Last week, the Wii U and 3DS eShops received Pikmin Short Movies, three animated shorts based on the Pikmin game series. This project was new territory for Pikmin creator and Mario's father, Shigeru Miyamoto, who had never ventured into filmmaking before. His games at Nintendo, though simple in narrative, have an otherwise uncanny ability to draw players into their worlds. Certainly, that is a strong quality for a filmmaker to have, but Miyamoto doesn't see things the same way.
In an interview with UK's Telegraph, Miyamoto explained that he wants the players to be in charge of their own story. When discussing videogame "auteurs" who have grand narrative visions for their software, he said:
These younger game creators, they want to be recognised. They want to tell stories that will touch people's hearts. And while I understand that desire, the trend worries me. It should be the experience, that is touching. What I strive for is to make the person playing the game the director. All I do is help them feel that, by playing, they're creating something that only they could create.
It's important that games be understood as wholly distinct from films:
When you play a game, one moment you're just controlling it and then suddenly you feel you’re in its world. And that's something you cannot experience through film or literature. It's a completely unique experience.
Miyamoto certainly has the track record to back up his strong opinions. His creations have always touched players in a way that few other games have, and they've done so without hitting the same notes as other popular games.
He is also very particular about what kind of storytelling content is being inserted into projects that he slaps his name on — one notable example is Super Mario Galaxy's storybook segments, which director Yoshiaki Koizumi snuck in under Miyamoto's nose. For Galaxy 2, Miyamoto made sure that there was no superfluous story whatsoever.
Check out the full interview for more Miyamoto brain nuggets.
