Nintendo on the making of WarioWare’s Gold Digger microgame
Kotaku has spoke with Nintendo’s Goro Abe about WarioWare. Specifically, the publication asked about Gold Digger, one of the series’ most well-known microgames.
Regarding its creation, Abe shared:
“The basis for Gold Digger was a note that was written by our director at the time. All that was on the note was a picture of a finger and a nose, and the word ‘Pick!'”
“I was a programmer at the time, and when I saw that note, a design came to mind for a game where you pressed the A Button at the right time to stick a horizontally-moving finger into a nose.”
“I figured the player’s eyes would focus on the moving finger, and the act of pressing the A Button to make the finger thrust forward would read naturally as syntax for a game. I took the note to my desk and proceeded to draw some 2D sprites. I made the thickness of the finger the same size as the nostril, thinking how satisfying it would be to have the finger go into the nostril when you succeed, and I made the nose deform a little bit when you fail. Using these, I programmed and completed the basic game.”
Abe also mentioned that Gold Digger was initially too difficult for beginners, and the mini-game needed to have three levels of difficulty given the nature of WarioWare. That resulted in him setting the index finger at level 2 and a pinky at level 1. Level 3, the toughest of all, was the index finger and middle finger having to both reach the nose.
After receiving feedback, Abe “adjusted it so that on lower levels the fingertip is closer to the nose. Then after the sound designer created some sound effects for me, Gold Digger was finally complete.”
Abe added that the idea behind WarioWare’s microgames was for them to be “instantly understandable” and that they should be things that “anybody in the world can understand.”
