by Nick - 03.17.06
The European webchat that Miyamoto participated in has gone live over at webchats.tv.
They got tens of thousands of questions and ran down a list of the most popular ones. After the cut I’ve listed a recap of what questions were asked and Miyamoto’s responses.
British Gaming Blog has the entire transcript available also.
Asked about his inspirations, Miyamoto said that he draws from his own personal hobbies for game ideas. He also sometime has to listen to what Iwata commands him to do!
How does Miyamoto go about designing games? He starts with a interesting core idea and then discusses it with other team members. Then they move into prototyping and try different iterations to see what works.
When asked how he describes fun in games, Miyamoto responds that he thinks it is fun to interact with games, which is why he is excited to be able to physically move with the Revolution controller.
Miyamoto then answered a question about why he is personally excited about the Revolution. He said that up until this point all of the action was stuck on the monitor or tv, but now with the Rev controller things will be more interactive, much like they are on the DS. He gives the examples of Mario jumping and Link swinging his sword with the flick of a wrist.
Asked what feedback he had gotten from 3rd party developers, he said that they were excited to be able to branch out and create new kinds of interfaces.
The focus then moved onto Mario. Miyamoto commented that New Super Mario Bros was a move back to basics, like the original Super Mario Bros. He wanted it to be accessible to everyone and also take full advantage of the DS hardware.
When asked if he played Mario Kart DS online Miyamoto responded that he had, but he got beaten pretty badly and hasn’t felt like playing again.
Then someone asked, why, if Mario does so many sports and jumping, is he still so chubby. Miyamoto came to Mario’s defence and stated that he had a lot of muscle too. However, like Mario, Miyamoto himself is trying to loose a bit of his belly. He said that maybe he should give Mario even more sports to keep him in shape.
Animal Crossing: Wild World will be launching soon in Europe and Miyamoto said that Europeans can expect similar Wifi downloadable goodies as the rest of the world.
Miyamoto was then asked if he had played Brain Training and what his “brain age” was. He laughed and said that at first his brain age was very poor. With practice he has gotten into the 20yr old range. He said that when he got into the 20s he paused the game so he could show it off to people.
Asked where the inspiration for Nintendogs came from he replies that he has a dog and he saw the interesting interaction not only between dogs and their owners, but also the social interaction between owners of dogs themselves. He then pulled out the DS lite to demonstrate how using the touch screen and the microphone made it like interacting with a real puppy.
Ds lite + Miyamoto = Fanboy overload. Miyamoto commented that the main reason for the redesign of the DS was to increase portability. He commented on the huge demand the DS lite is seeing in Japan.
Asked about supporting small development groups like NIBRIS & Crossbeam Miyamoto talked about how Brain Training was made with a small group and he thinks that small development groups are important and are welcomed by Nintendo.
Then Miyamoto was asked the most popular question submitted; how does one become a game designer? Miyamoto commented that when he was young there was no game design career. He studied art and got involved in things that interested him. He said that it would be wise for potential game designers to really find out what they like and focus on that specialized area. He also said that they should experience as many things as possible because it will lead to great ideas. He mentioned that he used to do all sorts of things like play in rivers, play baseball and be in bands.
Asked about being knighted recently in France Miyamoto pulled out his medal and said that he was honored to have receive it. He said that he was in fact not receiving it for himself, but for all of the people who worked so hard to create the amazing games he was recognized for. Very humble.
Miyamoto then answered a question about what he does in his spare time, saying that he likes to spend time with his family, play his guitar and walk his dog.
When asked about the future of gaming Miyamoto acknowledged that gaming is entertainment, not a necessity. With that, he sees things continually progressing and evolving. He mentioned the advances in technology and how everything will be interconnected and we may not be carrying around disks anymore.
Finally, Barb from Holland asked a “cheeky question”. She asked if Miyamoto would marry her. He laughed and responded that he didn’t really want to divorce his wife.
Seriously, you just have to love the man. He is truly genuine, humble and happy. I’m glad to see that he is having so much fun and we all know how well that translates into his games. We love you Shiggy!
