Miyamoto shares more on the Pikmin Short Movies, confirms Pikmin 3DS theme
Shigeru Miyamoto was interviewed over on the Pikmin Miiverse community yesterday and talked quite a bit about the Pikmin Short Movies. While there weren’t any major revelations, he did share some interesting things – including news about a Pikmin 3DS theme.
Here are some excerpts:
On Pikmin being individuals…
Actually, the Pikmin in the game move in a way that is every bit as individual as those in the movies, it’s just that you can’t control them directly, only lead them. And because they’re so small, and there are so many of them, it’s hard to tell what each individual is doing. That is why I wanted to create these Short Movies that focused only on the Pikmin.
On conveying the concept of “affinity” with the shorts…
…the concept of “affinity” was something I really wanted to communicate, so I’m very happy to hear you say that. When I was working on the games, I found this feeling of affinity to build up quite naturally, and even in my normal life I was thinking, “I wonder what would happen if there were Pikmin here?” or “I wonder what this would look like from a Pikmin’s point of view?” Those little ideas became doodles, and that was the beginning of the PIKMIN Short Movies.
On what’s easier: game or movie production…
Game production, I think! But it’s not really that game production is easier, it’s more that movies and games are so fundamentally different that the areas where you must focus your energy are also completely different. For that reason, the easier process to me is the one I’m the most used to, which is game production.
To put it simply, the difference is that with animations and other such visual media the consumer is a viewer, whereas in games the consumer is a player, so they are created from two different mindsets. Being able to make games is no guarantee you’d be any good at making animations, and vice versa. This is another thing the experience of making these movies has taught me!
On the sound for movies versus a video game…
This probably overlaps with what I just said, but games are created for people to play, and if a game is outside the range of the player’s expectations, it creates a kind of wall or a distance between them and the game world. In a film, every frame must be constructed to communicate something to the viewers, and to achieve this purpose, scenes are sometimes intentionally exaggerated or even made absurd.
I worked together with the sound directors from the Pikmin games to create the sound. For the background music and so on, we have a library from the three Pikmin games, so I listened to all of that for the first time in a long time.
On how you can hear sounds when pressing the A button while watching the shorts on 3DS…
Of course I used what I considered to be the right sound for the job in the movies, but I thought I’d add a tiny bit of interactivity here for the viewer!
This hidden feature is only available on the Nintendo 3DS version, but then the Wii U version has those beautiful big-screen visuals, so I don’t think you’re losing out, whichever one you pick!
Final words from Miyamoto…
Now I feel like I’m writing my will or something! Anyway… For a long time I’ve been of the opinion that if a game world is in sync with your personal experiences, it will be more fun to play. By seeing the movies and playing the game like you have, MariChan, I think you can get a deeper level of enjoyment out of the game. For that reason, we’ve created a demo of Pikmin 3! The game now has new control options that make it easier to play, so please enjoy the movies and the game together!
View the gallery below for storyboards, opening art, and a look at the bulletin board that hangs on the wall in Olimar’s room in the first movie.
You’ll also find a photo of a new Pikmin 3DS theme. Miyamoto confirmed that the theme will be releasing next week.
