Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
Miyamoto at the 2007 Game Developers Conference. Born November 16, 1952 Sonobe, Kyoto, Japan
Nationality Japanese Alma mater Kanazawa College of Art Occupation Game Director, Game Producer, Character Artist, Game designer, EAD General Manager Spouse(s) Children Signature Yasuko Miyamoto 2
Shigeru Miyamoto ( Miyamoto Shigeru, born November 16, 1952) is a Japanese video game developer. Sometimes called "the father of modern video gaming," he is best known as the creator of some of the best-selling, most critically acclaimed, most enduring, and most influential games and franchises of all time. Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977, when the company was beginning its foray into video games and starting to abandon the playing cards it had made starting in 1889. His games have been seen on every Nintendo video game console, with his earliest work appearing on arcade machines. Franchises Miyamoto has created include Mario (the best-selling franchise of all time), Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, and the Wii series. Noteworthy games include Super Mario Bros., a pioneer of the sidescrolling genre, Super Mario 64, a pioneer of 3D control schemes, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is widely considered the greatest game ever made, and Wii Sports, the best-selling game of all time. He currently manages the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development branch, which handles many of Nintendo's top-selling titles. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work. He has a wife, Yasuko, and two children.
Shigeru Miyamoto
Early life
Miyamoto was born in the Japanese town of Sonobe, a rural town northwest of Kyoto,[1] on November 16, 1952. His parents were of "modest means," and his father taught English. From an early age, Miyamoto began to explore the natural areas around his home. On one of these expeditions, Miyamoto came upon a cave, and, after days of hesitation, went inside. Miyamoto's expeditions into the Kyoto countryside inspired his later work, particularly The Legend of Zelda, a seminal video game. Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts with a degree in industrial design but no job lined up. He also had a love for manga and initially intended to become a professional manga artist before considering a career in video games, where the manga influence in his work would later be evident. The title that inspired him to enter the video game industry was the 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders. Western genre television shows had a major influence on Miyamoto.
Career
19771984: Arcade beginnings; Donkey Kong
Nintendo, a relatively small Japanese company, had traditionally sold playing cards and other novelties, although it had started to branch out into toys and games in the mid 1960s. Through a mutual friend, Miyamoto's father arranged an interview with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. After showing some of his toy creations, Miyamoto was hired in 1977 as an apprentice in the planning department. Miyamoto went on to become the company's first artist. He helped create the art for the company's first original coin-operated arcade video game, Sheriff. He first helped the company develop a game with the 1980 release Radar Scope. The game achieved moderate success in Japan, but by 1981, Nintendo's efforts to break it into the North American video game market had failed, leaving the company with a large number of unsold units and on the verge of financial collapse. In an effort to keep the company afloat, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to convert unsold Radar Scope units into a new arcade game. He tasked Miyamoto with the conversion[2] (Miyamoto has said "no-one else was available" to do the work). Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi, supervised the project.[3] Miyamoto imagined many characters and plot concepts, but eventually settled on a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a girl. He meant to mirror the rivalry between comic characters Bluto and Popeye for the woman Olive Oyl, although Nintendo could not gain the rights to a Popeye adaptation. Bluto evolved into an ape, a form Miyamoto claimed was "nothing too evil or repulsive". This ape would be the pet of the main character, "a funny, hang-loose kind of guy."[4] Miyamoto also named "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong as influences.[5] Donkey Kong marked the first time that the formulation of a video game's storyline preceded the actual programming, rather than simply being appended as an afterthought.[6] Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project, but lacked the technical skills to program it himself; instead, he conceived the game's concepts, then consulted technicians on whether they were possible. He wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different manners, and react in various ways. However, Yokoi viewed Miyamoto's original design as too complex.[7] Yokoi suggested using see-saws to catapult the hero across the screen; however, this proved too difficult to program. Miyamoto next thought of using sloped platforms and ladders for travel, with barrels for obstacles. When he asked that the game have multiple stages, the four-man programming team complained that he was essentially asking them to make the game repeat, but the team eventually successfully programmed the game.[8] When the game was sent to Nintendo of America for testing, the sales manager hated it for being too different from the maze and shooter games common at the time.[9] When American staffers began naming the characters, they settled on "Pauline" for the woman, after Polly James, wife of Nintendo's Redmond, Washington, warehouse manager, Don James. The playable character, initially "Jumpman", was eventually named for Mario Segale, the warehouse landlord.[10] These character
Shigeru Miyamoto names were printed on the American cabinet art and used in promotional materials. The staff also pushed for an English name, and thus it received the title Donkey Kong.[11] Donkey Kong was a success, leading Miyamoto to work on sequels Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3. His next game was based on the character from Donkey Kong. He reworked the character Jumpman into Mario, and gave him a brother: Luigi. He named the new game Mario Bros.. Yokoi convinced Miyamoto to give Mario some super human abilities, namely the ability to fall from any height unharmed. Mario's appearance in Donkey Kong overalls, a hat, and a thick mustache led Miyamoto to change aspects of the game to make Mario look like a plumber rather than a carpenter. Miyamoto felt that New York City provided the best setting for the game, with its "labyrinthine subterranean network of sewage pipes". The two-player mode and other aspects of gameplay were partially inspired by an earlier video game entitled Joust. To date, Mario Bros. has been released for more than a dozen platforms.
Shigeru Miyamoto elements such as Link's "magic meter" and the Dark Link character that would become commonplace in future Zelda games, although the role-playing elements such as experience points and the platform-style side-scrolling and multiple lives were never used again in the official series. The game is also looked upon as one of the most difficult games in the Zelda series and 8-bit gaming as a whole. Additionally, The Adventure of Link was one of the first games to combine role-playing video game and platforming elements to a considerable degree. Soon after, Super Mario Bros. 3 was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development; the game took more than two years to complete. The game offers numerous modifications on the original Super Mario Bros., ranging from costumes with different abilities to new enemies Bowser's children were designed to be unique in appearance and personality; Miyamoto based the characters on seven of his programmers as a tribute to their work on the game. The Koopaling's names were later altered to mimic names of well-known, Western musicians in the English localization. In a first for the Mario series, the player navigates via two game screens: an overworld map and a level playfield. The overworld map displays an overhead representation of the current world and has several paths leading from the world's entrance to a castle. Moving the on-screen character to a certain tile will allow access to that level's playfield, a linear stage populated with obstacles and enemies. The majority of the game takes place in these levels.
Shigeru Miyamoto based on that of Super Mario 64 but was so heavily modified as to be a somewhat different engine. Individual parts of Ocarina of Time were handled by multiple directors a new strategy for Nintendo EAD. However, when things progressed slower than expected, Miyamoto returned to the development team with a more central role assisted in public by interpreter Bill Trinen. The team was new to 3D games, but assistant director Makoto Miyanaga recalls a sense of "passion for creating something new and unprecedented". Miyamoto went on to produce a sequel to Ocarina of Time, known as The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. By re-using the game engine and graphics from Ocarina of Time, a smaller team required only 18 months to finish Majora's Mask. Miyamoto worked on a variety of Mario series spin-offs for the Nintendo 64, including Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party.
Miyamoto played a major role in the development of the Wii, a console that popularized motion control gaming, and its launch title Wii Sports, which helped show the capability of the new control scheme. Miyamoto went on to produce other titles in the Wii series, including Wii Fit. His inspiration for Wii Fit was to encourage conversation and family bonding. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2004, Miyamoto unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, appearing dressed as protagonist Link with a sword and shield. Also released for the Nintendo GameCube, the game was among the Wii's launch titles and the first in the Zelda series to implement motion controls. He also helped with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the newest game in the series, which featured more accurate motion controls. He also produced two Zelda titles for the Nintendo DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. These were the first titles in the series to implement touch screen controls. Miyamoto produced three major Mario titles for Wii from 2007 to 2010: Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii introduced simultaneous multiplayer to the series.
Shigeru Miyamoto
Development philosophy
Miyamoto, and Nintendo as a whole, does not use focus groups. Instead, Miyamoto figures out if a game is fun for himself. He says that if he enjoys it, others will too. He then tests it with friends and family. He encourages younger developers to consider people who are new to gaming, for example by having them switch their dominant hand with their other hand to feel the experience of an unfamiliar game. Miyamoto wants players to experience kyokan; he wants "the players to feel about the game what the developers felt themselves." Miyamoto is not focused on hyper-realistic graphics; although he realizes they have their place, he is more focused on the game mechanics (the choices and challenges in the game). Just as manga artists subverted their genre, Miyamoto hopes to subvert some of the basic principles he had popularized in his early games, retaining some elements but eliminating others. Miyamoto prefers to change his games right until they are finalized; for this reasons he opposes pre-rendered cutscenes. He prefers the game to be fun rather than have elaborate film sequences. Miyamoto has stated that Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. were not intended to be childish games; Miyamoto hopes to have his games to appeal to a wide variety of different people. Miyamoto also tries to make his games friendly to the player, for example through appropriate use of the save feature. He says that finishing touches on a game can make a large difference on the finished product.
Personal life
Miyamoto has a wife, Yasuko, and two children. His son was 25 in 2010 and worked at an advertising agency. His daughter was 23 in 2010 and was studying zoology at the time. His children played video games, but he also made them go outside. Although he knows some English, he does not speak it well, and he prefers to speak in Japanese for interviews. Miyamoto does not generally sign autographs, out of concern that he would be inundated. He also does not appear on Japanese television, so as to remain anonymous. More foreign tourists than Japanese people approach him. Although a game designer, Miyamoto spends little time playing video games, preferring to play the guitar, mandolin and banjo. He avidly enjoys bluegrass. He has a Shetland Sheepdog named Pikku that provided the inspiration for Nintendogs. He is also a semi-professional dog breeder. He has been quoted as stating, "Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll." Miyamoto enjoys rearranging furniture in his house, even late at night. He has also has stated that he has a hobby of guessing the measurements of objects, then checking to see if he was correct, and apparently carries a tape measure with him everywhere.
Shigeru Miyamoto
Impact
Time has called Miyamoto "the father of modern video games," while The Daily Telegraph says he is "regarded by many as possibly the most important game designer of all time." GameTrailers called him "the most influential game creator in history."[14] Miyamoto has significantly influenced various aspects of the medium. The Daily Telegraph credited him with creating "some of the most innovative, ground breaking and successful work in his field." Many of Miyamoto's works have pioneered new video game concepts or refined existing ones. Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, some being considered the greatest games of all time. Miyamoto's games have also sold very well, becoming some of the best-selling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time. As of 1999, his games had sold 250 million units and grossed billions of dollars. Calling him one of the few "video-game auteurs," The New Yorker credited Miyamoto's role in creating the franchises that drove console sales, as well as designing the consoles themselves. They described Miyamoto as Nintendo's "guiding spirit, its meal ticket, and its playful public face," noting that Nintendo might not exist without him. The Daily Telegraph similarly attributed Nintendo's success to Miyamoto more than any other person.
Critical reception
Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, and are widely considered among the greatest of all time. Games in Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda series have received outstanding critical acclaim. A Link to the Past was a landmark title for Nintendo and is widely considered today to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Ocarina of Time, is widely considered by critics and gamers alike to be the greatest video game ever made.[15][16][17] Twilight Princess was released to universal critical acclaim, and is the third highest-rated title for the Wii. It received perfect scores from major publications such as CVG, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Informer, GamesRadar, and
Shigeru Miyamoto GameSpy. According to Metacritic, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are the first- and second-highest rated games for the Wii.
Commercial reception
Miyamoto's games have sold very well, becoming some of the best-selling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time. Miyamoto's Mario series is, by far, the best-selling video game franchise of all time, selling over 400 million units. Super Mario Bros. is the second best-selling video game of all time. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Bros. 2 were, respectively, the three best-selling games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Levi Buchanan of IGN considered Super Mario Bros. 3's appearance in the film The Wizard as a show-stealing element, and referred to the movie as a "90-minute commercial" for the game. Super Mario World was the best-selling game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Mario 64 was the best-selling Nintendo 64 game, and as of May 21, 2003, the game had sold eleven million copies. At the end of 2007, Guinness World Records reported sales of 11.8 million copies. As of September 25, 2007, it was the seventh best-selling video game in the United States with six million copies sold. By June 2007, Super Mario 64 had become the second most popular title on Wii's Virtual Console, behind Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Sunshine was the third best-selling video game for the Nintendo GameCube. The original game in The Legend of Zelda series was the fifth best-selling game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Wind Waker was the fourth best-selling game for the Nintendo GameCube. Twilight Princess experienced commercial success. In the PAL region, which covers most of Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe, Twilight Princess is the best-selling Zelda game ever. During its first week, the game was sold with three out of every four Wii purchases. The game had sold 4.52 million copies on the Wii as of March 1, 2008, and 1.32 million on the GameCube as of March 31, 2007. The Mario Kart series has also sold well. Super Mario Kart was the third best-selling video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Mario Kart 64 was the second best-selling Nintendo 64 game. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! was the second best selling game for the GameCube. Miyamoto produced the best-selling game of all time, Wii Sports, part of the Wii series, one of the best-selling franchises of all time.
Mentorship
Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokmon, cites Shigeru Miyamoto as a major influence, thinking of him as a sort of mentor. For this reason, his developmental style closely matches that of Miyamoto.
The name of the main character of the PC game Daikatana, Hiro Miyamoto, is a homage to Miyamoto. The character Gary Oak from the Pokmon anime series is named Shigeru in Japan and is the rival of Ash Ketchum (called Satoshi in Japan). Pokmon creator Satoshi Tajiri was mentored by Miyamoto. In 1998, Miyamoto was honored as the first person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. In 2006, Miyamoto was made a Chevalier (knight) of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.
Shigeru Miyamoto On November 28, 2006, Miyamoto was featured in TIME Asia's "60 Years of Asian Heroes". He was later chosen as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the Year in both 2007 and also in 2008, in which he topped the list with a total vote of 1,766,424. At the Game Developers Choice Awards, on March 7, 2007, Miyamoto received the Lifetime Achievement Award "for a career that spans the creation of Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda to the company's recent revolutionary systems, Nintendo DS and Wii." GameTrailers and IGN placed Miyamoto first on their lists for the "Top Ten Game Creators" and the "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time" respectively. In a survey of game developers by industry publication Develop, 30% of the developers, by far the largest portion, chose Miyamoto as their "Ultimate Development Hero". Miyamoto has been interviewed by companies and organizations such as CNN's Talk Asia. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA at the British Academy Video Games Awards on March 19, 2010. In 2012, Miyamoto was also the first interactive creator to be awarded the highest recognition in Spain, the Prince of Asturias Award, in the category of Communications and Humanities.
References
[1] "Master of Play" (http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ reporting/ 2010/ 12/ 20/ 101220fa_fact_paumgarten) profile in the New Yorker, December 20, 2010 [2] Kent 157. [3] Kent 158. [4] Both quotes from Sheff 47. [5] Kohler 36. [6] Kohler 38. [7] Sheff 4748. [8] Kohler 3839. [9] Sheff 49. [10] Sheff 109. [11] Kohler 212. [12] Sheff (1993), p. 51 [13] Sheff (1993), p. 52 [14] www.gametrailers.com/videos/0sjlce/gt-countdown-top-ten-game-creators [15] This news article refers to Ocarina of Time as "the apex of 6-4bit gaming and oft-cited "Best Game Ever Made..." [16] Metacritic here states that Ocarina of Time is "[c]onsidered by many to be the greatest single-player video game ever created in any genre..." [17] Ryan, Michael E. "'I Gotta Have This Game Machine!' (Cover Story)." Familypc 7.11 (2000): 112. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 24 July 2013. FamilyPC says "Considered by many to be the greatest video game ever [...]
External links
"Master of Play" (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_paumgarten) profile in the New Yorker, December 20, 2010 N-Sider (http://www.n-sider.com/personnelview.php?personnelid=170) Shigeru Miyamoto profile Shigeru Miyamoto (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,36620/) profile on MobyGames New York Times profile (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/arts/television/25schi.html?em& ex=1211947200&en=2e7defd6e2df859a&ei=5087 ), May 25, 2008 Video profile of Shigeru Miyamoto (http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110715005452/http://www. onnetworks.com/videos/play-value/shigeru-miyamoto) from the digital TV series * Play Value (http:// wayback.archive.org/web/20110317202918/http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/play-value?) produced by ON Networks (http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110304124229/http://www.onnetworks.com/?)
10
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/