This information comes from Hideki Konno, group manager of the 3DS hardware project at Nintendo…
Konno on his first experience with the 3DS…
“The first time I heard from [Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata and Miyamoto about this was just after I wrapped up Mario Kart Wii and got started working on DSi Sound. They showed me this piece of hardware which later became the 3DS and said ‘Here’s what we’re working on right now.’ Nintendo’s hardware and software teams work in the same building and we’ve always treated interaction between the two sides as important, but having software people go into the hardware-dev front lines like this never really happened before now. They wanted a closer relationship this time, and that’s why they wanted me to coordinate the overall project. It was a new challenge for me, and I was eager to pick it up.”
Konno on how the 3DS didn’t have 3D visuals when he began working on the system…
“I became involved with development starting in 2008, but at that time, it didn’t have 3D visuals. From Nintendo’s perspective, they’ve released 3D Hot Rally [a Japan-only 8-bit game that used 3D shutter glasses] and the Virtual Boy; they’ve had a history of experimenting with 3D visuals. With this system, you could say the timing was just right for us. It was the right time to start thinking about using the latest in high-tech and try out glasses-free 3D. The technology we got to demo was really impressive, and starting in early 2009, we began to think that it was time to bring it to games.”
Konno on how the prototypes lacked motion and gyroscopic sensors…
“…[t]hose sensors were actually put in pretty late. We officially went with them just before E3 last year [in June]. The boat had really left the port by that point — the hardware team had the final specs and just had to work it all out. Then, in the midst of that, Miyamoto said ‘This isn’t enough; we can really change things if there’s a gyro sensor in there.’ We had a prototype for the sensor already, so we got everyone together to try it out, and the conclusion we came up with was ‘Well, if we can do things this fun with it, I guess we’ve got no choice.'”
Konno on working with hardware for the first time…
“It was a difficult experience, but an important one to have. Working in software, oftentimes you have the situation where there’s a bad game that could become great if you can find a single great new idea for it. With hardware, you just can’t turn the tables that quickly on a project. You can come up with a new idea for a game and get a basic prototype running in a week. Miyamoto will say to you ‘Just give it to me in boxes’ — it doesn’t need to be pretty; you can just have a bunch of boxes onscreen if it accurately portrays the idea. Mario Kart began life as a bunch of boxes onscreen, even. You can’t wing it like that with hardware — you need to think everything out before making it. That was very hard for me to get to grips with.”
Konno on what drew him to the 3DS project…
“This is a larger theme, something that’s not limited to the 3DS, but we are constantly thinking about ways to surprise our customers as much as possible. That theme is always there even as our hardware and software changes. With the 3DS, the 3D visuals are hard to picture unless you actually take the device in hand and try it out. The surprise factor here is difficult to relate in words, and that’s why I really want people to try it out for themselves. There’s a lot of other functionality inside as well, from the motion and gyro sensors to the 3DS camera, and I think game makers and gamers will come up with some pretty interesting ideas for it.”
