Miyamoto Lecture At Smithsonian Documented

Thanks to 1UP for its report on last week's Smithsonian lecture featuring game industry luminaries, including Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, and as previously mentioned on Slashdot Games. After Miyamoto's entrance, heralded with "hoots and hollers [so loud] that you'd think Natalie Portman had just walked out on stage at a Star Wars convention", the article quotes the Nintendo mainstay on his entrance to the industry ("When I originally I came to Nintendo it was to do industrial design... I wanted to make the new Rubix Cube. I never imagined that I would work in video games, especially since I don't like computers"), and his concern over making videogames accessible: ("Everyone should be able to pick-up a controller and play a video game... But still so many people think games are too complex. So I developed the L/R buttons and analog stick to simplify things.")

Comments

Re:Back on the N64...

[Dizzle]

But he also mentioned the analog stick, which the SNES did not have.

But his comment is wrong either way. Adding buttons doesn't make it easy to use, especially the way the n64 was set up. L/R/Z? Different grips for the D-Pad and stick? I'm not sure that the N64 was meant for people to simply pick up and play. Even the buttons were set up in a manner that wasn't too smart... they kind of went backwards when they excluded the X/Y buttons, especially given the setup of the SNES controller.

But I do agree with him that people should be able to pick up and play, so on that note get rid of these ridiculous load times that are built in to the system. The splash screens are so annoying, especially after going back to SNES/NES recently and having a simple chime, then a menu in seconds. Of course, that's a limitation of the media.

Life goes on.

Difficulty and Complexity

[xCepheus]

The trick when designing a videogame is allowing the average gamer to pick up the controller and have fun playing the game while simultaneously allowing a level of complexity and difficulty that will challenge even the most accomplished gamer... something that, not all but a majority of, game developers have seem to have forgotten lately. With the exception of a few games like Ninja Gaiden, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Ikaruga, today's games often lack the ability for a player to create and optimize advanced control strategies - often at the expensive of over-the-top graphics that serve as little more than eye candy. Miyamoto at one point knew this and it was the foundation on which the Nintendo Empire was built. Somewhat older Nintendo games such as Mario Kart 64 offered that. Any n00b can pick up the controller and drive around the track firing random weapons at other racers and have a good time. However with the addition of the mini-turbo world-class gamers have the ability to refine their skills on a ridiculous learning that can take up to several years to master (as evidenced by the guys at www.mariokart64.com). Other games that come to mind are GoldenEye and Perfect Dark... anyone, regardless of ability, can have fun in a GE or PD multiplayer match but the games offer players the ability to use advanced strategies that can take months upon months of practice and refinement to truly master.

Ah, the good old days...

Re:Difficulty and Complexity

[oskillator]

I haven't played the new Ninja Gaiden, but what Ikaruga, THPS, and Mario Kart 64 have in common is that they give you numerical feedback for your control optimization. Shigeru Miyamoto's games have never provided that sort of thing. Even the scores in SMB1 and SMB3 were half-assed measurement schemes, far too easy to optimize for.

While I appreciate a well-tuned scoring scheme that I can measure my improvement by, numbers are never what Miyamoto's games have been about. The reward of becoming really good at a Mario or Zelda game is that of your friends sitting on the couch behind you saying "holy shit, that was awesome."