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Shigeru Miyamoto

The Life of a Game Designer

By William MarkelPublished 6 years ago 7 min read
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He is known as the father of modern video games to some. To others, as the Walt Disney of electronic gaming. He is the winner of two Lifetime Achievement Awards (1998, 2007). He was named one of the Most Influential People of the Year by Time Magazine in 2007. His name is Shigeru Miyamoto and this is his story. (Biography Today; 2010)

He was born in the rural village of Sonobe, Japan on November 16, 1952. He grew up in a small country home, in a river valley surrounded by wooded mountains, where he lived with his parents and two other siblings. As a child, Shigeru Miyamoto didn’t really have any toys or a television. He would make his own toys out of wood and string. He put on performances with homemade puppets and even made cartoon flip-books. He would also pretend that there were magical realms hidden behind the Shoji screens in his family’s home. As Shigeru Miyamoto got older, he would wander farther afield, either on foot or by bike. He also explored the bamboo forest behind the town’s ancient Shinto Shrine and would bushwhack his way through cedar and pine trees on a small mountain that was near the junior high school. Around seven- or eight-years-old, he came across a hole in the ground. As he peeked inside, he saw nothing but darkness and decided to come back the next day with a lantern. When he came back, he shimmied his way through the hole and found himself in a cavern, where he could see several passageways that led into other chambers. He returned several times over the summer to watch the shadows dance around on the walls. Although he never found anything unusual inside, he never would forget his journey into its depths and how it left him feeling excited and alive. (The New Yorker; 2015 and Biography Today; 2010)

Shigeru Miyamoto attended public school in both Sonobe and Kyoto, Japan. During his time at school, he became known to his instructors and classmates as a bright boy who spent who spent more time drawing and daydreaming than doing his homework. After he graduated high school in 1970, he enrolled in the Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts; but it would take him five years to earn his arts degree because of his lack of discipline with school work. When he finally received his degree in 1975, he had no job waiting for him and at first worked as a freelancer. (Luke Hackett; 2013) He tried for weeks and weeks to find a company that would give him the opportunity to showcase his artistic and creative talents and was unsuccessful in securing a job. He finally turned to his father for help and asked him if he would talk to an old family friend named Hiroshi Yamauchi, who at the time was the president of the Nintendo Toy Company. Days after his father contacted Yamauchi, he walked into the president’s office and tried to convince him that Nintendo could use someone with his talents. Yamauchi was so impressed with him that after having a second meeting, Miyamoto was hired as Nintendo’s first ever artist in early 1977. He worked for months as a designer for the artwork on playing cards that the company sold. (Biography Today; 2010)

One day he was called into Yamauchi’s office and was given a new assignment. He was tasked with creating a concept for a new video game that could be sold to arcades all over the world. He was delighted the challenging assignment. Miyamoto recalls, “In those days, I sometimes joked I was one of the five greatest game designers in the world, simply because there were no other game designers in the world.” Miyamoto knew he would need the support of Nintendo’s technical staff if he hoped to succeed. “I had no knowledge about computers at all,” he remembered. “There were ingenious technicians who were kind enough to teach me so many things, knowing that I was an amateur in those areas.” (Biography Today; 2010) Over the next few weeks, he considered many different game designs before he finally settled on the animated game that became known as Donkey Kong. It was a new game idea about a captive gorilla who escapes his cage, steals his master’s girlfriend, and climbs to the top of a building. The players would take control of the master (who was later named Mario) and try to save the girl from the big ape. As the game was in development, he decided to turn it into a crazy obstacle course for the game players. Miyamoto said, “I wanted to make it… difficult to climb upward, so I chose the setting of a building under construction and a ship's gangway where obstacles were constantly falling down and getting in the way.” (Biography Today; 2010) As the game was getting its finishing touches, many people expressed doubts about it and felt that the game was doomed, as video arcades were fading in popularity. Within weeks of its release in 1981, Donkey Kong became one of the biggest video games in arcades all over the world and by the end of that year, it was ranked as the year's second best-selling arcade game worldwide. (Biography Today; 2010)

Donkey Kong was such a popular game that it paved the way for Shigeru Miyamoto to create more games for the company. In 1984, he was appointed lead designer for the company’s new video game division, while at the same time Nintendo began testing an in-home video game console. The console was named the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. After assuming the leadership role in the company’s video game division, Miyamoto worked hard to create new games that could be played at the arcade and eventually played on the new system. (Biography Today; 2010) He spent months working on new game ideas; but he would always keep coming back to the Mario character from Donkey Kong. He finally decided to give Mario a brother. He named him Luigi and built a new video game around them. Months later, he unveiled the Super Mario Brothers game. In this game, the two brothers chased unusual animals around a network of underground pipes, far beneath the streets of New York City. The game became another huge success for Nintendo and under Miyamoto’s guidance, they would go on to create many sequels and spinoffs for the series. (Biography Today; 2010) As for Mario, he on the other hand would become a folk hero in the eyes of fans, with a reach as far as Mickey Mouse’s. (The New Yorker; 2015)

A year or so after the creation of the Super Mario Brothers game and its debut, Nintendo would release Miyamoto’s game the Legend of Zelda. Unlike the Mario Brothers game, which was linear, the Legend of Zelda would let you venture out in all directions and would let you explore worlds within worlds. It had a range of choice and depth that was never seen in a game before. The game was set in the imaginary world of Hyrule, where you could explore many different areas and had to solve puzzles to progress further into the game. (The New Yorker; 2015) The world of Hyrule was based in many ways by Miyamoto’s childhood adventures in the cavern he found. He has once said that “Hyrule is a miniature garden that you can put in your drawer and revisit anytime you like.” The Legend of Zelda, like the Super Mario Brothers, has spawned several different sequels and spinoffs as well. (The New Yorker; 2015) There was even a book made called Hyrule Historia which goes into the detailed history of the world and has a timeline that shows how each Legend of Zelda game is connected.

In conclusion, Shigeru Miyamoto who has a net worth of $40 million dollars, has created close to a hundred games and has had a hand in helping create several of Nintendo’s gaming systems, including the Nintendo Wii. I hope to one day be as inspirational for someone as a game designer as Shigeru Miyamoto is for me, and to one day inspire them to pursue their goals and dreams like I am today.

Works Cited

"Shigeru Miyamoto." (n.d.): Biography Reference Center. Shigeru Miyamoto (Biography Today); 2010, p1-1, 2p Web. 9 Feb. 2017.

Hackett, Luke. "Shigeru Miyamoto Biography: His early life & career to modern day." Shigeru Miyamoto Biography: His early life & career to modern day. N.p., 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2017.

Paumgarten, Nick. "Master of Play." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 04 Sept. 2015. Web. 09 Feb. 2017.

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