The Identities of the Industry

Shigeru Miyamoto - Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda

"I don't plan to create any shockwaves - I'm just always thinking about making perfect gameplay."

"If it turns out that Mario doesn't really fit into the type of game I want, I wouldn't mind using Zelda as the basis of the new game."

"A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever."

Hideo Kojima - Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear Solid

"It started raining this afternoon. I arrived at my office slightly after. On rainy days, Roppongi Hills fascinates me – it looks so different than it does on normal days."

"My biggest influence would be Mr. Miyamoto."

"I’d like to run away from MGS 4 creation and create something for the Wii but unfortunately, I don’t have anything that I can announce at the moment."

"Well, I say this every time but this is going to be my last Metal Gear... so you could say that the hidden theme here is that I want Snake to die so that I can move on"

Peter Molyneux - Populous, Black & White, Fable

"I honestly don't see the point in making a game that you don't honestly believe has a chance of being the greatest game of all time."

"I always think misquotes are partly my fault as well for not being clear about things."

"I’ll be absolutely honest with you, sometimes in the past I’ve actually changed little bits of the game to match the misquote, however insane that sounds."

Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski - Jazz Jackrabbit,
Unreal, Gears of War

"We have a partner that truly gets what we're trying to do and supports it tenfold. A partner that understands that you're not just launching a toy, you're launching a fucking universe, a potential phenomenon."

John Romero - Doom, Quake, Daikatana

"I completely love playing and designing games and always will. I am so into games that I listen to game music all day. That may sound strange, but you can guarantee I'm a hardcore gamer and would never let you down by designing a crappy title."

"If you walk into CompUSA or Babbage's and see the vast array of game titles on the shelf, chances are that 95% of those titles are not worth playing."

John Carmack - Doom, Quake, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

“It's nice to have a game that sells a million copies.”

“Note to self: Pasty-skinned programmers ought not stand in the Mojave desert for multiple hours.”

“Rocket science has been mythologized all out of proportion to its true difficulty.”

“Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important.”

"The speed of light sucks. "

“I recognize that I possess a very special intellect, but at the same time, I recognize that I'm lacking in a lot of areas. But being well-rounded is greatly overrated. ”

Ken Levine - System Shock 2, Bioshock

"It's pretty ambitious, what we're trying to do... is to redefine what it means to be a first person shooter. Our goal, is to put a stake in the heart of all those clichés you've been playing for years in first person shooters. The linear orders, the very static environments, and the cookie-cutter AI's."

Richard "Lord British" Garriott - Ultima, Tabula Rasa

"You're going out in a field and farming/grinding on the same monsters that respawn in the same area again, and when you're farming, you're just standing in front of each other seeing who does the most damage over time, if you've heard that phrase at all. Most games now even provide you the calculated damage over time, which is horrible. It's indicative of the fact that the whole point in this game is just to raise that one number, and then you go close your eyes and mash the buttons some more."

Will Wright - SimCity, The Sims, Spore

"It's gotten to the point now where I surf the fan sites everyday and download cool things the fans have created, which is really ironic in a way!"

"Players like to know that they've discovered things that even the designers didn't know were in the game."

"His name is Moe, he doesn't want to do the missions, he's kind of a slacker, alright. His rides his bike all day, and learns new little bike tricks on his little bike."

"I never go and tell somebody about the story in a cutscene I saw in the game. But I always tell people about the weird crazy thing I did that was really unique to me."

"The player stories will always be more powerful than scripted stories we try to tell the players."

"Yes... well, I used to have a pilot's license."

Sid Meier - Pirates, Railroad Tycoon, Civilization

"It was still a time when a couple guys in a basement could duplicate their own disks, put them in plastic baggies with a four-page photocopied manual, and actually sell a product like that. It was a great learning experience. I think a lot of what makes me kind of able to keep doing games is the fact that I was there at the beginning and that I don't have to play catch-up all the time."

Warren Spector - System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex

"If all we do with the power of next gen hardware is increase our poly counts we’re doomed. We have to use that power to create new gameplay experiences - up the simulation level… find new ways to exploit physics… create more interactive worlds than we could dream of before… create virtual actors that can do more than run and shoot."

"The key for me is not to preplan every step of the player's experience. Putting players on rails, even if it does result in an emotionally compelling experience, seems like kind of a waste of time. To my mind, if we CAN offer players a choice, if we can let players make a decision, we should always do so. And then we have an obligation to show players the consequences of their choices and decisions. The game should unfold differently depending on how you play, how you solve problems."

Tim Schafer - Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts

"Anyway, to answer your question, to get into the games industry, break into the Sony party at E3, walk around saying "Online multiplayer is the future," and if nobody has hired you by 11:00 pm, sleep with the first person you hear speaking either Japanese or French. Worked for me!"

"If you hear one kid say, "I wish I had more guns," then all of a sudden all kids want to use guns. These kids aren't game designers. I'm not saying their opinions don't matter. I'm saying the obligation of game designers is to come up with something that's challenging and entertaining. They shouldn't just get a list of impressions from a focus group and go with that."

Dr. Greg Zeschuk — Baldur's Gate,
Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect

“I think a scenario where we're all using virtual controllers without physical representation will be quite likely. These controllers might use either magnetic fields or optical systems like those used in current motion capture set-ups. ...One other option is direct input into the nervous system of the player (i.e. a spinal input port at the back of one's neck), but this still seems rather far-fetched...and scary.”

“Great video games don't roll off the assembly line—they are an art form, as lovingly crafted as a film, musical score, or novel. That means taking the time to nurture top talent, then letting that talent work its magic. Fans are the real winners in this deal, because we will now have the resources and creative discretion to make the right decisions for our products. This is truly a new way of doing business.”

David Perry - Smash T.V., Disney's Aladdin,
Cool Spot, Earthworm Jim, MDK

"I'm just one of these people that want to fire up a game and have fun. If I'm required to know the back history of 5 clans, or watch 20 minutes of cinematics, or read a website before I can have fun, it just bugs me."

"I can promise you the next game I make will be completely different again, and I'll be challenged all over again. That's what keeps me enjoying this industry so much, even 20+ years later."

"Some of the hardcore Gamers often believe that in game advertising is evil, that's because we mention the "advertising" word, we must suck. Maybe we do suck, but the funny thing is that I agree, advertising (in general) does suck today!"

American McGee - American McGee's Alice, Oz, Grimm

"If I had not met Carmack I would not be where I am today, it is that simple."

"I think video games are in a trap of ever increasing graphic "quality" driven by marketing departments and hardware manufacturers. But graphic quality does nothing for game play, story, or for immersion for that matter."

Bill Roper - Warcraft, Diablo, Hellgate: London

"Just like randomization, we're applying the concept of rarity to everything we can in the game. That means we will have normal items, rare items, epic items, legendary items and so forth. We also love collectability, so things like item sets and unique items fall into that category. We apply all of these elements to weapons, armor, mods, and any other types of items we create."

"There still has to be a mechanism in place to drive you through hundreds of hours of gameplay. If you end up finishing that at some point, and you're not leveling any more, something has to take the place of that, that is as interesting and compelling, or at the very least, time consuming, as sitting there and leveling up. "

"Creating an original IP is the dream of every developer, and is something that publishers look for with a team whom they can feel secure."

Michel Ancel - Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil,
Peter Jackson's King Kong

"We would be glad to see future titles, especially first-person shooters, removing the HUD. We think it is better if the player has to think a bit, use his observational skills and experience things by himself than if he is just told everything and given orders all the time. More freedom, more immersion, more realism... yes, we really hope this approach will become a standard in future games."

"I don't understand how it's possible to use the same old character for 20 years. I think that people are always changing, and I was not comfortable in doing another Rayman. I had so many ideas for another world, and other types of stories, so..."

Fumito Ueda - Ico, Shadow of the Colossus

"In the beginning, I didn't have a complete picture of the storyline. But I did know what I wanted the game design to be."

"I don't really like to read manuals, or to manage parameters. If you start to to make games, first you must make games that you want to play."

"I like to leave that to the player's imagination! For us, it's much more fun to listen to what the players have to say, telling us what it meant to them..."

"In order to make the reality of the world feel right, there are two things I dislike: one is invisible collisions, for example there's nothing there, but you can't go forward; there are some games that have this. Another is the character who repeats the same phrases. For example when you go to hear his story, he gives you a hint, but each time he gives you the same hint, which makes the character not seem alive."

Kenji Kaido - Ico, Shadow of the Colossus

"I'd like to make a game that I'd want to play."

"I want to create a game that takes full advantage of the format it's on. If we made a PS3 or PSP game, we want it to take special advantage of the abilities of that format."

"Maybe it was something I saw before, in a film, in a cartoon. Maybe it was something I read in a book or something I played when I was little - that sort of mixture might be the inspiration."

Keiji Inafune - Mega Man, Dead Rising, Lost Planet

"I can have tons of different ideas. I can say I want to make different kinds of cakes, different soufflés, whatever. If they don't give me the pans, the pots, the knives the forks to make it, then I can't make it."

"The game market is a tricky business, that's for sure."

"Lost Planet uses a famous Korean actor. That is the latest trend in Japan, so hopefully that will give it some appeal in the Japanese territory. Japanese people like gigantic robot mechs, so it's got that in it as well."

Hironobu Sakaguchi - Final Fantasy,
Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts II

"In essence, it's not all about strategy but about powering up, as you move through the game the character grows."

"So, Kiyoshi Shigematsu is a very famous writer in Japan, and writes short stories that have special human touch elements in them. And those are the things we haven't seen in games, and those elements haven't really fit into games, but I wanted to put that kind of element into the storyline."

"The reason I've used Kiyoshi Shigematsu as part of this project because we don't see enough emotion in videogames yet. Whether to do with family, or some other emotional elements - something that bring tears to your eyes. The main element in these games is often fighting or whatever, but I want these emotional elements. I think the main character, who has been living for a thousand years and can't die - he has a thousand years of memories, and that creates a lot of emotional moments."

Roberta Williams - Mystery House,

King's Quest, Phantasmagoria

"I prefer being thought of as a computer game designer rather than a woman computer game designer; I don’t put myself into gender mode when designing a game."

"Competition is better for the consumer, and, ironically, it’s better for all of us in the computer industry as it challenges us to be better and do better work. Those of us who are up to the challenge will yet remain, and those who are not will find themselves doing something else...and that is how it should be."

"I have decided at this point in my career to take some time off and think about the future and to take a 'breather' after having worked very hard in the computer game industry for almost 20 years. Next year, I may 'come back' - although, I need to think of something cool to do!"

Raph Koster - Ultima Online,
Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest II

"I do all this writing to clarify things for myself, I put it out there afterwards, figuring maybe it'll help other folks, but the initial drive comes ... because I am banging my head against a design problem. So, the theory is a tool. You write it down so you don't forget it - it's like having a toolbox full of screwdrivers, wrenches and whatever."

"I think the biggest lesson I learned, and I’ve said this before, was about listening to the players, and about how much they know about the game that you don’t, and about how easy it is for you to get caught in an Ivory Tower and not understand the player experience."

"But most video game developers take a (usually mediocre) story and put little game obstacles all through it. It's as if we are requiring the player to solve a crossword puzzle in order to turn the page to get more of the novel."

Jade Raymond - The Sims Online, Assassin's Creed

"One thing about building an engine from the ground up is that you can do things in a smarter way than before."

"Ubisoft asked us to redefine the action genre for the next-generation of consoles and the only way to achieve such an ambitious goal is to put together the right team: People who have proven that they can work together to deliver a hit as well as experts with diverse backgrounds."

"We're aiming to create a world in which the player can interact with everything and where there is no suspension of disbelief because for example some doors can be opened but other can not."