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News Sakurai starts his own youtube Channel "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games."

Interesting factoid brought up in that video is that the traditional "pic of the day" posts that are always done for smash actually have an internal purpose of being used to show off how development is going. including special (bug reports, probably?) photos not fit for public consumption.
the devs also make memes of the posts interally.
 


Turns out Sakurai's entire team is composed of workaholics. They actually made the wheels of the background cars in the Splatoon stage turn, for no other reason than because they can.
 
I shuddered at the idea of someone not using parameters in any significant coding, let alone a videogame. Goodness, what utterly terrible code that would be to write without them.
Unfortunately, hardcoded variables and parameters will continue to be a thing as long as there are still strict deadline requirements. Gotta shoulder that technical debt cost to have something to show.
 
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Really cool video on Hitstop mechanics. Might be the most interesting video yet.

Sakurai is really giving away some trade secrets here!


Here eight reason why Smash clones don't feel anything close as satisfying as the real thing to play.

The part of swords continuing to move during hit stops and the intensity of them changing depending camera distance is mind blowing honestly. The man is obsessed in the details.
 
Part of why Smash Ultimate feels so good to play is because you can see and feel the impact of every blow. Sakurai's attention to detail when it comes to hit stop is nothing short of astounding. Adjusting the animations for sword slashes to make them feel like they're actually cutting through something, for instance, is a small thing that adds so much life to the animations.
 
Exactly! Let me break the game in half if I want to!

(Of course, multiplayer games are a different story)
 
the guy on the thumbnail is utterly astounding.
mr_smug.png

>that feel when you cheat the system.
 



Sakurai explaining that having an instantaneous change of animation is useful for immediate feedback to the player even if the animation skips.
While I could intuitively feel that when I play Smash , I didn't truly think about it until explained. A useful game design tip!
 
Imagine living a live with no income until the project was done and out to the public and get nothing when it was canned even they are not at fault... really bold for him ngl
 
Imagine living a live with no income until the project was done and out to the public and get nothing when it was canned even they are not at fault... really bold for him ngl

Isn't that the same situation that thousands of indie game developers are in?
 
he should have mentioned the fact the studio was named after the Kingdom Hearts character.

i'd assume one of the few other employees he has is his wife, Michiko Sakurai.
she does the UI design for his games, and has been since the original Smash Bros.
SSBB_Menu.png

notably, the signature "big colorful shapes" menu design the smash series uses orignates from Kirby's Air Ride, and also appeared in Meteos prior to becoming standardized in Smash thanks to Brawl.
100754-kirby-air-ride-gamecube-screenshot-mode-select.jpg
 
That was a pretty enlightening video!

Imagine living a live with no income until the project was done and out to the public and get nothing when it was canned even they are not at fault... really bold for him ngl
I am not sure about how long he's been working under this model, but I assume the success of Smash and the fact he earns money based on software sales means he has a pretty good safety net that allows him to take that risk.

So, all in all, if a project fails, he will either be financially ok or his proven track record will allow him to land a normal job pretty quickly. Now, if a project succeeds, he will likely get more money than he would if he signed a normal contract.

In other words, it's a model that would not work for 99,999% of the devs out there. Their lives would be too stressful and their working conditions would be a nightmare. But for him, it works very well.
 


Sakurai gushes about the accessibility features of The Last of Us Part I. Rightfully so, while I have not played that remake, I would honestly consider those options were the best part of TLOU Part 2. More games should take note.
 
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This reminded me of one of GMTK's videos discussing how Nintendo zeroes in on a tasty nugget of interactivity and making it even tastier.

Now give us Kirby's Air Ride 2
 
Results of the polls. I'd guess the Japanese audience is more crunched for space than the English-speaking audience.
Not surprising. Most living place in Japan aren't very big. Especially for big city like Tokyo where apartments can be quite small. Safe to say a lot of Japanese people, like Sakurai, doesn't have a privilege of a storage for... anything really.
 
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I feel Sakurai on this one. I've been playing videogames since the NES era and digital being an option has been an actual lifesaver.
 
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I’m going with physical, digital does add a little convenience but I just like looking at the game cases tbh.
 
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I'm very excited to see the Air Ride video because it's the game that feels the most "Sakurai" to me out of everything he's done
 
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I never got to play Kirby Air Ride but from a pure gameplay design perspective it’s instantly engaging.

Next game for his Concepts videos is Meteos though! Now I wanna hear more about that.
 
We didn't know Sakurai took the director helm 3 months before the game's release, did we? I always assumed there was a straightforward connection between 64 Air Ride and GC Air Ride, but it seems they were two very different projects only sharing the name.

Also interesting to see that GC Kirby and Amazing Mirror were in (pre?) production while Sakurai was Chief Director of Kirby games; I guess he got credited as "Special Advisor" in Amazing Mirror since at that point he wasn't formerly Chief Director anymore.
 
We didn't know Sakurai took the director helm 3 months before the game's release, did we? I always assumed there was a straightforward connection between 64 Air Ride and GC Air Ride, but it seems they were two very different projects only sharing the name.

Also interesting to see that GC Kirby and Amazing Mirror were in (pre?) production while Sakurai was Chief Director of Kirby games; I guess he got credited as "Special Advisor" in Amazing Mirror since at that point he wasn't formerly Chief Director anymore.
I was curious if he was going to talk further about the N64 game.. but I guess it wasn't never a project he was too much involved to begin with ;/
 
I love Sakurai's arrogance. There's the thinnest veneer of humility like, "Oh, I wouldn't say I built the whole game by myself. But before I joined the project, it was broken garbage." I'm not sure if I should believe him, but all the cultural narratives about auteurs are telling me that he's a cool genius, with a tiny voice in the back of my mind asking how his coworkers experience him.
 
Used to have a lot of fun playing Air Ride at my friend's house. Would love to see a sequel or remake
 
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I was curious if he was going to talk further about the N64 game.. but I guess it wasn't never a project he was too much involved to begin with ;/
He finished Super Stars in late 1995/early 1996, and then pitching two N64 titles after it, before went with the fighting game pitch (later became Smash) expecting the game to take two years to develop it. (Smash came out in January 1999 in Japan) So yeah, by his timeline. He wouldn't have much input on N64 Air Ride to begin with.
 
Sakurai talking about how much he loves proper folders for digital games while showing Switch game icons is the content I didn't know I needed
 
I was hoping he'd do another "I wish someone ported this to new hardware" bit. He didn't :c
He did say "it continues to be a popular game to this day" which kind of frames it as something that would be worth porting, at any rate. It isn't something that can be said about most of its contemporaries that haven't received any ports or sequels. In that category I would say it's on a pretty short list with F-Zero GX and maybe Pokémon Colosseum/XD.
 
I'm surprised he didn't say, "And then the Kirby series mysteriously came to an abrupt end" at the end of that one.

I love Sakurai's arrogance. There's the thinnest veneer of humility like, "Oh, I wouldn't say I built the whole game by myself. But before I joined the project, it was broken garbage." I'm not sure if I should believe him, but all the cultural narratives about auteurs are telling me that he's a cool genius, with a tiny voice in the back of my mind asking how his coworkers experience him.
So much this. He always makes it sound like everyone owes him something, and that only he's capable of getting anything done, and that even he believes that it's just him doing it all alone.

I agree, one does have to wonder how things went for the other people who made these games too. I refuse to believe that literally nobody else contributed/suggested anything to them.
 


One of those things that should be obvious but it's nice to have it spelled out. Also I appreciate that Armored Core got referenced. Sakura is definitely getting Fires of Rubicon, isn't he.
 


One of those things that should be obvious but it's nice to have it spelled out. Also I appreciate that Armored Core got referenced. Sakura is definitely getting Fires of Rubicon, isn't he.

Is it me or is that BotW clip running at 60fps?
 
Quoted by: LiC
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Is it me or is that BotW clip running at 60fps?
They're 30 fps. YouTube has frame advance, so it's easy to check.

While we're on the subject, lol at the Forza Horizon 5 clip in 30 fps being followed by Kirby Air Ride at 60 fps. I guess we know which is the superior game.
 


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