something is missing. “You were all very quiet,” he says. “I was hoping to hear more laughter.” Then his eyes scan the crowd, sitting with notebooks on laps, and he smiles to himself, having identified the problem. “Perhaps we needed more children here,” he says.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11201171/nintendo-super-mario-pikmin-tokyo-film-festival-mandarin-oriental-tokyo-sega-mario-kart-zelda-wii-oculus-rift.html

raithza

What I strive for is to make the person playing the game the director.

Sage words!

SubiyaCryolite

This interview caused quite a storm on my favourite gaming forum. It was framed as if he was taking jabs at "cinematic games", or games not made by Nintendo in general. The experience of a game isn't always tied to gameplay alone. Games like TTGs The Walking Dead are really engaging because of the story and your choices, not its "gameplay" per say. I think the "experience" varies from game to game.

raithza

SubiyaCryolite said:

This interview caused quite a storm on my favourite gaming forum. It was framed as if he was taking jabs at "cinematic games", or games not made by Nintendo in general. The experience of a game isn't always tied to gameplay alone. Games like TTGs The Walking Dead are really engaging because of the story and your choices, not its "gameplay" per say. I think the "experience" varies from game to game.

And those games are good exactly because of the high amount of player agency in the narrative, not (just) because of the good narrative in general. I think Miyamoto was referring to the age old player agency vs designer ego issue, which many gamers might confuse as a criticism of narrative-focused games in general.

Tuism

“Perhaps we needed more children here,” he says.

I love that :)