Miyamoto: “Generally speaking, people can and should make good games”

By Stephany Nunneley

Shigeru Miyamoto told attendees at his London speaking engagement that with today’s tech, it should allow developers to create better gaming experiences.

According to the Nintendo legend, via The Guardian, it should be much easier for developers in this day and age to create more meaningful titles than in the past due to the different hardware options available.

“In the past, game design was all about which game was the best on the hardware that was available,” he said. “That still holds true in the current world, but for the game designer, it’s important to understand the overall system. Plus, it’s important to understand all the mechanisms in games, otherwise the movement or the gameplay would not be right. If that is good, then it will be evaluated as a good game.

“But games nowadays are at a higher level, and the devices are higher-technology, so generally speaking, people can [and should] make good games. Nowadays, it’s really important that the designer should be unique, and that their individuality should show through in the production itself.

“It’s costly if you do something because other people are doing it, but the focus should be: ‘Because people are not doing it, we’ll go this way.’ Uniqueness is important. Finance-wise, you can put more budget in, but your energy has to be focused on something, otherwise it won’t work. For me, if you tell me, ‘I’ve seen this before,’ or ‘I’ve done this before,’ that’s challenging.”

During the talk he also touched upon some of the titles in the works from Nintendo on 3DS, and hinting around about the new Mario 3DS game and the now infamous shot of the plumber sporting his raccoon attire.

“If I tell you everything, I won’t be able to talk about anything at E3,” he said. “But the power-ups you mention are what you think you are. And you probably know what is going to happen using those characters already.”

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