Interview:E3 Roundtable May 24th 2002

Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka at E3 2002 in a Roundtable fashion, addressing questions about their involvement with a variety of projects, including mentions of Zelda Gamecube.

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Q: Mr. Miyamoto, you've talked about your children a few times. So, I was curious, when you started developing games in the beginning, your children were not part of your life. Now that you have children, has that changed the way you develop games?

Miyamoto: I don't think it really has changed my perspective a whole lot. I guess you could say that because you know, now that we do play a lot together and we do spend a lot of time together, that that has maybe given me more of a parental perspective on things, but I don't think that has changed my game design a whole lot.

Q: Mr. Miyamoto, now that you are overseeing so many game products all the time and watching the progression of games, does it take a lot away from what you were originally doing when you had more hands-on with the game, or when you were building them so many years ago? Do you think you get enough time in with them?

Miyamoto: Well, yeah, of course I have really talented directors working for me there are times when I don't have to get involved in a project at all and it goes on its own and is able to come to fruition without much of my help. But, sometimes there are times when directors need my help and I do become directly involved in the games. The fact that I am working on so many different projects at once really allows me to get involved deeply at different points in each of the projects and I get to experience a lot more than if I was focusing on just one game. So, as you can see over the past couple years we've been working on Metroid, which looks very realistic and we've been working on Mario which looks kind of comical and sort of a classical style, and Zelda which is very cartoony. So, I've been able to work on all these games and it's been very fun for me.

Q: How will Zelda (GC) hook up to the GBA?

Miyamoto: Have you all seen the GBA link with Zelda on the showfloor? (Few raise hands) Ah, there are some very attentive people out there. There's actually one GameCube on the showfloor which has a link to GBA, which will explain the connection.

Q: Hi, Mr. Miyamoto. I was wondering, is the new Metroid going to be leveled based or is it going to be a free-roaming game like the previous Metroids where you can go back through the same levels?

Miyamoto: Actually, the team that is working on Metroid are huge Metroid fans. We think the game is going to be very similar in style to Super Metroid. We've taken it into a 1st person perspective, complete with scan visors and weapons. I really think it's going to be this idea of exploring a level and going through and having the freedom to come back and try things later. I think you'll find it's very similar to Super Metroid.

Q: Mr. Miyamoto, what is your direct involvement with Metroid and also, how do you anticipate the Japanese audience accepting the change to 1st person?

Miyamoto: Well first of all I think the Japanese Metroid fans will think it's a very cool game. And, as I mentioned, when I first met the Retro team I knew that they were the ones I wanted to make this game. I've actually been involved with this game since the initial stages as producer, and at EAD in Japan we have three staff members helping out Retro Studios. Our level of involvement is very high in the project.

Q: I was wondering if Animal Crossing will have the same NES games as seen in the Japanese version since some of them were never released here before?

Tezuka: We actually haven't finalized which games will be included with Animal Crossing in the US.

Q: Mr. Miyamoto, we've seen two different uses for the apparatus on Mario's back, will there be more uses for the apparatus later in the game?

Miyamoto: There are other types of nozzles for his backpack.

Q: I think I'm right in saying the new Zelda takes place before the other Zelda games, right?

Miyamoto: I'm not that deeply involved in the Zelda project, but if that is actually the case we have decided that the setting for the game will be near the beginning.

Q: Well the one question we had was, uh, Link apparently has a sister and where did she go for the later games?

Miyamoto: Maybe we should wrap things up here? We'll actually talk more about the storyline sometime in the future. For this game, talking with the director, it was important for Link's sister to be in this game. We wanted somebody to call him "Big Brother".

Q: Mr. Miyamoto, you're one of the few game designers focusing on game cooperation and communication in your games. Any reason why?

Miyamoto: I haven't noticed that other developers haven't focused on those attributes. I think there are a number of things a player can experience in a game to get fun out of. I think there are different ways to elicit fun out of a player. I guess violence is one way you can elicit emotion and deliver entertainment to players. But at the same time I think it's more of an escape route for developers to use when they have a hard time coming up with ideas for creating fun.

Q: Mr. Miyamoto, you've used things that you do around the house, including gardening tasks, to come up with ideas for your games, how did Animal Crossing come about?

Miyamoto: That's a question better suited for Mr. Tezuka since he's heading up that project. The discussion for this game began long ago when Yoshi's Island was in development and the directors started to talk about future games. We began to ask what kind of game would be new and unique? These discussions drifted toward communication in the games and that's how the project began.

Tezuka: Actually we had a couple of ideas. And one of them was to have many players playing simultaneously in one large environment. But, another idea we had for a long time was to try and have a game where people could play for short periods of time every day over a very very long period of time. And that is when we gave birth to Animal Crossing.