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How Shigeru Miyamoto Influenced Mario Odyssey’s Development
Shigeru Miyamoto is the famed creator of Mario and several of Nintendo’s other big properties, but over the year the acclaimed creator has shifted away from hands-on development. So, how much of an impact has Mario’s creator had on the day-to-day development of Mario’s newest outing? We talked with Super Mario Odyssey director Kenta Motokura and producer Yoshiaki Koizumi to find out.
“The way that we’ve worked together in the past with Mr. Miyamoto is that he never tells us, ‘You should do it like this,’” said Super Mario Odyssey director Kenta Motokura. “Rather, we have discussion about how to express an idea, and if something is falling short of that we’ll talk about how we could express that better.”
Miyamoto’s feedback can get highly specific, as he will often give the team feedback about the number of frames that should be in an animation. “He’s pretty critical,” said Motokura. “I don’t want to make it sound too negative, but he’s not the kind of guy to say, ‘Boy that really shocked me or surprised me.’ One of the things he might say is, ‘That’s good, right?’”
On the other hand, Mario’s creator has also been willing to let the team experiment wildly with new ideas. “He’s not the kind of guy to naysay anything,” said Motokura. “He’s been very accepting of the things we’re trying to do, and there haven’t been any cases where he’s said, ‘no, we’re not doing this.’”
For more on Super Mario Odyssey, read our hands-on impressions with the game, or watch the latest trailer.
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