Oh, I know this one! ahem
So Donkey Kong came about out of happenstance. Nintendo was just getting into the budding arcade scene, and was in the middle of producing a licensed game based on Popeye. In fact, they were so far into production that when some behind the scenes bullshit meant the deal was off they had a nearly finished game that they still wanted to sell and not feel like they wasted all that time, money, and effort. That’s when Miyamoto had the idea to keep the gameplay while changing the games art assets and premise. Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oil, were replaced with Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pauline respectively. After they unexpected success of Donkey Kong lead to them to do more with these now unaffiliated characters, there came a need to flesh out they world they lived in. Miyamoto always thought of Mario as a cartoon character, perhaps owing to the circumstances of his creation, so the Mushroom Kingdom as it was now came to be known was given a sort of classic cartoon aesthetic, the kind where it feels like anything could happen. The rest is history.
Star Fox doesn’t have quite as interesting story behind, sorry to say. Miyamoto says he had seen Top Gun and wanted to make a game about fighter pilots.
I know about the Donkey Kong thing but that doesn‘t seem related to Miyamoto‘s claim at all. That‘s just a work story. There‘s nothing about actual life in there.
And yes Star Fox was designed after a shrine spirit near Nintendo headquarters, making him much more of a „real life anecdote“ than Mario or Donkey Kong.
A work story is still a life experience, but if you want something else there’s plenty to work with. The iconic Chain Chomp enemies were inspired by a particularly nasty dog he’d walk past on the way home from school. The mean old dog would charge at him, sometimes coming inches away from biting him, but would be stopped by the chain keeping it in the yard.
The Legend of Zelda was inspired by his childhood, exploring the woods near his house.
He enjoys gardening, which inspired the setting of Pikmin.
Lastly, according to his Wikipedia page, he’s a “semi-professional” dog breeder. (I’m not sure what that means) which inspired Nintendogs.
Basically what he’s trying to say is that inspiration from one’s personal life is a more appealing starting point than what you think will make the most money.
Most of these are such universal experiences that most of us experienced that already. I honestly don‘t know if he didn‘t just saw it in a comic or something because they‘re such universal concepts often depicted in media long before he was born.
That’s not the point of what he’s saying. You’d be hard pressed to find any human experience that was had by exactly 1 person in history. He’s saying that this is more appealing than starting with “Let’s make looter shooter with co-op #58369158”.
Also if you’ve got 30 minutes to spare, I’ll suggest you watch Jacob Geller’s video essay “A Thousand Ways of Seeing a Forest”. Here you go. It’s explains this sort of thing way better than I have the ability to.
janus2@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
I enjoyed reading this ty