Shigeru Miyamoto: The Perseverance of a Game
Designer
Shigeru
Miyamoto is my most admired game designer. He created a large numbers of famous
video games, such as Super Mario Bros. series, The Legend of Zelda series,
Donkey Kong series, and Star Fox series (Halabi, 2013). The video game is a
toilsome industry creating every single video
game with much ado. Developing a video game, a great game designer needs the inspiration to create one or more new
interesting experiences for the players,
it is also very hard for every game designer. Shigeru Miyamoto with his
perseverance faced many difficulties and overcame them. He is my model role,
and I will talk about what need I to learn from him.
Every game
designer will face difficult situation in the beginning because he/she does not have a lot experience to handle a video game in the
video game market; I will not
give up like Shigeru Miyamoto because gold will always glitter. His gaming
career was not favorable in the beginning. After he graduated from Kanazawa
College of Art, he struggled to find a job that suited
him. His father helped him then he
worked in Nintendo then a small company in
1977 as an apprentice in the planning department (Paumgarten, 2010). He became the company’s first artist. In the beginning, his
work was helped to create the art from the company of first arcade video game,
Sheriff. He was given an important task to create a video game after Nintendo
failed In the North American market with a lot of expensive arcade equipment.
In that time, Nintendo was on the edge of bankruptcy; they needed Miyamoto to
created a video game for the arcade equipment that was very hard for him
because he had never created any game before (Fahs, 2015). He and some
engineers were creating the video game day and night; they never gave up
because they must make the game successful. Miyamoto and his team did it; they
created Donkey Kong, which is the most famous game in the world.
The game was effected a tremendous impact on the game industry until today
because Shigeru gave birth a new genre of game side-view jumping games. (Fahs,
2015) Shigeru not only just saved this company from huge
stress but also opened international marketing for Nintendo. His decision was a
risk because this kind of game had not been tried before, but he thought a game
designer must do something new in a video game. Every time when I make a new
game project I always remember what Shigeru did that I will not afraid any
pressure. Also, I try to do my best keeping my hope for successful whether the
situation good or not that is my model role, Shigeru Miyamoto conveyed me for
his story.
Shigeru
Miyamoto always wants to make games better.
Shigeru expressed after he finished the Super Mario Bros. 3, “This was it? This
is what we thought was good enough?” (Narcisse, 2010) He always thinks about
his video games not not being good enough enough.
He was in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center for the celebration Super Mario 25th birthday and he said,
” I look back and play some of these games and there are a lot of places where,
to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed.”(Narcisse, 2010) Although he is not
young, he also thinks video games should be creative.
In the NES age, he created a lot of well-known video games. After, he also created a lot of games
in the GBA, Wii, and Wii U, such as Pikmin series, Super Mario Bros. series,
and The Legend of Zelda series. Those games also have some new gaming
experience. He also criticized video game developers and companies in nowadays
have not creative and originality. He
said “this is the entertainment industry, so game designers have to have a
creative mind and also have to be able to stand up against the marketing people
at their company - otherwise they cannot be creative. There is not that many
people who fit that description.”(Eugene, 2014) His quotes always remind me to
create game creatively. And, his behavior also tells me that no best just
better. I will be a game designer in the future. I always think about can I be
a good game designer, or better then Shigeru Miyamoto? I think I should study
his spirit of constantly striving for perfection.
Shigeru
Miyamoto is a great game designer who made a lot of distinguished video games,
such as Legend of Zelda series, Donkey Kong series, Pikmin series, and Star Fox
series. He should be very smart, and creative. He also faced a lot of difficult
time, but he never give up because of his perseverance that is a most important
character for a game developer. His stories also encourage me to be a great
video game developer with the indomitable spirit. In my gaming career, also I
will meet some hard situations that he had met. His behavior is my pattern to
overcome various difficulties by my perseverance. I may not his highly gifted,
but his perseverance is I can learn. In the end, I believe I can successful
because I will like my model role perseverance, and never give up.
References
Narcisse, E. (2010, November
08). The mythology of Mario: Q&A With Nintendo’s Legendary Shigeru
Miyamoto. Time. Retrieved from
http://techland.time.com/2010/11/08/shigeru-miyamoto-legendary-nintendo-designer-speaks-on-the-mythology-of-mario/3/
Fahs, T. (2011, July
6). The Secret History of Donkey Kong. Gamasutra.
Retrieved from
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134790/the_secret_history_of_donkey_kong.php
Paumgarten, N. (2010,
December 20). Master of Play. The New
Yorker. Retrieved from
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/master-of-play
Halabi, Y. (2013, MARCH
19). Get to Know Shigeru Miyamoto. Time
for kids. Retrieved from
http://www.timeforkids.com/news/get-know-shigeru-miyamoto/84311
