

Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Expands His Empire - nickb
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/arts/television/25schi.html

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tokipin
> Nintendo does not disclose Mr. Miyamoto’s compensation, but it appears that
> he has not joined the ranks of the superrich.

apparently he doesn't ask for much money

> According to Mr. Miyamoto, gameplay systems and mechanics have always come
> first, while the characters are created and deployed in the service of the
> overall design.

this is what i love about his games. he focuses heavily on the mechanics. eg
the "tactility" that makes Mario 64 a blast to speedrun. and it's not for the
sake of the mechanics -- it's for the sake of the player

i think there is a lot of parallel with what Miyamoto does to
usability/interfaces in general, where you have to get into the shoes of your
audience and experience their experiences

> “There are very few people in the video game industry who have managed to
> succeed time after time at a world-class level, and Miyamoto-san is one of
> them.”

this is definitely no accident. there is a famous phrase related to Miyamoto:
"upending the tea table." where if he's not satisfied with a game he will have
large portions of it (maybe all of it) redone

i liken this to the same sort of feeling as rewriting a program -- you have it
all in your head, so you can see how it sucks, and how it could be structured
better. what makes Miyamoto special is that he can hold the game in his head
in the first place

~~~
pmjordan
> > “There are very few people in the video game industry who have managed to
> succeed time after time at a world-class level, and Miyamoto-san is one of
> them.”

> this is definitely no accident. there is a famous phrase related to
> Miyamoto: "upending the tea table." where if he's not satisfied with a game
> he will have large portions of it (maybe all of it) redone

And it's no accident that it's so rare: being at liberty to do that kind of
thing is a huge luxury in the game industry. The way games would need to be
developed for that is to build a playable prototype with a team of less than 5
people, and only when that prototype reaches a Miyamoto-level of
addictiveness, should it go into full production. That's generally not how it
works. (yet?) Especially not if developer != publisher.

~~~
serhei
I think that's how you should write software in general. Write tiny prototypes
that you can rip up and change on a whim, and aim for making something so
fun/beautiful/useful that it would become a crime against creativity not to
turn it into a "full" product.

If you stumble on a way to repeatably accomplish this, you'll consistently
create hit software.

