Hiku said:
KLAMarine said:
And if we follow the source from the wiki page, we come to a New Yorker article ( http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/master-of-play ) that is not only over five years old, the claim that Nintendo does not use focus groups seems to originate from the New Yorker themselves, not from the interview. Even more strange is the same NY article quotes Miyamoto as saying "Sometimes the test players complain that there are too many enemies in one stage" which implies it isn't just Miyamoto who provides feedback.
From a more recent interview in April of this year ( http://stack.net.au/games/features/star-man-shigeru-miyamoto-interview? ), Shigeru Miyamoto is quoted as saying "while we always have test audiences, I ask them how they feel, but I don’t ask what they want it to be." From this, it seems development receives some degree of outside feedback contrary to what the wiki page implies.
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Yeah, the test players he may be refering to in the same article could be his friends and family, that his Wiki article mentioned. "He then tests it with friends and family."
Though I assumed that this is probably an old practice, and perhaps only regarding Miyamoto's own games. Would be surprised if their focus group don't extend beyond Miyamoto's friends and family these days.
But this was just to illustrate Miyamoto's influence in the company. Im sure they trust him a lot because of his history with the company, and value his opinion greatly. At least until he gives them a reason to doubt him.
A similar example can be Katsuhiro Harada of Namco Bandai. Mostly known as the producer of Tekken. But he's been involved as a director and voice actor as well. He has steered them unto a good path over the years. And he has quite the influence over Namco Bandai's decisions as well when it comes to games. A couple of years back, Namco Bandai did not seem to want to localize Project X Zone for 3DS. After fans asked Harada about it on Twitter, he eventually posted this: "I proposed localization of Project X Zone." He added that the company has "not decided yet, but It will be realized if I continue proposing." Of course he will propose it with a proper business plan, but none the less, it's pretty clear that he believes he has some influence on the matter. And I've heard from others in the industry that he does. (Zhi and Markman who worked at Mad Catz said so.)
It was basically the same thing regarding Xenosaga HD which fans reached out to him about. Almost a year ago, his initial proposal fell through, but he said he had other ideas, and when someone tweeted that "Even Harada can't make it happen", Harada replied with something to the extent of "I can." Whether he makes it happen or not remains to be seen. But I digress. I can only imagine that Miyamoto has the same, if not more, influence over Nintendo regarding games. And if they come with an idea to him, and he thinks it's not good, I'm sure they would take his opinion into consideration and value it highly. Would be strange to see him work on a project he doesn't agree with, to boot.
In either case, it looks like he thought Star Fox would be a good game for the "Gamepad project"
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A lot of this is still very much speculative ( may be referring to... I assumed... perhaps... Would be surprised... remains to be seen... I can only imagine... Would be strange... it looks like... ).
Like I've said before, I find it infinitely more efficient for people to focus on the end product rather than speculating on events happening behind closed doors.
Hiku said:
KLAMarine said:
Who is the 'we' in the quotes ("We spent more than one year... we conducted tests... we fixed the basic form...") and how did their input influence the final outcome?
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The "we" should be the "Mr. Miyamoto's software development department" that was mentioned at the end of the financial briefing, who's focus it was to produce titles that make proper use of the Gamepad.
They were put in charge of that task, and so they were the ones testing various game archetypes for this project. Miyamoto said that during this process, he came to the realization that he should make a Starfox game for this project.
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And I reiterate he didn't make the new Star Fox game alone. Game development is a collaborative effort, I'm sure you know. Maybe it was Miyamoto who screwed things up or perhaps it was decisions or expectations from higher up that put the team at a disadvantage or maybe some team members were new hires and had trouble contributing to their fullest capabilities? Maybe Miyamoto, as supervising director, ruled with an iron fist and came down hard on the two directors or perhaps he allowed the two directors a free rein?
I have not the slightest clue which it could have been, I was not there to confirm for myself either way and I suspect you and many others speculating endlessly on English-speaking forums were not there either.
