Nintendo’s design guru Shigeru Miyamoto: ‘I wanted to make something weird’
Nintendo’s design guru Shigeru Miyamoto: ‘I wanted to make something weird’
Nintendo’s design guru Shigeru Miyamoto: ‘I wanted to make something weird’
By Keza Mac
December 30, 2023
Summary
You can tell a Nintendo game not just from its feel - the satisfying swish of Link's sword in the Zelda games, the weight of Mario's jump - but by its look.
Since 1977, when Miyamoto joined the company, Nintendo has sold more than 1bn copies of games featuring his creations.
Miyamoto is often called the Spielberg of games and Nintendo dubbed gaming's Pixar, but he doesn't like those comparisons.
"A lot of my classmates were going off to car manufacturers or electronics manufacturers," he recalls, "But I wanted to make something weird, something interesting, and that's how I came upon Nintendo."
By the time the Super Famicom came out in 1992, Nintendo was the world's leading video game company, and Miyamoto the world's leading video game designer.
Miyamoto has handed over the development of the game series that made him famous to other people, although he still oversees a lot of the games at Nintendo, particularly at the ideas stage.
Shigeru Miyamoto is still synonymous with the company, and with its fun-first approach to games.
Reference
Mac, K. (2023, December 30). Nintendo’s design guru Shigeru Miyamoto: “I wanted to make something weird.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/dec/30/nintendo-shigeru-miyamoto-interview-mario-zelda-switch-pikmin-splatoon