My Favorite Presentation
As someone who grew up with gaming, Nintendo has always been a huge part of my life. As such, Shigeru Miyamoto is someone who I have always found to be extremely inspirational. In my eyes, he is a legendary game designer who has shaped much of my childhood, and is the type of person I aspire to be like one day.
I really enjoyed Nintendo's E3 2015 presentation. In teaming up with the Jim Henson company to use muppets throughout the show, they make the presentation fun, which sets the tone for what their company is all about. They also use clips of Mario Maker's new costumes to both advertise Mario Maker, as well as make great intro sequences into discussing other games. The developer stories are also a fantastic insight into the industry. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you check it out:
But I wanted to focus instead on the following segment from that presentation, presented by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka:
The goal of their presentation was to promote the game Super Mario Maker, a game where players can design and create their own Mario levels. They did so by also giving a behind the scenes look at the history of level design for the franchise. By doing this, the presentation took on a form similar to the Presentation Form discussed in Resonate. They used the old methods of level design to contrast the method available in the game.
The presentaion also resonates with gamers like myself, who find game design and level design interesting. It is a fascinating behind the scenes look at something that I've been inspired by since I was young. They even go so far as to say that you should try the game out if you want to get into game design.
They also make good use of visuals for their presentation. When discussing the old methods of level design, they show documents created when they worked on the old games. They also showed clips of the games to help explain what they discuss to the audience.
I personally think that the behind the scenes discussions are fascinating, and would love to do that sort of thing while working on my own games. Many developers have developer documentaries on their personal blogs and forums, and it is a great way to show the audience your thought process behind a game. I also feel that it is a great way to be transparrent with your audience.
