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GDC - Miyamoto Delivers Developer-Focused Keynote
The legendary Shigeru Miyamoto brought attendees of last night's Game Developer's Choice Awards to their feet when he received the Lifetime Achievement award. Today, Miyamoto had the chance to share the vision Nintendo used when designing the DS and the Wii. In a keynote focused solely on development, he outlined the three keys to their corporate vision, and the elements that make up his own outlook on game design. No explosive new titles or plans were announced, but in its own way Miyamoto's quiet call to arms was powerful and exciting. Read on for a few notes of my own, and links to coverage from other sites.
With an enthusiastic introduction from GDC director Jamil Moledina, the keynote beings. A GDC 07 Keynote Wii Channel is shown on screen, and the crowd goes nuts as a Jamil and Miyamoto Miis are displayed. Bill Toyden is there as well to translate. Miyamoto-san is here today to illustrate three points about the Nintendo vision, and their corporate outlook.
The first is the concept of expanded audience. He illustrates using a very humorous story about the notching up of the 'wife-o-meter'. Miyamoto's wife, historically not a big gamer, has been converted by games like Nintendogs, Wii Sports, and the concept behind the Wii.
The second concept is balance. At Nintendo, engineers and software developers work closely together. He talks about the development of the Wiimote, which was a long process involving numerous iterations and members from a number of different teams. They took the balance to the extreme, taking software and hardware discussions down blind alleys and in numerous directions. They wondered if they even needed a new console, with the advent of popular handheld systems.
He sees console-making as a responsibility, though. They have to make games, make fun games, and make tools available to allow game developers to make new and interesting experiences.
The third concept is risk.The company took on the challenge of questioning what exactly is a videogame. The DS and its games are the perfect example. The ultimate goal was fun, again. The Wii was the ultimate risk. GameCube was just a half step, with the large A button. With the Wii they had to choose to keep evolving the hardware or go down a new path.
There were concerns for everyone in the company. Miyamoto acted as an evangelist inside the company. "Don't think about what will be lost, concentrate on what will be gained." The more he talked about it with Mr. Iwata, the better both of them felt about it. It wasn't until last E3 when they knew the risk was worth taking.
Corporate vision is essential, but corps don't make videogames: people do. (Lots of cheers at that statement.) He wants to share his own personal vision, then. His primary focus in development is not individual elements; the vision that he keeps is the core element of fun in the game. He imagines the face of the gamer while they're playing the game. As an entertainer, he wants to be entertained.
Emotion, then, is what he focuses on. He wants things to be positive, but whatever emotion you're aiming for is fine. As long as you want to draw out something in specific from a player, you've succeeded.
I know these notes are very brief, but Mr. Miyamoto spoke at length in very high-level terms. Overall, I will say that the crowd seemed less attentive than it did at the end of Sony's event yesterday. Applause were still very loud when he brought his comments to an end, and my feeling was that many developers were affected by his words. On the way out through the crowds, many people were talking about how the statements he made applied to the work they did every single day. So despite Nintendo's decision not to make news today, Mr. Miyamoto still managed to affect the lives of the people in attendance today.
The first is the concept of expanded audience. He illustrates using a very humorous story about the notching up of the 'wife-o-meter'. Miyamoto's wife, historically not a big gamer, has been converted by games like Nintendogs, Wii Sports, and the concept behind the Wii.
The second concept is balance. At Nintendo, engineers and software developers work closely together. He talks about the development of the Wiimote, which was a long process involving numerous iterations and members from a number of different teams. They took the balance to the extreme, taking software and hardware discussions down blind alleys and in numerous directions. They wondered if they even needed a new console, with the advent of popular handheld systems.
He sees console-making as a responsibility, though. They have to make games, make fun games, and make tools available to allow game developers to make new and interesting experiences.
The third concept is risk.The company took on the challenge of questioning what exactly is a videogame. The DS and its games are the perfect example. The ultimate goal was fun, again. The Wii was the ultimate risk. GameCube was just a half step, with the large A button. With the Wii they had to choose to keep evolving the hardware or go down a new path.
There were concerns for everyone in the company. Miyamoto acted as an evangelist inside the company. "Don't think about what will be lost, concentrate on what will be gained." The more he talked about it with Mr. Iwata, the better both of them felt about it. It wasn't until last E3 when they knew the risk was worth taking.
Corporate vision is essential, but corps don't make videogames: people do. (Lots of cheers at that statement.) He wants to share his own personal vision, then. His primary focus in development is not individual elements; the vision that he keeps is the core element of fun in the game. He imagines the face of the gamer while they're playing the game. As an entertainer, he wants to be entertained.
Emotion, then, is what he focuses on. He wants things to be positive, but whatever emotion you're aiming for is fine. As long as you want to draw out something in specific from a player, you've succeeded.
I know these notes are very brief, but Mr. Miyamoto spoke at length in very high-level terms. Overall, I will say that the crowd seemed less attentive than it did at the end of Sony's event yesterday. Applause were still very loud when he brought his comments to an end, and my feeling was that many developers were affected by his words. On the way out through the crowds, many people were talking about how the statements he made applied to the work they did every single day. So despite Nintendo's decision not to make news today, Mr. Miyamoto still managed to affect the lives of the people in attendance today.
I think that shows that they are refocussing on who their core customers are.
Which is great for more games like The Sims (Wii Sims), Nintendogs, Cooking Mama, and casual RPGs, but not so great if you're a hard-core FPS/Sports gamer, unless you're into things like Wii Sports or maybe Extreme Aussie Rules Football, or Real Rugby.
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The first is the concept of expanded audience. He illustrates using a very humorous story about the notching up of the 'wife-o-meter'.
I have a wife-o-meter, but I was under the impression that it's only useful when I'm out with my girlfriend.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
And what's Japanese for "developers, developers, developers, developers?"
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
That was alot of talk about nothing. Atleast, nothing new. Yes, we get it, Nintendo is targeting a more casual audience. We got that at E3 and have basically got that since the Wii was announced. I hope his translator was paid by the word. Poor bastard. Man that was boring.
No. Its good for everybody: EXPANDING markets.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
No explosive new titles or plans were announced
Surely all of the people who pointed out how Phil Harrison didn't mention new games yesterday are going to come here and point out that Miyamoto didn't either, right? Right?
Rob
I'm glad Miyamoto discussed topics more pertinent to the developers than gamers. I would much rather have a conference with substance, than let the GDC turn into a media blitz for industry shaking announcements.
As for expanding the audience: Unless you are still living in your parents basement, abhor social interaction, or prefer to game alone, you should be very excited about Nintendo concentrating on everyone, instead of just the gamer. Why? Because it will let you share your passion with more people. Your parents. Your non-gaming friends. Your loved ones. As a hard core gamer myself, but a human being first, I am *delighted* that my fiance is joining me in my love for gaming.
I guess I'll miss out on realistically rendered acne. Sigh.
I've heard about constraints on Nintendo giving info due to stock goings-on, but labelling this as "developer-oriented" instead of "boring fluff" is a cop-out. It wasn't interesting: especially to developers. Interesting would be demos of new motion-sensing and touchscreen concepts. Interesting would be the forward direction of Nintendo platforms and the tools Nintendo will be providing. Miyamoto parroting earlier propaganda is not interesting.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
What ever happened to their indy developer program? seems like this would have been the perfect audience to mention something to
Nintendo have never really made very many FPS games anyway - Metroid's about all. It's not as if they're going to try to stop people making FPS games for Wii. There are some decent-but-flawed ones out at the moment, and I'm convinced it's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a game that's Goldeneye good. My problem with the entire console FPS genre has always been that a gamepad is never anywhere near as good as mouse and keyboard. Goldeneye and Halo try, but in terms of control the best I've had on a console was DS Metroid Prime. Why? Because it has a proper pointer! And Wiimote + Nunchuck ought to be at least as good as Mouse + Keyboard for this kind of thing.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Can't find a Wii for my son anywhere anywhere, but he was really happy when I told him we could make one out of duct-tape and two gamecubes.
comic I wub ROOO!
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Nintendo announced nothing. Sadly, I forgot the Slashdot hive mind was so pro Nintendo. Being quasi-ever so slightly critical of Miyamoto is going to get you modded to trolledom. I really have to stop posting to the game section of Slashdot...
So, how's that stock price and game adoption rates working out for you at Sony? Seems to me the market is sending a very clear signal to you, even if you want to ignore it.
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Sigh... yes, this wonderful leap of logic. That because I said something critical of a Miyamoto speech, im a Sony fanboy. Your grasp of logic amazes and staggers me, good sir.
For the record I own a 360 and a Wii, not that it is relevant to the conversation at hand.
I was skimming the comments on kotaku, and found the following description from somebody at GDC:
- nintendo-242670.php
http://kotaku.com/gaming/gdc07/gdc07-liveblogging
[Sony exec] Phil Harrison is sitting in the front row
[President of Nintendo of America] Reggie is standing off consulting with people, posing for pictures, etc.
A kid in the front row shouted at Reggie "REGGIE! You gotta kick some ass and take some names!"
"Like who?!" Reggie shouted back
"Phil Harrison, FRONT ROW!" The kid says
"I think we already did that" Says Reggie
The nearby crowd laughs, as is appropriate.
Thats quite a leap... dissaproval of a Miyamoto speech + disgust at percieved Nintendo bias on Slashdot = Sony fanboy. Despite the caustic tone he takes in when criticizing the Nintendo worship, I've seen nothing that indicates he's a Sony fanboy.
For the record, I own a Wii and PS2, xBox, and GameCube - and probaly one-quarter of the games are for the PS2.
Used to own Sony stock too. Sold it, bought Nintendo stock, right after E3, when it was obvious what was going to happen.
Reality is a harsh mistress.
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I don't believe I used that word.
oh, and in my reply to him, I meant games purchased since November (in regards to PS2 being about one-quarter of console game purchases).
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And hopefully this post illustrates the source of my caustic tone. Slashdot is a group of mostly intelligent people and I have had some great conversations here. That said, when it comes to certain subjects ( like the Wii, or the PS3 in reverse ) it just breaks into a hive mentality. I wish I wasn't interested in gaming, as I would avoid these conversations completely if so. Nicely, I have really good karma from posting to the rest of the site, I can afford to burn some here. Glutton for punishment I guess.
I beg to differ, this change will at least decrease Divorces for gamers, and that is great. /sarcastic_undertone off
You should try "Monkey Wars" from Super Monky Ball on the Wii. It's pretty fun, and awesome. By no means is it a complete FPS, but it definitely shows the potential for those games on the platform.
That said, I do think that Miyamoto's keynote was very relevant. While it may be fairly obvious to you and me that Nintendo's current key to success is targeting the casual gamer, it may not be to the other game developers at the conference
As a fellow engineer in the games industry, I have been to a number of conferences and will say that keynotes like Miyamoto's are generally more common than the one Sony presented yesterday. A lot of the time, it is fluff, because we do need to be reminded about what games are for, who are audiences are, etc. Many of us are so focused on the technical and business details, that we can't see the forest for the trees. Now, the other talks going on at GDC will tend to be more detailed and developer focused. But I wouldn't mind at all listening to the keynote Miyamoto gave, especially considering it came from such a luminary in the industry.
-- jchenx
Will, you could say so much more in so little.
Not enough time, too many good games ... although, actually, I saw my first 1 out of 5 star review on G4TV for a Wii game a couple of nights ago ...
...
Sigh. I guess that means it's time to see lots of sub-standard games ported to the Wii
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Not sure if I'm very impressed. Some would call me a Nintendo fanboy; I got a Wii at launch, still think its a great system, but I'm not sure if this seems very reliavent. As someone who is interested quite a bit by game design philosophy, I would hope that a developer conference would put forth some inspiring new visions into the heads of developers who are studying implementations for upcoming projects. There's a lot more that can be done with the motion sensing hardware than is currently being done, and I'd hope to see developers eager to try out new theories and ideas.
That said, I'm all about defining an over-arching philosophy or view of the future of the industry, I think that is very important and a key difference that separates Nintendo from Sony/Microsoft, but at some point, you've gotta move from inspring people to follow your new direction, and actually identifying some ways in which they can actually do that. Where-as Sony/Microsoft seem to be pracariously leaning towards only discussing implementations and seem to not have any inspirational overall vision to present, Nintendo seems to be suffering from the exact opposite problem.
If there's anyone who can talk specifics regarding the philosophy of game design, it's Miyamoto, but I don't see any of that. I'm not talking about wowing the public with release dates and explosive pyrotechnics, I'm talking about presenting methods of opporation, new design ideas, things like that. I just don't see it here, I see rehashes of Nintendo's umbrella direction... which we've come to know and love, but let's see some specifics.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
What a lame comeback. Anything critical of Nintendo or even the slightest bit positive for Sony and you little cretins throw around the fanboy label.
./ should do. Create a little Nintendo section for you kids and give it an icon of a masturbated penis with the N logo on it.
Here's what
To me, I took it as this:
1) Nintendo's vision is to focus on casual and new gamers
2) Here's what I did to make sure I always kept that in mind: wife-o-meter, balance, focusing on making things fun, etc.
3) Here are the results from our efforts: huge success of the DS and Wii, and more importantly, wife-o-meter is high
4)
5) PROFIT!!!
Now, other developers will have different visions in mind. Some of them may focus on the casual gamer as well, but many will focus on traditional hardcore gamers too. There are other ways to succeed in this business, besides focusing on just casual (just ask the Gears of War guys). And as you stated, we don't need hundreds of party games on one system. Diversity in the game catalog is important, so yes, Nintendo should want 3rd parties to pick up in genres that they don't excel at (or care to do).
But anyway, I see the keynote as simply, "Here's what we set out to do, here's what I did, and how I succeeded."
-- jchenx
On one hand, there is the negative connotation that ports are generally "sub-standard". On the other hand, the DS and PS2 are extremely popular platforms with some amazing games on them. And having a large game library (more choices) isn't such a bad thing. After all, many of the successful consoles in history have had humongous libaries, often filled with "sub-standard" games and ports (SNES, PS, PS2). If anything, it's a good thing that the Wii is building a hefty library, since the GameCube scene was relatively bare.
We as arguably "hardcore gamers" (who spend time posting on Slashdot, reading reviews, watching G4TV, etc.) will fortunately know what games to avoid, and what to pick up. So in the end, it's not so bad for us. After all, there are quite a few people that do buy and enjoy these "sub-standard" games (to each their own).
-- jchenx
The shooter levels in Rayman Raving Rabbids represent another good example.
I can't wait for a real FPS to go on the Wii, and that's coming from someone who detests the genre.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
Best part of this keynote was the crazy DS wifi group chat going on in the audience. Tons of gamers, many with Nintendo DS's = crazy chatting going on. Perhaps the biggest live DS group chat in history. Heh.
Main problem is that the ubisoft shooters did not get the controls right they mapped a plain wsad control to the wii, that does not work, the wiimote is good for shooting and aiming but not good for directional control mouse replacement, the nunchuck should enable directional control and the wiimot should be pointer only, that schema probably works best, strafing could be done via the z button on the nunchuck, I am pretty sure the next bunch of fps games will do exactly that.
Get Rayman's Raving Rabbids. Based solely on the videos shown for it, I got a copy for my PC (no Wiis here...). Many of the minigames are silly, some are stupid, (and most are fun) but the on-rails shooter segments are frickin awesome. Yes, it's on rails. However, the experience is a hoot.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Sony came out with the intent of winning the affections of gamers with a flash and dazzle. Like a girl who wears her whale tail action with a semi transparent top when she's trying to hook you in on the second or third date.
Nintendo came out like the girl who doesn't have the porn start measurements, but baked you cookies and came over to sit with you when you had a really rough day at work and cuddled on the couch.
One looks great on the arm, but we all know which one loves us.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore