Masahiro Sakurai is about to go down in gaming history, and fans have plenty of reasons to be excited. For those not in the loop, Sakurai is the producer of the Super Smash Bros franchise and has been the face of the series for many years now. He’s also the head of Sora LTD, responsible for the game Kid Icarus Uprising, and has been a part of the Kirby series and many other Nintendo franchises over the years. Now, the creator has announced his own YouTube Channel called “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.” As the title clearly notes, this is going to be a set of videos with Sakurai himself talking about the art of making video games.
In the video below, Sakurai mentions that he’s been asked many times to discuss the subject in schools or at game dev conferences like GDC. The problem, though, is that the audience attending those events would likely be small. He wanted to deliver his message to as many people as possible, and YouTube makes sense as the route to take.
One of the key things that Sakurai noted is that his videos aren’t meant to make a profit. You won’t see ads in the middle of them, and just as important, they won’t be long videos. He says they’ll only be about 2-5 minutes long, which you might think is not long enough to convey the information needed. Sakurai feels it best not to feature an hours-long breakdown of game development, but little insights and pieces of information to help budding game developers understand what they’re getting into and what to expect.
Sakurai also notes that his YouTube channel was not made in conjunction with Nintendo at all. This is his own project, and he’s even making sure to pay his editors and artists even though he’s likely not going to make money off the videos themselves. That being said, Nintendo is willing to let him use game footage from past Smash Bros titles to help him in his project. He’ll also use footage from other games with the hopes that the developers and publishers don’t mind.
For fans of gaming, this is a really cool thing. Masahiro Sakurai has seen and done a lot in his career, so even if we only get a little bit of insight on game development and how to make things fun, this will be a worthwhile experience. Be sure to subscribe!
Source: YouTube
