Miyamoto develops Nintendo’s devs by having them work on a bunch of different things
Nintendo’s Yugo Hayashi is the director of Star Fox Zero. Prior to this, he was involved with level design on Zelda: Twilight Princess and directed Wii Fit.
Having developers work on a variety of different projects is part of an intentional plan from Shigeru Miyamoto. In an interview with Kotaku, he explained:
Miyamoto: In terms of trying to develop a developer I always try to get them to do lots and lots of different things. Mr. Aonuma is kind of always working on Zelda but for most other people I like to try to get them to try lots of different things. So someone who worked on the art direction for Zelda would then go on to Wii Fit U. That’s kind of how I like to do things. And now Mr. Hayashi is working with me pretty much every day.
Hayashi and Miyamoto went on to discuss something a bit random. Hayashi actually mentioned that he feels that him being the closest to Miyamoto in terms of seating helped him land the job for Star Fox Zero.
Hayashi: Yeah, I think definitely the closeness of the seats was important to me getting this job.
Kotaku: Are you literally right next to each other? Nobody in between?
Miyamoto: So I guess there would be one cubicle in between, but if Mr. Hayashi stands up he can see my desk. In terms of the development group, he’s the closest.
Kotaku: Right. And, Mr. Miyamoto, you’re still in a cubicle, right? You’re not an office guy? You’re a cubicle guy?
Miyamoto: Basically I’m on the floor. Now, there’s a conference room kind of near my desk and I’ve sort of started to turn that a bit into an office, but basically I’m on the floor.
Kotaku: You can flip the whole conference room table over…
[everyone laughs]
Miyamoto: It’s too big!
