Silicon Knights On History, Nintendo, Miyamoto

Thanks to GameSpy for their new interview with Dennis Dyack, founder of Silicon Knights, the developers of the Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain, as well as Eternal Darkness and the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Dyack discusses working with Shigeru Miyamoto on MGS: "Working with Miyamoto is like working with Aristotle ... like working with one of the great masters. I said this at a press conference: 'Gameplay is his ocean, and he navigates it like no one else.'" and praises Nintendo's vision: "When [Nintendo ex-president Yamauchi] appointed Iwata as his successor, we were all amazed, but it was a great call. Look at his aggressive approach: the GBA-SP, for example. He said it best at the press conference, 'We know what happened, we know what the issues are - we're moving forward.' And what did the other groups do? Microsoft cancelled its party. Sony talked up a handheld that it didn't show."

Comments

Re:Computer games should be X-rated.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mensa member, beware of the high IQ

Translation: Hey all you smart dudes, watch out for my high Insanity to Questionability ratio.

Online "Book of Five Rings"

[RobotWisdom]

..is here. It was written in 1645: [author bio]

Dennis Dyack

[luekj]

Also Dennis was noted in his interview for completely not answering the question:

"Have you completely abandoned the original MGS look and feel as a side effect of graphicalizing Metal Gear: Twin Snakes?"

Just something about that team's character modeling and textures is distant from the feel and tone set by the original game's art.

Oh well.

Interesting

[Daetrin]

For awhile there it seemed like he was just sucking up to Nintendo, but after the bit about the upcoming transition in the industry when systems reach the realistic limit of improved graphics, it seems like he might actually beleive it.

Of coruse it's a little unfair of me to think of him as sucking up to Nintendo when i tend to view them in the same way. Unfortunatly i'm not sure that things will go the way he clearly hopes. Sure, Nintendo "cares" about video games, but as much as a developer might care about the art itself, they can't stay in buisness if they're not making money.

Sony (and to some extend Microsoft it seems, though the jury is still out on it) knows how to sell product, regardless of whether they "believe" in video games or are attempting to make their console into an all-in-one system.

People have dissed Miyamoto for saying that he won't go the route of Grand Theft Auto and such (which is ironic to bring up here, because i had not realized until now that Miyamoto collaborated with SK on Eternal Darkness, clearly he doesn't object to violence if it is necessary for the game's development and is handled tastefully) however he is correct in believing that a game can have great game-play and be lots of fun even without sex adn violence.

Unfortunatly, Nintendo is right that high quality can make good games without using sex and violence, Sony is right that sex and violence combined with godo marketing can make even a mediocre game popular. Nintendo is focused on making games _good_, but Sony is focused on making games _sell_.

It would be nice to think that in the end the high quality games (on both PS2 and GCN) would win out over the hyper-marketed sex and violence ones, but it would also be naive to believe that things will inevitably end up that way.

Re:Interesting

[chrismcdirty]

First of all, I think Nintendo will always have somewhere, because they'll always have quite a bit of die-hard fans (like me). I'll play other systems, but I own the most games for GCN, simply because they're the highest quality games I see on the market. GTA3 was fun.. but how many times did it crash because it couldn't load enough textures because of the speed I was moving? Way too many. GTA:VC was just like GTA3... lacked innovation. But I digress. I think Nintendo will never completely die, they'll always have a market for the die-hard fans, just like Apple has for their Macs.

Second of all, Nintendo has somewhere near $6 billion in the bank. It's gonna take quite a bit of screwups for them to go under. Add to that the profit they make on GBA, and that $6 billion can keep on funding other projects.

Re:Interesting

[Daetrin]

The problem is the second and third party developers. Sega has canceled their sports games for GameCube, Acclaim has stopped producing games for it (yeah, small loss) and Capcom after promising X number of exclusive games for the GameCube is starting to renege on that agreement.

In all three cases they sited low sales for their GameCube games as the reason for stopping/scaling back production.

Miyamoto & Violence

[superultra]

directly from miyamoto:

I try not to use violence as an easy means of expression. It's easier to make people cry than laugh. It's easier to use violence than to describe particular emotions. And it's easier to use blood than to express a certain kind of terror in other ways. It's OK to use violence with quality and for a purpose, but I want to avoid using violence as an easy means just to seek stimulus. We don't have to use it if we have other creative means of expression.

also:
People often talk about GTA. But I'm not sure whether that sort of extreme subject matter is always appropriate . . . I'm not convinced that being more realistic makes better games . . . we have to do something that movies cannot do.

I think you're right, Daetrin. It would be nice to see Nintendo's philosophy overextend Sony's. I doubt that's going to happen on the home console market though. Nonetheless, with the GBA selling as well as it is perhaps that's where Nintendo's philosophy will find a new home. Miyamoto's more interested in creating games inspired by the design of Amelie while US companies like Rockstar are trodding forward with prison brutality and hardcore violent pornography as inspiration. A crossroads indeed.