Miyamoto: Making Games Is Like Writing Detective Novels

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Miyamoto: Making Games Is Like Writing Detective Novels

Games shouldn't bury their secrets where few will find them, says the Mario creator.

Making a fun game is like penning a good mystery, says Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, because - as with detective stories - getting the flow of information just right is crucial to keeping players engaged.

Developers had to give players enough information to keep them moving forward, Miyamoto said, without overloading them with too much all at once. He thought that games could hide their secrets too well, which could leave players bewildered or frustrated.

Miyamoto thought that with the right level of difficulty, players would want to play a game over and over, each time learning more about it. He said that he always tried to keep that gradual improvement in a player's skill in mind when he made games. He encouraged the younger developers at Nintendo to consider it as well, and used tricks like getting them to swap their left and right hands on the controller to show what it was like for players who didn't have years of experience under their belts.

The Wii is much more casual-friendly than Nintendo's previous consoles, so making games accessible to novices is more important now than it ever has been. Miyamoto's techniques are applicable to any game however, as even the most difficult of hardcore titles needs to communicate relevant information to players effectively.

Source: The New Yorker [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all]


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Macgyvercas

Spice & Wolf Restored!
Feb 19, 2009
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Miyamoto wins again.

Seriously, I hate it when games hide stuff from you or make you look overly hard for it (looking at you Brutal Legend, making me drive for god knows how long to find shit).
 

JediMB

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Oct 25, 2008
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Macgyvercas said:
Miyamoto wins again.

Seriously, I hate it when games hide stuff from you or make you look overly hard for it (looking at you Brutal Legend, making me drive for god knows how long to find shit).
Ye gods, I remember finishing Ultimate Spider-Man and thinking about trying to find all the hidden tokens or whatever to unlock the extra costumes.

I looked up how many of them there were, and found that there weren't any maps detailing their locations, and just gave up right away.
 

Kukakkau

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Feb 9, 2008
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How much do you wanna bet people are gonna read this then try and use their controllers with opposite hands now

But yes well said - gradual difficulty curve in a game beats those without one or with too steep of one
 

NTK

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Sep 7, 2009
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The title reminds me of Swiss Toni.
Making a game is like making love to a beautiful woman... :D
 

Folio

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Jun 11, 2010
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He doesn't mean hiding things literally. He means the patterns players use. If you are familliar with certain controls, you will use them whenever you can. When a new control or mechanic is presented, the player needs to learn how to use that as well.

On the other hand. I don't like it when games hold your hand with tips that reveal the less obvious tricks. It doesn't make you feel smart, it makes you feel like a puppet, trying to draw the world map even though it's already been done before.

Nintendo balances their difficulty right. Switching Mario to Luigi was an added difficulty as well. Luigi controls a little different than Mario, demanding more precision and control from the player than usual.
 

teknoarcanist

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Jun 9, 2008
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"Master," said the students, "our games are very fun now!"
But the Master was wise, and knew that they were not. "Fun for whom?" he asked.
"Fun for us!" they replied. "And those like us!"
"Switch your hands upon the controller." instructed the Master.
And the students did so, and they became very ashamed, and knew that the word of the Master was Truth.
 

Dorkmaster Flek

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Mar 13, 2008
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That's a really interesting idea about swapping your hands. Nice to know Miyamoto still understands how to make approachable games. I think Mario Galaxy 2 walked this line really finely recently. It was pretty approachable and easily beatable I found, but getting every star in the game was a damn challenge at times. I'd wager making the perfect run in the Grandmaster Galaxy was one of the toughest challenges I got out of a game in recent memory, and I loved it.
 

viking97

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Jan 23, 2010
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i am reminded incredibly of the original smb, you learn more about the game each time you play.
 

JimbobDa3rd

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Sep 21, 2008
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teknoarcanist said:
"Master," said the students, "our games are very fun now!"
But the Master was wise, and knew that they were not. "Fun for whom?" he asked.
"Fun for us!" they replied. "And those like us!"
"Switch your hands upon the controller." instructed the Master.
And the students did so, and they became very ashamed, and knew that the word of the Master was Truth.
The Nintendo Developers Bible. Including the 4 apostles of Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Yoshi
 

Mstrswrd

Always playing Touhou. Always.
Mar 2, 2008
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teknoarcanist said:
"Master," said the students, "our games are very fun now!"
But the Master was wise, and knew that they were not. "Fun for whom?" he asked.
"Fun for us!" they replied. "And those like us!"
"Switch your hands upon the controller." instructed the Master.
And the students did so, and they became very ashamed, and knew that the word of the Master was Truth.
Yeah, I'd say that the title of Master applies about as well to Miyamoto as it did to Confucius (and I'm being serious, too).