Miyamoto discusses Super Mario Run’s appeal to novice and expert players, developing over years
Shigeru Miyamoto made an appearance at the SoHo Apple Store in New York City, where he touched on some of the concepts behind Super Mario Run, as well as his own growth as a developer. Part of what inspired the simple design of Super Mario Run was the difference between advanced and novice Mario players, where the former knows how to properly run, while the latter might find holding the run button troublesome. The constant running was ideal to appease both camps, and items like Special Blocks were added to give some variance. He also noted that the idea for a one-button Mario had been floating around between him and frequent co-developers Takashi Tezuka and Toshihiko Nakago for a while.
Miyamoto was also asked about the differences in developing from when he started to the current day. On his continued enthusiasm for games, he stated:
I keep making games because people keep playing games, and one of the reasons I like to continue to make games is because technology keeps evolving and I keep having my own personal life experiences and I keep looking for ways to combine the two into new games.
He also noted the differences between early games and how small their teams could be, whereas modern games require larger teams, where people’s individual work can get lost. He also pointed out the benefit of how much easier it is to update games.
For a few notes off topic of Super Mario Run, he noted that he wishes Fox McCloud was more popular and that, while Pikmin is very dear to him, it “wouldn’t make a good Halloween costume”. He was reminded of an old comparison between Mario and Mickey Mouse, two very iconic characters, and that he is thinking of how Mario should change and adapt if he is going to remain well-known and relevant.
The full story can be seen here, over at TouchArcade, where he also discusses various other aspects of Super Mario Run, as well as how the Mario world was even conceived.
