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DancesInUnderwear




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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:51 pm    Post subject: Miyamoto 'retiring' to work in a smaller more hands-on role Reply with quote

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http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/12/miyamoto-interview/

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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — The creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda will step down from his current position at Nintendo but remain with the company to work on smaller, more personal projects, Wired.com has learned.

In an exclusive interview with Wired.com on Wednesday, the 59-year-old head of Nintendo’s game design department said that he will move away from supervising the development of massive games like this year’s Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land, passing the torch to the younger designers in the company and working on projects that won’t take as long to complete.

ā€œInside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ā€˜I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,ā€™ā€ Miyamoto said through his interpreter. ā€œI’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position.ā€

ā€œWhat I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,ā€ Miyamoto said. ā€œProbably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.ā€


Miyamoto said that he’s hoping to start work on a project in 2012, and hopefully show the game off publicly within the year.

ā€œIn other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time,ā€ he said.


Miyamoto, whose creations propelled Nintendo to worldwide prominence beginning with 1981′s arcade game Donkey Kong and who is generally recognized as the world’s most influential and creative game designer, said he felt comfortable stepping away from supervising the Mario and Zelda games because his staff has done such a good job with this year’s critically acclaimed entries in both series.

ā€œI’m saying this because I have a solid reaction from the existing teams,ā€ he said. ā€œI was able to nurture the developers inside Nintendo who were able to create something like this or something like that,ā€ he said, gesturing to banners in the interview room in Nintendo’s office that showed the logos of Skyward Sword and Mario 3D Land.

The reason Miyamoto keeps telling the younger developers that he’s going to retire is to send the message that he won’t always be around for them to work with.

ā€œThe reason why I’m stressing that is that unless I say that I’m retiring, I cannot nurture the young developers,ā€ he said. ā€œAfter all, if I’m there in my position as it is, then there’s always kind of a relationship. And the young guys are always kind of in a situation where they have to listen to my ideas. But I need some people who are growing up much more than today.ā€

As for himself, Miyamoto seemed eager to get to work on his new ideas with a smaller, younger staff.

ā€œAnyway, I’m interested in doing a variety of many other things,ā€ he said with his usual cryptic smile.


Personally I think this could be a really good thing - Miyamoto has a lot of interesting ideas about gaming, and I think this is potentially a good way for him to get some very interesting, experimental ideas out. But then it'll be interesting to see how the larger development teams do without him 'upending the teatable'.

Its an end of an era regardless, and it'll be interesting to see what happens.

EDIT: I use the word interesting too much.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 2:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Honestly... eh. I haven't really enjoyed anything Nintendo have put out since the Gamecube.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 3:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Benza wrote:
Honestly... eh. I haven't really enjoyed anything Nintendo have put out since the Gamecube.


Yeah, they have been a bit lacking in innovation as of late (at least when it comes to core franchises). Super Mario Galaxy was the last ttile they put out that was both innovative and astoundingly good.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 3:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Benza wrote:
Honestly... eh. I haven't really enjoyed anything Nintendo have put out since the Gamecube.


Yeah, they have been a bit lacking in innovation as of late (at least when it comes to core franchises). Super Mario Galaxy was the last ttile they put out that was both innovative and astoundingly good.


I've also gotta wonder how much input he has on a lot of stuff now days. I mean he got the same credit for Mario Galaxy that he did for Starfox Assault etc.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I tend to agree he has lost his touch. Games have evolved a bit since Mario 64.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Reports are a bit conflicting. Nintendo has has denied the clains, but even if you read the Wired article he's stating he's not so much retiring from Nintendo as wanting to get back into actual game development. He's been in a senior/producer position for years now, and stated "What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself".
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Benza wrote:
Honestly... eh. I haven't really enjoyed anything Nintendo have put out since the Gamecube.


Yeah, they have been a bit lacking in innovation as of late (at least when it comes to core franchises). Super Mario Galaxy was the last ttile they put out that was both innovative and astoundingly good.


But just before Galaxy there was Wii Sports. Which was the poster child of arguably the biggest change to gaming since the controller became largely standardised back in the NES days. If thats not innovation I'm not sure what is.

I think Wii Sports is a really good example of the types of games a more hands on Miyamoto would develop, actually. And I'm cool with that.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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If thats not innovation I'm not sure what is.

Aww man this again, Nintendo aren't inovators, they take existing ideas and technologies and do them well enough to make them popular.

Playstation had the eye toy doing movement based controlls years before the Wii existed, there were even eyetoy games that used controllers that the camera recognised as a sword to do sword fighting games.

Did Nintendo make the idea of motion controlls popular? Sure, are they the pioneering inovators that came up with it? Not really.

[edit]
Also were controllers really standardised?
I mean NES gave us the d-pad as standard (An idea taken from arcade machines, not an innovation by Nintendo) but really how many games in the past 15 years have been played with the d-pad? I mean the playstation gave us the thumb analouge stick (The n64's was actually a digital stick, another innovation they didn't make that they get credit for) We've had dual sticks, analouge shoulder buttons, twin shoulder buttons, Gamecubes weird 3 shoulder buttons situation, screens in controllers (Ooh that's an idea that Nintendo could 'inovate' for their new console) fucking gargantuan x-box controllers, rumble etc etc.

Controllers have been anything but standardised.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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You hold the NES controller (or whatever similar controller of that era) with two hands, using your left hand for movement in some form and your right hand to push buttons and do things. You do the same for every controller up to and including the PS3/360/Wii classic controller (hell even with the Wiimote/Nunchuk combo). Regardless of what buttons there are, whether its a d-pad, an analogue, whatever. Its not the joystick setup that proceed it, nor the mouse / keyboard combo that lived alongside it. It is standardised.

The Wiimote was the first attempt at a change to that controller set up for a wide variety of games. The EyeToy is similar, indeed, but didn't ultimately have as wide reach as the Wiimote did, and this was largely because of Wii Sports. If Mario Galaxy can be considered innovative for whatever reason, Wii Sports can.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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The EyeToy is similar, indeed, but didn't ultimately have as wide reach as the Wiimote did

it doesn't matter how sucessfull it was, that's like arguing that Gears of War innovated the idea of third person cover shooting ignoring the fact that it's built on the back of other less sucessfull games that did the same thing.

There is a massive difference between inovating something and popularising something, nintendo are really good at popularising an idea. Not so good at actually inovating something new.

Also since when is Mario Galaxy considered inovative?
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Benza wrote:
Also since when is Mario Galaxy considered inovative?


Since the post I was specifically replying to said it was? I completely disagree with the statement actually, hence the phrase 'if Galaxy can be considered innovative for whatever reason'.



I think you're really disregarding what Wii Sports did that was drastically different to games before it, but whatever. I don't even know how we got to the innovation topic anyway. We started talking about a prominent gaming icon who was stepping down from his current role, but for whatever reason it then became about the quality of all of Nintendo's recent games (presumably also the ones he had nothing to do with, and then that damn 'innovation' word which is god-awful anyways).

How bout that Miyamoto 'retiring', hey?
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I think you're really disregarding what Wii Sports did that was drastically different to games before it, but whatever.


Nah see I don't think that there's anything wrong with what Nintendo do, they deserve all the credit in the world for taking ideas that other people have, ideas that other people can't get to work, then putting in the time and effort to hone those ideas into actuall good products.

The idea of casual focused motion controlled game mini packs isn't somethign nintendo came up with, but they were the first ones to do it well and they deserve all the credit for that cause lets face it. Eye toys fucking sucked.

It's just not innovation icon_razz.gif

But yeah the thing about him retiring is that no ones really sure what he actually does anymore.

I mean the last major game he served as director of was Galaxy, (I'm not counting Mario and Sonic at the olympics cause, man why the fuck would I?) and before that it was Ocarina of Time, I mean fuck the only game he served as director for on the cube was Animal Crossing.

He's listed as a producer on damm near everything though, ranging from games that were truley great like metroid prime 3 and mario galaxy 2 (I'll take jarrods oppinon as fact on that cause their both franchises that don't do anything for me) to games that... well fucking sucked, like Fucking Starfox Command and jesus Geist? Really?

I mean you hope that we're going to see more games like Wii sports if he steps to the forefront, according to the credits lists he had as much involvement in that as he did with fucking links crossbow training. (The directors for Wii Sports are the guy that directed Skyward Sword, and another guy that did Minish Cup, and a third guy that has no other credits if you're curious)

So yeah, I mean I know the man has had a great legacy and been responsible for defining a lot of how we play games today. But as for him actually stepping down, or getting more into directing or whatever. I just can't tell if that would actually effect anything?
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Benza wrote:
But yeah the thing about him retiring is that no ones really sure what he actually does anymore.


We know exactly what his position is, or was. He is/was on the board of directors for Nintendo, and generally acts as a producer/overseeing for a majority of the games Nintendo develops. This includes keeping track of the project, offering advice, and stepping in to change things where necessary.

He didn't direct Super Mario Galaxy, Yoshiaki Koizumi did. The last two games he had major involvement in were likely Twilight Princess and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The former because the game was stuck in development hell as Eiji Aonuma had let the team meander about without direction, and he needed to step in and force them to start making a game, and the latter because he was really keen to make another console 2D Mario.

The thing with Miyamoto is that he hasn't full time directed a title in years. As said and noted, he's been a producer and general manager, that's it. I'm guessing, in his age, he's tired of having such huge responsibilities and overseeing so many titles, and wants to quiet down a bit and take on a more directorial role of games, actually designing and building them like he did up until the end of the N64 era.

He's been talking about changing his position for awhile. He also wants to work with younger developers in small positions to prepare them for bigger roles, specifically directing and managing existing Nintendo IPs as well as creating their own.

Just a couple of months ago he was talking about being interested in personally directing Zelda Wii U. Funny thing is that if he committed full time to a project like that, it would still be a lesser work role than his current position.

I think it mostly just comes down to him being old, tired, and wanting to get back into proper game development, as well as pass on his knowledge and experience to new developers.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Nintendo have now denied that Miyamoto is retiring.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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This includes keeping track of the project, offering advice, and stepping in to change things where necessary.

See that's the thing, obviously he would be more involved in some properties then others, when I say I'm not sure exactly what he's doing I more mean how much of an actual effect is he having on the games that are coming out.

I mean yeah we can find out what his official titles on the games were, but when your roll defined as 'offering advise' and 'stepping into change things when necessary' It's hard to get a concrete grasp on just how much influence he's putting into the games.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Oh. Well yeah, we don't know exactly what he does or his influences. We do know he's a senior executive at Nintendo, and generally gets what he wants. EG: He always has a significant say in the direction of new console/portable platforms, and if he wants to make major changes to a game (see: Twilight Princess) he's free too. But his specific involvement in the assortment of games he's dabbled in is largely unknown.

But I guess that's the problem. He likely wants to spend less time stretching himself across everything Nintendo does, and more time working directly with people, either training them or making games himself.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Do you know what the major changes he did in twilight princess were? I didn't even realise that game was development hell.

Also was he the guy responsible for the "Rare's dinosaur planet is now about Starfox!"

Cause that was a fucking stupid idea.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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If I recall correctly, Miyamoto and Aonuma were the two overseers of Twilight Princess, but mainly Aonuma was directing. Aonuma was busy with, I think it was, early work on Phantom Hourglass and had neglected the Twilight Princess team. The very first E3 showing, the one that hyped people, was mostly composed of crap the team had built yet was far from a proper 'game'.

Miyamoto went over the project and realised nothing was coming together, as in, the team was pretty much directionless and just building shit to meet no real end. That and, apparently, the game played pretty poorly. So Miyamoto forced Aonuma to come back and full time direct the project, with Miyamoto also helping out, to make something of the game.

The general consensus is that the Zelda team was kind of working on a quasi-open Zelda game. A lot of the early footage from that first reveal shows big, open environments, which is very different from the compartmentalised traditional Zelda stuff we go. For either technical or design reasons, or both, it wasn't coming together, so they overhauled it for something more traditional. The huge, gigantic and empty Hyrule field I suspect is a relic of the direction of the original design.

And no idea about Star Fox, but it wouldn't surprise me. Nintendo's relationship with Rare was a bit sour at that point, Star Fox was in need of revival, and Miyamoto probably felt it would be a better fit for what was ultimately a shitty Zelda clone.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Miyamoto probably felt it would be a better fit

And if that's true it makes me pretty much certain he has no fucking idea what would make a good fit for a starfox game icon_razz.gif
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I hope he goes down the doublefine route. Shame he has to work on a nintendo platform though. Would love to play a game by him with dual sticks.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Benza wrote:
Do you know what the major changes he did in twilight princess were? I didn't even realise that game was development hell.

Also was he the guy responsible for the "Rare's dinosaur planet is now about Starfox!"

Cause that was a **** stupid idea.


The way I've heard it, Nintendo/Shiggy was making/planning to make a starfox game quite similar to Dinosaur Planet, then saw that Rare's game and I instead of making 2 similar games, it just became Starfox.

I've also heard another version where Shiggy was all like "We need a new Starfox game, turn this into Starfox!"
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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As pretty as it was, Starfox Adventures was Zelda using Starfox skins. As someone who loved Starfox 1, 2 and Lylatwars, I was outraged that they chose a completely different genre to continue the series. It even followed into Starfox Assault with those horrid foot missions, and I don't know what they were thinking with Starfox Command.

A little surprised that there were development problems with Twilight Princess and the Nintendo games on the GCN were rushed out of development, but the company manages to keep a very tight lid on the workplace conditions over the years.

I think Nintendo needs an injection of fresh blood to start making their games. Specifically some new IP's. But then again, the stuff they churn out are at least consistant and they make lots of money, so I can see why they won't try anything drastic.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I liked Starfox Adventures but I wasn't a Starfox fan up until I played with him in Super Smash Bros. (My favourite character)

Adventures had such beautiful graphics, but yeah the gameplay was a little...I don't know. It was weird, can't quite explain it other than it wasn't fluid and felt like an alien...that doesnt make sense..but yeah can't put my finger on it.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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WarAdept wrote:
As pretty as it was, Starfox Adventures was Zelda using Starfox skins. As someone who loved Starfox 1, 2 and Lylatwars, I was outraged that they chose a completely different genre to continue the series. It even followed into Starfox Assault with those horrid foot missions, and I don't know what they were thinking with Starfox Command.


I only got into starfox with lylat wars, but I actually enjoyed Adventures and Assault, even the foot missions on Assault were fun I thought.

That said Command was fucking abysmal and I would kill for a good propper starfox game again.
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