By Ollie Reynolds
Copyright nintendolife
Motoi Okamoto, a former developer at Nintendo and now steward for the Silent Hill franchise at Konami, has taken to social media to comment on whether game directors might be considered “incompetent” if they’re unable to judge new ideas without first implementing them.
As covered by Automaton, Okamoto – who worked on games such as Pikmin, Luigi’s Mansion, and Wii Play – describes a culture at Nintendo in which “everyone is a director”, thus giving team members the agency to make decisions that might improve a game.
He also says that implementing ideas and playtesting them is crucial to making a solid, fun product. As such, programmers who make excuses for not doing this – whether it be due to deadlines or monetary reasons – will be “removed from development teams without hesitation”.
“I’ve been seeing some takes along the lines of, ‘Can’t you tell whether a game specification is good or bad without implementing?’ and ‘Directors who can’t judge without implementation are incompetent.’ But at Nintendo, implementing and playtesting is precisely what matters – they don’t make decisions based on what they see on paper.
“Programmers who are lazy about implementing things, and project managers and programmers who try to avoid the trial-and-error process using deadlines and budget restraints as an excuse are removed from development teams without hesitation.
“If a programmer finds a spec boring, they’re free to just implement it in a way they believe will make it entertaining. That’s what professional game programmers do. It’s a culture where everyone is a director.”
He follows up by saying that Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata, who are considered to be “sages” within the industry, maintained a very hands-on approach when it came to developing games, concluding that it’s “plain arrogance” for some to make judgements without testing new ideas.
It’s an interesting glimpse into the development culture at Nintendo, although it’s worth considering that things might have changed slightly since Okamoto left. Still, ensuring new ideas are tested thoroughly to analyse their validity is a solid way to work.
What do you make of Motoi Okamoto’s comments regarding Nintendo’s development culture? Let us know with a comment.
