Miyamoto on his inspirations, enjoys making both casual and hardcore games, more
Miyamoto on whether his surroundings contribute to his work…
“Whatever I do in terms of making video games is always influenced through my own experiences. Anything which takes place in front of me or surrounding me has some influence in my way of making games in one way or the other.
It’s true that in the past, at the beginning of making my own games, I used to take inspiration from my childhood memories. But quite recently things that have taken place near me or information I can get to on a day-to-day basis has given me some inspiration…As far as Mario Galaxy 2 is concerned, I can’t think of one particular memory or experience that has contributed as inspiration to what I incorporated into the design.
However, the way I have been involved in Mario Galaxy 2 is that I have been working with much younger creators, artists and designers. When they propose an idea to me – some character or stage construction, or storyline – sometimes I feel it’s something strange that should not be incorporated into any Mario game, or sometimes I find them really good.
[If it’s something I don’t accept] I then try to identify or explain the reason I felt any disagreement within myself. Then I try to explain to them with my own words.
In that process I’m trying to make together with young people what can eventually be called ‘a Mario game’, such as Mario Galaxy 2. So rather than relying upon any particular personal experience, I think I’ve been tried to gather the experiences and memories of working on past Mario games in order to make recent titles.
More basically, the way I make games is to try and draw out the sympathy from the user. My understanding and belief is that I [in life] have experiencing things in common with many other people [that I can put in my games]. A lot of the time, memories from playing in our childhood have something to do with that.
For example, in Mario Galaxy 2, Yoshi is trying to drag out something deeply rooted from the ground, but it’s not simply popping up – you can’t expect it will help you try to swallow it. First of all, he has a hard time dragging it out of the ground and then suddenly, when it’s leaving the ground it’s very quick.
I think anybody must have some kind of sympathy with that and – “I can really relate to that kind of feeling.” Or when Mario is falling down from somewhere very high and scary, of course some of us have had an accident or other people have seen friends hurt themselves. So we know how scary it is.
We as game creators have to integrate that kind of sympathy into the making of the game. That’s kind of the work I try to explain to the younger development team – how important trying to have sympathy with the game players is, and how we should do so.”
Miyamoto on how he’s able to maintain excitement for his games…
“I don’t know how we can. But come to think about it, in the first place there aren’t so many so-called 3D action games today. So [Mario Galaxy 2] is unique and whenever we are trying to do something unique, that’s fun.
Even though 3D action games are fun, once you get accustomed to the control mechanism in the first place they can become less so. Novice players often have a hard time getting a grip on how to control their character freely in the 3D world. I’m always trying to improve the system so that whenever we are working on a new 3D action game like Mario Galaxy 2, it’s my dream to come up with the perfect control mechanism, so that people can use it intuitively and naturally be able to play around in the world very freely.
We have to admit that this difficulty level of Galaxy 2 is rather high because it has been made specifically for the people who have finished Galaxy 1. But when it comes to the accessibility – in other words the easiness to control the Mario character – it’s even easier than the original Galaxy 1. It’s fun all the time because we are trying to do something unprecedented and unique.
When a new idea simply pops out it’s very exciting whenever we can find something unique. After all, the priority reason we wanted to introduce Mario Galaxy 2 is that with Mario Galaxy 1, we were not able to include all the ideas we had at that time.
For example, particularly we wanted to take advantage of the [earth]-like terrain with such a very unique terrain this time around. For example, the player will be able to utilise a drill-type of device to go to the other end of the bowl by drilling through the earth, which gives a sheer good emotion.”
Miyamoto on what has influenced him…
“Yes, I loved The Beatles – but when it comes to music, my particular taste is the American bluegrass music. I think bluegrass music was a great influence upon myself. When it comes to the pop culture in general, the movie Easy Rider was kind of a bible for our generation. I also saw the Stanley Kubrick Space Odyssey movie which was great also.
A writer or director like Peter Fonda, who made Easy Rider, must have had a great influence upon myself when I was young. I was living in Kyoto, which belongs to the Kansai region. In Japan – and in Kansai region particularly – when we were young there was tendency to love certain types of entertainment called Rakugo, which is one storyteller telling you sometimes a sad story, and sometimes one that would make you laugh very much.
I would also watch the Manzai – which is a comic duo or trio on the stage trying to make you laugh. Those kind of things, as well as Japanese cartoon culture must have something greatly influenced me, so much so that I really wanted to become a professional cartoonist when I was in Junior High.
If we’re talking about the United Kingdom, I really like the Irish music like Chieftains and I like [UK folk band] Pentangle.”
Miyamoto on whether he’s envious of movie stars/directors compared to his recognition…
“I’m not envious, no. I enjoy not being recognised. It allows me to get on with my life. All I want is to be recognised through my work. I don’t want to be on television a lot because it’s not right for an individual to take all the attention for making these games – there is a whole team that work on them.
It’s funny – in America and the UK, they introduce me as being famous in Japan. In Japan, they introduce me as being famous in America and the UK.”
Miyamoto on what it means to be in the same group as Stanley Kubrick (BAFTA winner)…
“Honestly speaking, I would never try to compare making movies with making video games. It’s a great honour for me that today, video games can be talked about and discussed in the same regard as an entertainment medium with such a long history as movies.
I can’t express what it means to me to receive the same previous award as such big names a Kubrick and Hitchcock. Movie has such a long history and has advanced to become the most established [form of] entertainment. So from now on, 20 years from today, we should strive to do our best in order to have the same degree of appreciation for video games from the general public [as film].
What is important here is for the young video games industry to never forget to innovate, and always try to challenge ourselves with something new. We have such future potential, and I feel a strong personal responsibility within myself to advance that right now.”
Miyamoto on whether he’d like to see games receive recognition from entertainment bodies other than BAFTA…
“I’m sorry – I just don’t know what I comment I can make on specific organisations. In Japan there have recently been some movements to try and appreciate better the role of video games in general culture.
However, video games are generally regarded in Japan today as just a part of the entire digital entertainment. Of course, if the video games industry can earn the respect from the public then more and more young people will be willing to become developers – so that’s something we should welcome.
However, I understand that general appreciation from the public is something we have to go on asking for. I don’t think we need to demand anything from an organisations.”
Miyamoto on whether his childhood was a happy time…
“It was a happy time for me, even though I had less goods around me in terms of the material prosperity – far less than today. Children from wealthy families tended to have a lot of stuff, whilst all the others of us had a scarcity when it came to toys.
But because of that, I used to make toys for myself with my own hands. Also, a lot of the encounters and conversations among the children back then still influence the way I make games myself today. I must say it was a happy time.”
Miyamoto speaking about games like Modern Warfare 2 and why he isn’t interesting in making similar titles…
“In our work, we are trying to make video games as relevant as possible for a wide ranger of generations of people. I do not think we should limit the audience to a particular category, for example, young kids or young males, or a limited number of people. At least, that’s how I’ve been trying to make my own games.
We just talked about the opportunities for the Academy recognising video games as an art form. We really appreciate that kind of opportunity because that can change the mindset of the general public, to how they conceive video games per se.
But when it comes to the question of how each individual game designer or developer should make their games, I don’t think we should try to intervene in how they are trying to express themselves in whichever format.
It’s a question of how we can make the appropriate communication so that only the people who are appropriate to play with a particular game are able to play it; how we can make enough information accessible to the parents – what types of games can be played by their children.
That goes for us as video game companies – and our marketing people must be very careful as to how they are promoting which types of products to which audiences.
I think most importantly, from the viewpoint of the evolution of the video games, we have to be very careful about the very great potential video games have as a way for people to express themselves.
Sometimes, games designers tend to focus their attention on a limited particular area of their expression. That is simply narrowing down the potential of what video games can do
I really hope each individual creator has a wider view so they can appreciate and try to expand the potential of video games.”
Miyamoto clarifying what he meant by “focusing on a limited area of expression”…
“[Nods] Joy and fun is something I’m always seeking for, myself. Also, specifically about the excessive violence, I think the video game creator has to bear in mind and understand the unique interactive nature of video games.”
Miyamoto on whether he likes creating casual or hardcore games more…
“Both are enjoyable to me. When we were making Wii Fit we had to wonder how to bring something new into the game that worked like bathroom scales. That was very interesting and a challenge we enjoyed.
But when we’re working on a game like Super Mario Galaxy 2, we’re going back to the basics, talking specifically about details of the characters – what they look like and how their personalities are. How can we bring that sense of being emotionally involved.”
