Shigeru Miyamoto – The Creative behind Nintendo

Shigeru Miyamoto

He is one of the most famous developers in the Videogames Industry. Since Shigeru Miyamoto made his first great success, Donkey Kong, he is one of the most important developers of a whole industry.

He is Satoru Iwata´s (Nintendo President since 2002) right Hand. He began at Nintendo as a Staff Artist but because of his good ideas he advised Iwata in a lot of difficult decisions for Nintendo´s future. He developed famous games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and many other games for Nintendo

But from where comes this developer, who is also called Shiggy by his fans and how could he develop all these famous games for Nintendo.

Let´s have a look in his past.

From a small adventure loving boy to one of the best developer of a whole industry

We are in the year 1952; exactly we have the 16.November, at a small village called „Sonobe“(now Nantan). Shigeru was born.

He grew up as a normal child. His parents were conservative, and did not like the new media like TV’s or Videogames.

So Shigeru often played outside. He went into dark forests or caverns. He felt the fear, when he was in an unknown forest or cavern.

Chain Dog

There we have the first parallel from his past to his games. In „The Legend of Zelda „you have often to go as „Link ” in dark Caverns or mysterious forests.

When he wasn´t outside, he went to the City. On this way he firstly had to go through his neighborhood next to a garden with a huge dog. He had a lot of fear for this dog

There I think is the next parallel to his games. In some Super Mario games and in one „The Legend of Zelda“  game is a black large dog fixed with a strong chain. And when you get in the near of this dog he tries to attack you.

When „Shiggy“ went into the City he often played Videogames or he went into a cinema. Since now he is a really big fan of  „Indiana Jones“.

Nintendo Sign

1970 he made his final exam at school and went to a college for industrial design. But in this time his parents had some worry lines because Shigeru liked Videogames more than learning and so his performance at school wasn´t really good. His father was a friend of the former Nintendo president.  He arranged a meeting between Shigeru and Yamauchi. But Miyamoto was not really convinced in that idea because at this time Nintendo had a small taxi service and was producing instant rice products. A few month later Shigeru was working at Nintendo as „Staff Artist“. In this position he has lot of freedom in creating new products. For Example he developed a coat hook with small animal motifs. It sold good.

In this time he met his wife for the first time at Nintendo. Now he hast two children with her and they are happily married.

His First Games – A New Age Of Video Gaming

After Nintendo made it well known that they want to join the Entertainment sector they needed a presentable product to establish their self in it. Therefore Miyamoto had to develop something in this direction. Shigeru meant that it must be a game with a story. He inspired his self from the movie „The Beauty and the Beast“. I think everybody understands that „Princess Peach „is the Beauty and Donkey Kong the „Beast“. Mario (at that Time he was called Jumpman) had to rescue Peach.

Donkey Kong

1984 Shigeru Miyamoto was promoted das „Director of Entertainment“. Till now Miyamoto is working simultaneous at two or three games. From 1984 till 1985 he develops about 30 games. Then in 1985 he got promoted as „Producer“. As Producer he doesn´t work directly at the games. He has to say what direction will take the game and what fits for it and what not. Then 1987 he released the first game of the  „The Legend of Zelda“ series. Under his flag it got to one of the most important franchises of Nintendo.

In the Year 1993 he could fulfill one of his long dreamed dreams. Miyamoto developed a flight simulator called Starwing for the “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”. But because of the strong Hardware restriction, this game wasn´t like his picture. The “Super FX” Chip can show 3D Graphics but very restricted. In content he was with it when he released his second version of that game called “Lylat Wars” on the Nintendo 64 with much more graphic power and real 3D graphics.

After this time, in that he developed the basic franchises of Nintendo he got more and more respected and is also involved in the developing process of new hardware and peripherals. The “Control Stick” for example is grown up on his idea, because he just wanted it for “Mario 64”.

Because of the fact that Nintendo´s sales figures were getting more and more less, Nintendo´s last  President Hiroshi Yamauchi thought that it´s another one turn to direct the company. So he stepped back and made Satoru Iwata became the new President of Nintendo.

The first thing he did was to re-design Nintendo´s internal structures.

From now Miyamoto is responsible to give his great ideas for a lot of games simultaneous. In the programming process he only interferes when there are problems. At the same time he teaches new developers in Nintendo´s Company politic.

Starwing

Even he has nearly no direct contact with developing new games bu he has his own projects. An example for one of these is Wii Fit. Since the “Super Nintendo” Shigeru wanted to develop a game in which not only the fun factor must be good. Instead of this factor, the game must train the user’s body, while he plays it, but Hiroshi Yamauchi was too conservative to launch such a game.

Lylat Wars

Miyamoto´s Meanings And Opinions

He is strict against online gaming because he thinks that friends should meet other friends in the “real world” and not in the “virtual world”. So is Online Gaming on Nintendo systems always an opportunity but not in the foreground, like it is in many games on Microsoft, Sony or on PC.

In his principles Miyamoto is like many other Japanese people; conservative but with new games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit or few other current games he shows that he is opened for new ideas and innovations.

Shigeru Miyamoto playing Wii Fit

One of his objectives, which he surrendered for hisself was to make games for everyone. These game should played by people who did never played any Videogames before. This objective he could involve in the developing process of the Nintendo Wii. Games like Wii Sports (Nintendo), Rayman Raving Rabbits (Ubisoft) or Brain Training (Nintendo) are played by all people in every age or gender.

Everywhere He Reaps Honor

As developer at Nintendo he got some famous prices. He got his own Star on the “Walk of Fame”.  Here I would like to mark that Super Mario also has a Star on the Walk of Fame.

In France he was beaten to the knight.In the magazine „Game Developer“ he got the „Life Time Achievement“, the Time magazine called him as the Stephen Spielberg of the Videogame sector when he was listed in 100 most important people in the year 2007. From the japanese government he got a mark of distinction for his work during his lifetime.

Plans For Future?

Shigeru Miyamoto feat. Nintendo Stars

What Shigeru Miyamoto want to do in future, he didn´t say yet but we can hope that he will publish some of his genius games.

Concluding I want to say that Nintendo only got so famous because Shigeru brought his genius ideas in the company. He is a      contemplative man with a huge sense for imagination and musician talent.

He reached his objective, to close the fissure between gamers and non-gamers and in the close future he will work to make more games for everyone.

Gaming Industry Executives tarnishing their own image.

Unfortunately success in the gaming industry goes hand in hand with the notion of arrogance.

by Sutton Dagger:

©2009 Steven Sutton:

Shigeru Miyamoto

Throughout the industry, certain executives feel like ’smack-talk’ and chest beating will ensure the most support from the gaming public. Contrary to these PR methods, the general gaming populace seem to revile these ‘outbursts’, and the companies associated with them.

The industry ‘nice guys’ like Shigeru Miyamoto (responsible for Mario, Zelda and other well known franchises), seem to remain popular amongst the hardcore gaming crowd, whilst the ‘loud-mouth’ executives are abused and tormented.

It is seemingly ironic, given the fact that pot-shots and smack-talk are the staple of online gaming today; I guess we can do it, as long as those in charge don’t.

Let us take a look at the three competing industry heavyweights and the often poor choice of words that impact their standing in the gaming community.

Nintendo has had its fair share of industry executives who liked to dish dirt on the competition (sometimes even gamers, looking at you Laurent Fischer). None more famous than the former president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who took a pot-shot at the upcoming Xbox console back in 2000.

Hiroshi Yamauchi

The Xbox went on to sell more units worldwide than Nintendo’s competing machine, the GameCube.

“There are many people in the industry that know nothing about games. In particular, a large American company is trying to engulf software houses with money, but I don’t believe that will go well. It looks like they’ll sell their game system next year, but we’ll see the answer to that the following year.”

Sony have also been accused of arrogance during their rein at the top of the industry. Specifically when the transition from the PS2 and PS3 was taking place, former Chairman/CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi made in infamous blunder when describing the price point of the PS3.

Ken Kutaragi

It almost single-handedly turned the media and gaming public against Sony and its newest console, and ruined the chances of Sony’s PS3 making a profit.

“[PS3 is] for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else.”

Microsoft has had its fair share of drama as well, with the whole hardware failure fiasco surely tarnishing their reputation. One man in particular though, Aaron Greenberg (Xbox 360 product management director), seems to do a bang up job of getting gamers offside.

Though it can’t be put down into a particular quote or statement, Mr Greenberg has a habit of tooting his own horn (that being the Xbox 360), whilst generally dismissing the competition. I’m not sure Mr Greenberg has grasped the notion of being ‘humble in victory as well as defeat’, but in this fickle industry, things can shift in a heartbeat, and the product manager would do well to remember this.

Aaron Greenberg

The recent interview on Gamasutra regarding the February NPD numbers (American hardware/software numbers) is a prime example of his methods and one which has garnered a lot of bad publicity for the Xbox 360 platform.

So what are your thoughts; do these top industry players show a hint of arrogance in their ramblings, or is it all part of  acceptable PR talk?

©2009 Steven Sutton:

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Ice Climber es un videojuego publicado y desarrollado por Nintendo, y que se hizo muy popular en la versión para NES que salió en 1985. Sin embargo, sería en 1984 cuando apareciera una primera versión de Ice Climber para recreativas, dentro de la serie VS. que tenía la compañía nipona para los salones recreativos. El videojuego fue desarrollado por Kenji Miki y producido por Shigeru Miyamoto e Hiroshi Yamauchi, saliendo en Japón el 30 de Enero de 1985, llegando a Norteamérica el 18 de Octubre de ese mismo año. Europa no vería el juego hasta Septiembre del año siguiente. El videojuego cogería mucha popularidad dentro de este mercado, gracias a que en diversas ediciones, el videojuego acompañaba a la consola al comprarla.

Para seguir leyendo pulsa aquí.

Historia de Mario 1: Donkey Kong

vamos a realizar un repaso por la historia del personaje, desde que vio a la luz allá por 1981 hasta hoy.

Parte 1: Donkey Kong

A principios de los 80, la gran obsesión de Hiroshi Yamauchi, presidente por aquella época de Nintendo, era el penetrar en el mercado estadounidense y establecerse en el mismo como desarrolladora de máquinas recreativas tipo “A” (máquinas arcade, a diferencia de las “B”, tragaperras de bares, y las “C”, tragaperras de casino). Tras varias intentonas, que resultaron ser un fracaso, confió la licencia de un videojuego basado en Popeye a un joven diseñador, Sigheru Miyamoto.

Lo que se pretendía era emplear el mismo hardware de Radar Scope, juego que supuso un tremendo batacazo, para reducir costes, en un juego que pudiese calar en la mentalidad del público estadounidense de la época. Nintendo no pudo, finalmente, hacerse con la licencia de Popeye, así que Miyamoto, basándose en ideas que había barajado para el juego, convirtió al marinero en un carpintero llamado Jumpman, a Olivia en una “dama en apuros” llamada Pauline, y a Bluto en un clon de King Kong.

Miyamoto, padre de la criatura

Debido a las carencias gráficas de la plataforma, los desarrolladores se emplearon a fondo para transformar las ideas de Miyamoto. Las limitadas capacidades gráficas de la máquina obligaron a dotar a Jumpman de los elementos gráficos por los que hoy es reconocido inmediatamente: para no tener que mover el pelo, se le colocó una gorra; por no poder dibujarle correctamente una boca, se le puso bigote; y, puesto que querían que se viese la animación de los brazos, unos guantes blancos sustituyeron a las manos.

El juego, una vez terminado, se envió a Nintendo América para que diesen su visto bueno. Los responsables de la delegación auguraron un rotundo fracaso del título y, en parte forzados por Yamauchi, optaron por colocar dos máquinas en sendos bares de Seatle para ver cómo se comportaba comercialmente. El éxito fue tan aplastante que no tardaron en llegar cientos de pedidos solicitando el arcade, de tal forma que, desde que se lanzó el juego en julio de 1981 hasta junio de 1982, la cifra total de Donkey Kongs en la calle era de 60.000 unidades.

Aunque en un principio se especuló con que el nombre de Donkey Kong fue debido a un error (Donkey por Monkey), la realidad es que Miyamoto, que apenas conocía nada del idioma inglés, quería dar al gorila un toque de “bruto” y “tonto”, así que, con la ayuda de un diccionario japonés-inglés, escogió la palabra Donkey (burro) para transmitir el carácter del simio. Así, de esta curiosa forma, se puso nombre a uno de los personajes más importantes de Nintendo.

Si el caso del gorila es curioso, más lo es el por qué se cambió el nombre de Jumpman a Mario. Los responsables de Nintendo América andaban buscando un nombre más llamativo para el protagonista que el soso Jumpman. Así que, mientras buscaban un nuevo nombre, los creativos de la compañía se fijaron en el gran parecido físico entre el personaje del videojuego y el dueño de las oficinas donde estaba la base, Mario Segali (no deja de tener coña), así que bautizaron a Jumpman como Mario. Así, el personaje pasó de apátrida a ser italiano.

Se escribe así la primera página del videojuego (y personaje del mismo) más importante de toda la historia…

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