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Nintendo’s method of making games [video]
- alekratz 10y agoIf anyone is interested in the subtle background music, it's Resonance by HOME. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GW6sLrK40k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GW6sLrK40k
- CoolGuySteve 10y agoHere's another video that focuses on the mechanical side of a Donkey Kong Country level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wIIwBL784 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wIIwBL784 It combines well with this video because it answers the question in detail of 'What do you do' and 'How do you communicate it', once you have your character's actions and mechanics nailed down.
- Kenji 10y agoI think the key here is Form follows function Many gamedevs don't get this. The underlying mechanics form the core gameplay. You can always make the story, looks and characters fit, but if your game mechanics are boring and broken, only major rework or starting over helps. In fact, the form being restricted by function may even be beneficial for the creative process and make the form more original.
- azhenley 10y agoThis is why I always went with bottom-up design. I would prototype dozens of small game ideas in Flash without much planning until I found one that I spent more time playing than I did making.
- cableshaft 10y agoFlash was great for banging out prototypes super quickly, thanks to its built-in graphics and animation support. I miss it.
- SunShiranui 10y agoYou might want to take a look at Haxe and the OpenFL library!
- jalfresi 10y agoFor all its quirks (and there were LOADS) I do still miss it. Any recommendations of something thats quick to prototype games with?
- Gracana 10y agoprocessing.org and love2d.org are nice little platforms for interactive visual stuff
- azhenley 10y agoFor what its worth, a friend of mine still makes a living from making Flash games. He even uses AS2! Kongregate, Facebook, and Steam have quite a few users that play Flash games.
- cpeterso 10y agoChrome plans to make Flash click-to-play in December 2016 (with a temporary whitelist, to be removed in July 2017, for Facebook and a few other popular sites), so I would recommend he look into moving to HTML5-based game system soon!
- Kenji 10y agoThe nostalgia! I programmed my first game in my early teens in AS2! Those were the days... Hehe. I think Macromedia Flash/ActionScript 2.0 were the perfect tools to get started with programming, I was really lucky. I don't think I would have done much with a mere C++ command line back then.
- Kenji 10y agoYou can churn out a complete HTML5/JavaScript game in 2 evenings. Granted, you have to import images and don't have the convenience of just drawing something and making a MovieClip out of it. However, fundamentally, it's very similar - you just have to program the main loop yourself with requestAnimationFrame and/or timers.
- anbotero 10y agoBut if most customers buy all those games anyways, why should they change their methods? I mean, I’m all for Nintendo, and I have their current gaming systems, but I only have like two other friends who have Wii U, and all the others have PS4 and mostly love shooters or FIFA. Nintendo has kept afloat because, most of the time, they keep the same prices through the life of their systems, so they sell enough to keep going. Anyways, I hope they never really go bankrupt, or go the other companies’ way.
- Kenji 10y agoBut if most customers buy all those games anyways, why should they change their methods? If Windows sells, why should you make Linux? If iPhones sell, why should you make Android phones? If gasoline cars sell, why should you make electric cars? Because we can do better. Because we should do better. And even if we do not - we force the orignal versions to be improved or lose their market share. We push boundaries by improving upon existing products. Frankly, I cannot enjoy games that put form before function.
- hellbanner 10y agoAAA "realistic graphics, games as movies" only has so many potential buyers. Not everyone can survive in that space. http://kotaku.com/why-game-developers-keep-getting-laid-off-1583192249 http://kotaku.com/why-game-developers-keep-getting-laid-off-... http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/18/why-triple-a-devs-are-going-indie-and-why-indie-arent-going-triple-a/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/18/why-triple-a-devs-are-goin...
- orblivion 10y agoWhile this may be generally true, I think that Rez is a counterexample. The gameplay is satisfying, and it doesn't get in the way, but it's very simple and not particularly new or interesting. The music, the scenery, the graphics. That's what that game is all about.
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- rsoto 10y agoI just love Game Maker's Toolkit, if you haven't watched it and love videogames, you should. Even if you don't like videogames, but you are creating experiences for other people, you should understand what's behind a videogame.
- joshschreuder 10y agoI agree. I kind of collect channels that do these sorts of videos, here's some of my favourites: - Ahoy, particularly Retro Ahoy (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOQZmjD6P2Hk9m-sEG_fouQrtzjOC3-pQ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOQZmjD6P2Hk9m-sEG_fo...) - Game Array (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIr5cIzrkBIOwMCxJVJOx7Q https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIr5cIzrkBIOwMCxJVJOx7Q) - Sunder (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHKJTKyEfjmGegraWzCJYjbJYnIbOHi-y https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHKJTKyEfjmGegraWzCJY...) - snowmaN (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrSZDOvRCmRBLuY5_DPZ0xqdMonjbNjZ_ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrSZDOvRCmRBLuY5_DPZ0...) - Satchbag's Goods (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCShqXc61KTV5NgGKDq7Fz6g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCShqXc61KTV5NgGKDq7Fz6g) - Gameological Dig (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3yMe49zMo6lKhLNZmIg_yw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3yMe49zMo6lKhLNZmIg_yw) - RagnarRox (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFg9-S0cfu3UvBYuSNFT9hQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFg9-S0cfu3UvBYuSNFT9hQ) - Turbo Button (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWPTiFpzm8559H-9Err59gw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWPTiFpzm8559H-9Err59gw) - Innuendo Studio (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5fdssPqmmGhkhsJi4VcckA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5fdssPqmmGhkhsJi4VcckA) Please let me know if you have any more for me to check out :)
- shalmanese 10y agoErrant Signal: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4JnxTxtvItQecKUc4zRhQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4JnxTxtvItQecKUc4zRhQ
- CM30 10y agoSeconded this suggestion. I'd especially recommend his Boss Keys videos, especially if you're interested in the Legend of Zelda franchise and how it's changed over time.
- bane 10y agoThere are tons of things to learn here for application developers of all sorts. I've found that working out the interaction model before polishing up the visuals usually results in a much better thought out and more usable application. Too many designs start with how it looks and now how it works, but Nintendo's genius is to pick one interaction model, teach the user that model, and then just run with it.
- mark_kalvelage 10y agoYes, Nintendo games and games from a few other developers are probably the most pleasant pieces of software that I've ever used: well-designed interfaces, low-latency interaction, very few bugs, and tons of attention to detail. I wish there was more information out there about Nintendo's software development process.
- coolandsmartrr 10y agoWhen I interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto, he stressed his emphasis on gameplay, to provide the environments for the player to be creative. He added that story, background, etc. came afterwards to justify the gameplay. "Inside the Mind of “Mario” Creator Shigeru Miyamoto" http://rickyreports.com/archives/miyamotoshigeru/ http://rickyreports.com/archives/miyamotoshigeru/
- orblivion 10y agoMy favorite example of this sort of game mechanic innovation outside of Nintendo itself is Katamari Damacy. Maybe even outdoes Nintendo.
- maxpert 10y agoCall me a fan boy or whatever. I was not able to pin point the reason I found Nintendo games more than any other developer, (the only other game that got me hooked like Mario did was God of War but that too had it's nuances but I was hooked). This video really brings out a lot of things that explains me why I ended up liking something stupid like Kirby more than Gears of War or Assassins Creed.
- sametmax 10y agoIt's the attention to non graphical details and the density of the game. In modern games, you have huge spaces, and little density in the gameplay. In old games you are doing simple things in a small space, but very regularly with more steaks: it has way more density. And old game has the charm and personality of the current indy games, but the professionalism of the greats. It has a soul, even with no story, few pixels. It has an identity. It's very rare to find a game that has that today, and this is what nintendo is still good at. Remember the first time you woke up in the kokiri forest ? It was amazing. I tried it again. It is still amazing. With very few things, it shines, it lives. Now the first time I come out of the bunker in Fallout 4 ? The first time I spawn in Skyrim ? Meh. Not bad, it was fun. But it was not unforgettable. Now I know it is possible to make a great game, with a lot of space, fantastic graphism, and density, and a soul. But it's very rare. That and the fact we are getting older, and we are partial to games we loved when we were younger :)
- hacker_9 10y ago> Nintendo is quite different > Nintendo always starts with the same goal, coming up with a new way to play As a game developer this comes across as quite the Nintendo propaganda video. Nintendo games are the least innovative things I have ever played, as they simply recreate their popular IPs over and over again (mario, zelda, pokemon etc) with somewhat better/different graphics. The only reason they are where they are today is the original games were released at the right time (timing + luck), and people continue to buy the sequels today out of nostalgia.
- sgift 10y agoI look at majoras mask and see a Zelda that's completely different from the other Zeldas (and yes, there are more examples, that's just the most obvious), so no, Nintendo doesn't recreate their popular IPs, but actually produces new experiences based on them.
- nicky0 10y agoMore than any other game, Majora's mask still sticks in my memory. Hauntingly. I'd love to find time to play it again some time.
- toast0 10y agoIf they're trying to innovate on gameplay, it makes sense that they reuse existing characters as much as possible. Super Mario 64 was an exploration of platform games in 3d: it doesn't require Mario, but he's a very good fit. On the other hand, some of their games have new characters, Splatoon is pretty much new characters (except maybe the squid guy from Mario Brothers?)
- joezydeco 10y agoSplatoon was briefly considered as a Mario game: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-considered-making-splatoon-a-mario-game/1100-6422026/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-considered-making-...
- andrewvijay 10y agoAnyone else got goose bumps? Not a fan boy but those are genius things that only come out of love and desire.
- nikofeyn 10y agoit's interesting to note how really good games take a simple concept and explore it to its ends rather than taking a bunch of loose fitting concepts and throwing them together. probably the best examples i can come up with, even better than the nintendo ones in my opinion, are the team ico games designed by fumito ueda. ico: escape while escorting shadow of the colossus: the boss battles are the levels the last guardian: mix the previous two