4 Gamer Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto - Part 1

There have been loose quotes here and there from a Pikmin 3 interview with Shigeru Miyamoto floating around since it was posted last Friday so I figured I would translate the entire interview for those who are interested.  This interview is REALLY REALLY long so let me thank you for your patience in advance as I work on it all. ^_^

Note:  This interview was originally posted on June 13th, 2013.  All pictures and everything are property of 4 Gamer.

Interviewing Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto On the Appeal of Pikmin 3 - "When it comes to interactive media, a connection to one's self is the most fun"

   Nintendo's Wii U exclusive title, Pikmin 3, is on sale today (7/13/2013).  Both the downloadable and packaged editions cost 5,985 yen (tax included).

   Also, from today until Friday 7/19/2013, you can purchase the downloadable edition exclusively from the NIntendo eShop at a 10% discount for 5,387 yen (tax incl) as a part of the Summer Early Adopters Discount Campaign.  (Download cards and pre-purchased download codes are excluded.)

　　 The first game in the series, Pikmin, went on sale in 2001 for the  Nintendo Gamecube.  Seemingly cute at first glance, it it is a very deep game that captivated many fans.  The sequel, Pikmin 2, was released in 2004 and even though both titles have been ported to the Wii since, it's been nine years since an all new numbered title has been released.

   The series title, "Pikmin," isn't taken from the game's main character but is the name of strange plant-like living creatures that walk on two legs like animals.

   The player controls the story's main character and is able to collect a maximum of 100 Pikmin together by whistling.  They can then throw those collected Pikmin to destroy walls and discover new paths, have the Pikmin bring things to them, and fight against the living creatures within the game's pre-set time limit.  These are common elements to all games in the series.

   There are also different kinds of Pikmin central to the series.  In addition to previous Red Pikmin that have strong fire attacks, Yellow Pikmin that can be easily thrown to high places and aren't stunned by electricity, and Blue Pikmin that can move in water, in Pikmin 3 hard bodied Stone Pikmin and Winged Pikmin, which can fly, make their appearance for a total of 5 Pikmin types. 

   Players make their way though the game by using each Pikmin's specific skills properly.

   While the hero of the first Pikmin game was Olimar and Pikmin 2 had Olimar and Louie, this game's three heroes are all new characters - Charlie, Alf, and Brittney.  In the midst of a food shortage on Planet Koppai, they set out together in their ship, The Drake, in search of a new food supply but make an unexpected landing on Planet PNF-404.

   The player switches between all three heroes and, while controlling the Pikmin living on the planet, collects food (fruit) and searches for the pieces of the crash landed Drake.

  Time passes in game and heroes are not able to do things at night, having to complete their tasks from the next morning.  At night they must retreat the the Drake.  To stay alive, the heroes need juice made from the fruit brought back to the Drake during the day.  If the juice supply runs out, the mission is failed.

   Having to coordinate all this at the same time is the strategic basis of this game.

   Today, we got the chance to interview Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development Branch's Manager, Shigeru Miyamoto, about Pikmin 3.  He told us about the reasons behind making Pikmin 3 for the Wii U, gave us an update on the state of the Wii U, and then talked about "the fun of games."  We've asked him the things most people want to know about and hope both fans of the Pikmin series and those who haven't yet played games in the series will enjoy reading!

The Wii U Was the Most Fitting Hardware for Making Pikmin as it Was Envisioned

4Gamer:     Thank you for coming today.      When Pikmin went on sale for the Nintendo Gamecube I was hooked and played it a lot but also saw the tragedy (you can look up the details yourself) that took place in the final final part of the game.    After that I kind of avoided Pikmin.  I didn't want to remember it!  So I'm here today without having played Pikmin 2....

Shigeru Miyamoto (from now on, Miyamoto):      Hmm...  I guess that ending was kind of harsh.  I can give you the excuse that the game had multiple endings. (laughs)    We felt like the player would restart the game after having finished it once but it seems like people playing the game didn't have as much time as we thought and after finishing it once, the majority of people would stop there.  I guess I learned the hard way that most people are quite busy.

4Gamer:    Thinking of it now, with the experience of having played it once, if one were to play it a second time, they could avoid the same issues.     Still, how much fun Pikmin is is clear.  In fact, I just played about 2 hours of Pikmin 3 before and to be quite honest... it was really fun.

Miyamoto:    Oh, you enjoyed it?  Good!

4Gamer:    To be entirely honest, I went into it feeling something like "Well, it's a new game for WiiU and it's Pikmin so I know it is going to be fun" but even still with those expectations, it was more fun than I expected.    Furthermore, it once again confirmed anew my impressions that "yeah, of course Pikmin is fun."

Miyamoto:    Hearing you say that makes me happy.  It's what I was hoping for.  We started Pikmin 3 from the point of view of "even though we're sure Pikmin 1 was fun, we want to do more."

4Gamer:       Right.

Miyamoto:    Pikmin 2 was made after listening to the different things in 1 people were unhappy with and it filled in those gaps but if you fix the things fans are not happy with, does that make a fun game?  That was a lingering question we had..    From that point we thought of what 1 should have been in the first place, even considering the reactions to the multiple endings, and decided to make 3.    At the same time, we looked at the Wii U which was in development and felt if we had it's capabilities at our disposal, we could better make the game we envisioned.

4Gamer:    Speaking of that, Pikmin 3 was originally in development for the Wii but in the middle of the process was changed to the Wii U, right?  When it came to making Pikmin 3, what in the Wii U did you find more attractive?

Miyamoto:    When it comes to Pikmin games, management of your units is strict but being able to coordinate them to work well together is why it's a fun game.  To actualize that, we needed to have everything within the game world correctly moving at the same time, including the off screen elements.     With old game making techniques, we made it look like things were moving appropriately while we in actuality hid some elements.

4Gamer:     You were able to direct players' attention away from parts they didn't even notice.

Miyamoto:    Right.  However, in Pikmin 3, lots of different things are actually moving at the same time.  If you look at the overall map on the GamePad, you can see everything is moving.    In other words, we needed a real, sophisticated system to clearly show all the animated elements.  For that Wii U was the best fit.

4Gamer:    At the moment, when comparing the amount of Wiis and Wii Us sold, since there is a difference of about ten fold between the two, the initial plan to release the game on Wii or alternatively do a multiplatform development would lead one to assume that would allow the most people to play the game.  But, clearly, there are reasons why it had to be on Wii U.

Miyamoto:    From Nintendo's stance, we also need to sell Wii Us but that's not the only reason. (laughs)    Also, if we had made it on Wii, while I am sure we could have, when you think of needing to get everything moving together, clearly Wii U was the better overall choice.  After making it and seeing the results, if it hadn't been on Wii U, we wouldn't have been able to make the same game at all.    It all came together as a cohesive unit from a combination of elements that are only possible because of the Wii U as well as motion controls carried over from the Wii.  The Wii U was not a piece of hardware designed specifically for Pikmin but Wii U was the most fitting piece of hardware to create Pikmin.

4Gamer:     So in the Developer Direct, when you said that you feel like "Pikmin 1 made use of everything it could," that is what you meant.

We Want to Satisfy Both Experienced Players and Inexperience Players With the Same Game

 4Gamer:    When playing Pikmin 3, I found myself asking "what is fun about Pikmin" and considered many things.  The first thing I came up with during the beginning part of the game, you aren't being pressured by lots of different things.    Simply moving the heroes and Pikmin around is fun.  Then, as you get used to the game, you learn more things.  The more you learn, the more fun it becomes.

Miyamoto:     I've been making action games for 30 years but Japan is a country in which action games are slowly decreasing in popularity while in America they are becoming more popular.  There's a large gap there to consider.    For action games, there is a problem where people who cannot overcome the difficulty don't want to play anymore no matter what.  That feeling then gets tied to games as a whole and they reject games and feel like "they're hard so I don't like them."    In the case of America, there are many people who take on the challenge so they discover the fun after overcoming the first obstacles.

4Gamer:    Clearly action games demand the most skill from players.

Miyamoto:    Right.  When it comes to actual players, I think there are those who have fun from simply playing the game, those who are happy to make it to the end, and those who want the bar to be raised.    If people who want harder challenges are able to easily beat a game, they call the game "lame" or something to that effect.  If you make the whole game too hard, it is possible that people who simply enjoy playing the game are going to be put off.    I wanted to make a game that all kinds of players would have fun with.

4Gamer:    You wanted to make a game both hardcore and casual players could enjoy.

Miyamoto:    Correct.  When thinking of an answer for players who would find a game "lame," we decided on some ways the player can challenge themselves.  In other words, we made it so players could feel like "I am sure I can do better in this part!" while playing.    This was something I've thought of since Pikmin 1.  In the case of that game, the game would end if more than 30 days passed in game.  If you dilly dallied, you wouldn't get the best ending.  On the other hand, at the most extreme, we made it so you could beat the game in under 20 days.

4Gamer:    So even for people who simply enjoy playing games, they could reach the ending within 30 days while those who are good at games could find ways to play and beat it in less times.

Miyamoto:    For Pikmin 3 we've made that system even easier to understand.    So from a balance standpoint, for people who have trouble with actions games, as long as they collect fruits in game, they can reach the ending it in 40~60 days in game.  But there are also those who can complete it in 20 days.  As word spreads of people who can do that, I think there are certain to be those who wish to challenge themselves even more.    We thought of that and created a system where not only can you redo story mode from the beginning, you can also redo it from points part of the way though.

4Gamer:     So you can redo a day that could have gone better.

Miyamoto:    Yes.  Furthermore, if you're playing Mission Mode at the same time, things can go even better.  After playing the missions a bit, if you go back to Story Mode, you see you've gotten better without even realizing it.    With this system, since one can play while overcoming what they find difficult, I would like those who have no experience with Pikmin and those who are invested in the series to play.

4Gaming:    While in the beginning just moving around is fun, it's exactly as you say - as your understanding deepens, your desire to challenge yourself does as well.  Another way of saying it is you're doing what the creators want. (laughs)    Even including the tutorials, that understanding isn't gained from explanation but rather from grasping the feeling of the game; it was a bit surprising.

Miyamoto:     Tutorials are often the part of the game you have to put up with to be able to understand how the game works.  The more complicated a game, the longer the tutorial.  To have to put up with the beginning parts of something you've bought and expect to enjoy has become the norm.  Since the time of 2, we've discussed how we can break that .    Especially in the case of a series of games, if a game has the same system as the previous game and you are not able to skip the tutorials, experienced players find that frustrating.

4Gamer:    That is true.  With modern games, it is irritating if the tutorial is long.

Miyamoto:     Yeah.  Tutorials and load times. (laughs)

4Gamer:    You want to play the game as quickly as possible but the explanation of the details goes on and on.

Miyamoto:    It's unavoidable since there are people who don't know the game.  That's the reason for it.

4Gamer:      Even still, if the amount of information in the tutorial is too long, it becomes too much to remember and you forget what you are doing.   There weren't any problems like that at all in Pikmin 3.  The system was such that the beginning, basic parts of the story were accompanied by beginning, basic controls.

Miyamoto:     For this game, we explain the basics and  if there are things the player does not understand, messages similar to control explanations show up on the GamePad one by one.  If you read those, you can remember what to do or figure out what do if you have no idea.  We also considered players that don't understand what to do.    In other words, a short tutorial helps out the player and they can have fun without having to "put up" with anything.  That is the way we made this game.

4Gamer:      That was clear when I played.

Miyamoto:     With all that in mind, in regards to the game difficulty and tutorials, you could say we've made it understandable for both experienced and inexperienced players alike.  We put a good deal of effort into that so it's my hope that players appreciate it.

To Release a Contemporary Pikmin, HD Was the Only Choice

4Gamer:    For this game, when I saw the high quality rendering of the little Pikmin, I really got the benefit of HD because of the Wii U.  Could you tell me more about that?

Miyamoto:     I felt like I wanted to go to HD sooner.    Even for the Wii, no matter how much it made the system cost, it would have been great if it were HD in the first place.  However, it was going to take some time for HD televisions to become common and we felt that until that point was reached, there would have been no point for Wii to be HD.    From our point of view, once the subsequent generation to Wii came around, HD televisions would be more common and we felt it would be time to make our games in HD then.  However, HD became more common about 2 to 3 years earlier than we had anticipated.  A main part of that was that the prices for HD televisions manufactured overseas had gone down at an unthinkable pace.   So, as a result, while we were right in the middle of selling the Wii, the TVs in people's living rooms (in Japan) were slowly becoming HD sets.  Overseas especially people had never so rapidly and drastically changed their hardware to the newest technology but in America as well HD TVs became standard little by little.

4Gamer:     When the Wii U went on sale, full HD TVs, although not impossibly expensive, weren't easily affordable.

Miyamoto:      Nowadays people can buy a 40 inch television for less than 100,000 yen (approx $1,000).  It's great for the consumer. (laughs)

4Gamer:     HD TVs are standard now but 4K TVs are also coming out.

Miyamoto:     Yeah.  When it comes to games, I don't see the need for Zelda in 4K but for Pikmin, making it 4K compatible could possibly further show more small detailed Pikmin moving around, show things from an even further perspective, and being able to see more may make a more fun game.

4Gamer:    I feel like I'd like to see that one day.    By the way, we already touched on it earlier in our conversation but in choosing Wii U as the platform for Pikmin 3, it seems like HD compatibility was huge.

Miyamoto:      Yes.  Since Pikmin is a game where you especially want to see the overall picture as well sections of the game, as a game for this generation, we felt it couldn't be anything other than HD.

4Gamer:    Of course, due to the HD display, the Pikmin are animated in greater detail but from an overall perspective you can really feel the increase in movement and everything being alive.

Miyamoto:    That's because one of the game directors is a programmer himself.  He didn't tell me what he did but it seems like he incorporated a lot of elements. (laughs)    In this kind of "band together" game, if every creature uses the same motion, runs in the same way, carries same-shaped things in the same direction, it looks like they are robots.   To make the Pikmin look like living creatures, there were little details added here and there.  For example, it's set up so their movements are slightly offset from one another or sometimes there's one who won't listen to what you tell them.

4Gamer:      One you were sure was with the group gets lost at some point.