Train2Game Game Designers should strive to make their work as unique as possible. That’s the lesson to take away from comments made by the father of Super Mario and Donkey Kong in a recent interview.
“In the past, game design was all about which game was the best on the hardware that was available,” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told The Guardian.
“That still holds true in the current world, but for the Game Designer, it’s important to understand the overall system.
Plus, it’s important to understand all the mechanisms in games, otherwise the movement or the gameplay would not be right. If that is good, then it will be evaluated as a good game.”
The Nintendo legend believes Game Designers should be unique; it’s likely that those on the Train2Game Game Design course do believe that they have unique ideas to bring to the industry.
“But games nowadays are at a higher level, and the devices are higher-technology, so generally speaking, people can [and should] make good games.
Nowadays, it’s really important that the designer should be unique, and that their individuality should show through in the production itself.”
Continuing on from this, Miyamoto added that a Game Designer should never do something just because it’s popular.
“It’s costly if you do something because other people are doing it, but the focus should be: ‘Because people are not doing it, we’ll go this way.’ Uniqueness is important.
Finance-wise, you can put more budget in, but your energy has to be focused on something, otherwise it won’t work. For me, if you tell me, ‘I’ve seen this before,’ or ‘I’ve done this before,’ that’s challenging.”
Earlier this month, the Train2Game blog reported that Shigeru Miyamoto wants to teach when he retires.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Miyamoto’s comments about Game Design? How useful is it for you that one of the most iconic people in the industry has said what he thinks the ideal designer should be?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum
