I agree with you, being focused is a key toa good product... but you're oversimplifying the two games... sure they're both platformers we could say if we want and we could stop there... What I mean about vision and creativity is being able to either start a new genre ( like Mario 64 did... Crash wasn't a pure 3D platformer and, in all its beauty, not even was Nights ) or to bring an existing genre to a new step and that's what he always did with the Mario series ( Yoshi's island ) or with Zelda ( Zelda: the ocarina of time )... he knows how to challenge the player, how to let him enjoy the experience and immerse in the game... he's the one who direct the effort of the programmers in the right direction.
People who work under him are left in parts of the projects to experiments and he, like a good designer, chooses what path is best for the game and try to help the people under him to learn how to do that...
Mario 64 was a challenge: bringing the series in full 3D was a huge step and there was the danger of killing the series... the game had to be just perfect... As I said before, he must have put a lot of work also in the initial design of the game, he had a view of how Mario should move around and the basic puzzles and the structure of the game sure he had an open mind and he was able to move accordingly with the progresses of his team... so in this sense I strongly disagree with John Carmack on the initial design issue ( it might not be the most important thing, but it is not THAT unuseful )
Game design IS imporatnt... I agree with John that initial game design isn't SO significant but I also have to say that looking at what the kinds of designers like Miyamoto that they can do much better than what common gamer a bit clued in can put together... that is also because they're able to have this vision and being able to communicate it to the development team... the capability of following progresses and difficulties of the developers and adapt your vision to the platform you're targeting... the capability of studying how the game is playing and how it can be even more enjoyable and not a frustrating senseless technological demo which many games nowadays are( a good game designer is also a gamer, he enjoys games )and to tigthetn the controls to be just perfect... Mario 64, Yoshi's Island are examples of that...
I'm not taking anything away from the developers/coders, they put a lot of hardwork and patience into the game and they have to be intellignet to take the good game design and bring it into reality ( a good game designer helps them and make sure they get as close to the initial vision as possible )... An enjoyable game can also be a beautiful one;)
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I agree with you, being focused is a key toa good product... but you're oversimplifying the two games... sure they're both platformers we could say if we want and we could stop there... What I mean about vision and creativity is being able to either start a new genre ( like Mario 64 did... Crash wasn't a pure 3D platformer and, in all its beauty, not even was Nights ) or to bring an existing genre to a new step and that's what he always did with the Mario series ( Yoshi's island ) or with Zelda ( Zelda: the ocarina of time )... he knows how to challenge the player, how to let him enjoy the experience and immerse in the game... he's the one who direct the effort of the programmers in the right direction. People who work under him are left in parts of the projects to experiments and he, like a good designer, chooses what path is best for the game and try to help the people under him to learn how to do that... Mario 64 was a challenge: bringing the series in full 3D was a huge step and there was the danger of killing the series... the game had to be just perfect... As I said before, he must have put a lot of work also in the initial design of the game, he had a view of how Mario should move around and the basic puzzles and the structure of the game sure he had an open mind and he was able to move accordingly with the progresses of his team... so in this sense I strongly disagree with John Carmack on the initial design issue ( it might not be the most important thing, but it is not THAT unuseful )
Game design IS imporatnt... I agree with John that initial game design isn't SO significant but I also have to say that looking at what the kinds of designers like Miyamoto that they can do much better than what common gamer a bit clued in can put together... that is also because they're able to have this vision and being able to communicate it to the development team... the capability of following progresses and difficulties of the developers and adapt your vision to the platform you're targeting... the capability of studying how the game is playing and how it can be even more enjoyable and not a frustrating senseless technological demo which many games nowadays are( a good game designer is also a gamer, he enjoys games )and to tigthetn the controls to be just perfect... Mario 64, Yoshi's Island are examples of that...
;)
I'm not taking anything away from the developers/coders, they put a lot of hardwork and patience into the game and they have to be intellignet to take the good game design and bring it into reality ( a good game designer helps them and make sure they get as close to the initial vision as possible )... An enjoyable game can also be a beautiful one