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

Sakurai with advice on animating attack poses. He's going to give out every secret to making Smash at some point.
It’s all part of the master plan so that Smash can continue being made even without his involvement, which frees him up for other game dev projects! Let’s go, Meteos 2!
 


hmmm, i'm surprised Sakurai has never considered working with a western book publisher to localize the "Thoughts on Playing Games" collections.
Viz Media worked to get the "Iwata-san" book out there, so they seem like the most likely candidate.
 
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First off, what a great title for the video. Instantly launched me into a poet mood.

Second, it really is a smart idea to design mechanics with counterbalances in mind. It’s an extension of the push-and-pull tension Sakurai talked about in the previous video. I’ve never consciously thought about it before, but he’s right about how open sky battles feel more “vague” and thus somewhat less satisfying than fighting tanks and towers through flight paths closer to the ground.
 
Seeing this video, a few years after the beginning of the pandemic is pretty nice. Good to hear Sakurai and Sora Ltd. took care of their team during quarantine.
 
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Seems like an unorthodox situation, but it's great that they were able to make it work. I also like that he brought up the point about essentially dodging a bullet because they were working on DLC and not a full game.

I'm surprised he didn't say, "And then the Kirby series mysteriously came to an abrupt end" at the end of that one.


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.

Can't wait till he talks about how famous Meteos was

"Look, I'm not a fucking idiot like Shinya Kumazaki who just makes the same shitty Kirby games over and over again"
Not gonna lie, this comes off as some real "bitch eating crackers" energy. He's thanked other people several times throughout these videos and the Smash presentations.
 
Not gonna lie, this comes off as some real "bitch eating crackers" energy. He's thanked other people several times throughout these videos and the Smash presentations.
But that's the problem. We don't know if he is to be believed when he says that. We never know about what exactly those people are to be thanked for. We never hear about their side of the story.

He just makes it sound like it's just him making games alone in his basement, and there are people who unironically believe that's the case. Did he say there was some group called Qbist that assisted with these? Would help to hear from any of them on what their contributions were, and if they had any other ideas or disputes with him. Does his supposed "No Kirby games I wasn't involved with" rule carry over here too, if that rule exists? (To say nothing of how there are people who think he still makes Kirby games)
 
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"Look, I'm not a fucking idiot like Shinya Kumazaki who just makes the same shitty Kirby games over and over again"

But that's the problem. We don't know if he is to be believed when he says that. We never know about what exactly those people are to be thanked for. We never hear about their side of the story.

He just makes it sound like it's just him making games alone in his basement, and there are people who unironically believe that's the case. Did he say there was some group called Qbist that assisted with these? Would help to hear from any of them on what their contributions were, and if they had any other ideas or disputes with him. Does his supposed "No Kirby games I wasn't involved with" rule carry over here too, if that rule exists? (To say nothing of how there are people who think he still makes Kirby games)

Please tell us where Sakurai hurt you.
 
i9mbHo5m.jpg

...ffs people I don't think Sakurai really meant to be like "I did everything and everyone owes me everything" when he was purposefully hands off other Kirby projects (Kirby's Dream Land 2 & 3, Kirby 64, for example) just because he didn't want to influence the projects.
 
Please tell us where Sakurai hurt you.
I don't think you actually read the second one. If you're going to do that, at least quote just the first.

i9mbHo5m.jpg

...ffs people I don't think Sakurai really meant to be like "I did everything and everyone owes me everything" when he was purposefully hands off other Kirby projects (Kirby's Dream Land 2 & 3, Kirby 64, for example) just because he didn't want to influence the projects.
Wasn't that just some one-time thing? It's just that every time Sakurai brings up Kirby, he always goes out of his way to remind everyone that only the four Kirby games he made exist, and all the others were never made. It's not 100% true, but he gives that off a lot.
 
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Wasn't that just some one-time thing? It's just that every time Sakurai brings up Kirby, he always goes out of his way to remind everyone that only the four Kirby games he made exist, and all the others were never made. It's not 100% true, but he gives that off a lot.
wut, no, he only said which ones he made, the YouTube channel is about his works and his vision of it.
Also, always? I think you really need to cool off because I'm 100% certain Sakurai does not mean the rest didn't exist in any way, he doesn't talk about them because he wasn't involved in them.
 
wut, no, he only said which ones he made, the YouTube channel is about his works and his vision of it.
Also, always? I think you really need to cool off because I'm 100% certain Sakurai does not mean the rest didn't exist in any way, he doesn't talk about them because he wasn't involved in them.
Fine, but maybe I think the reason he gives off this "me" energy so much is because of how he often tells things from just his perspective.

And this is still saying nothing about how others on the teams, for these videos or his games, handled things.
 
Fine, but maybe I think the reason he gives off this "me" energy so much is because of how he often tells things from just his perspective.

And this is still saying nothing about how others on the teams, for these videos or his games, handled things.
that's the point of the channel, though. his experiences working on games
 
Fine, but maybe I think the reason he gives off this "me" energy so much is because of how he often tells things from just his perspective.

And this is still saying nothing about how others on the teams, for these videos or his games, handled things.
This channel is literally about him though, like the moment he uploaded a video showcasing every game he worked on at the start of the channel should have told you the point of view the channel is taking?
 
Fine, but maybe I think the reason he gives off this "me" energy so much is because of how he often tells things from just his perspective.

And this is still saying nothing about how others on the teams, for these videos or his games, handled things.

The channel is called “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.” Why sound he speak for other people?
 
This channel is literally about him though, like the moment he uploaded a video showcasing every game he worked on at the start of the channel should have told you the point of view the channel is taking?
Even well before this channel was started, he's kinda always been like that in most of his writing, Famitsu and the like.
 
Even well before this channel was started, he's kinda always been like that in most of his writing, Famitsu and the like.
But on Famitsu, it's literally about him too! Like, he writes about himself, not about others.
It's the point of it, it's about his views and opinions, nothing else, and as BradenAndEggs said, yes, the channel is called "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games."
 
You have it here. 30% slower development during the initial work from home year.

translating that to zelda and say... 100% slower, that would mean they lost half a year. =P
no its interesting to get such a guess from an industry person.
I assume a lot of studios took way longer to adapt.
I was just really confused about so many in the old place arguing that they lost a whole year (cause they did ... nothing i guess?) and some mentioned they lost more time then the work from home took... never understood that logic, except if you just pause and do literary nothing till the pandemic is over, and then need some time to restart development.

To his strategy... i would have liked to know more about it.
Did he order just anything? was there a price limit? you can buy a desk and chair for 200$ or for 2000$....
it was essentially a bonus payment, really nice.
 
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The reason Sakurai is mostly talking about the Kirby games that he personally made is because he can walk us through his thought processes when he designed those games. And he always makes a point that it's his personal creative process and shouldn't be blindly taken as gospel.
 
I... Have? I'm not sure what exactly you mean here.
Eh, all I did there was ask about how other people working with him went through it. There’s all the narratives out there about how he can “do it all”, which is what made me bring all that into question. It’s just not something that we hear a lot about, if at all. Perhaps it’s all that perceived stuff about him that initially got me rattled; I don’t hate him, just put off by such misconceptions about him, and wish they could be stomped out. Well, not that there’s anything that could be done about that.
 
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Eh, all I did there was ask about how other people working with him went through it. There’s all the narratives out there about how he can “do it all”, which is what made me bring all that into question. It’s just not something that we hear a lot about, if at all. Perhaps it’s all that perceived stuff about him that initially got me rattled; I don’t hate him, just put off by such misconceptions about him, and wish they could be stomped out. Well, not that there’s anything that could be done about that.

Okay, that's a lot clearer, and feels a lot less standoffish than your previous posts. Thank you!

I can understand your concerns there, and they're fair. There's definitely a lot of people that have defied Sakurai into some sort of one man orchestra that basically does entire games by himself.

Where we're gonna disagree is in how these video series present him in regards to that, because the read i get is pretty different. He's gone over different roles in teams, and he's been pretty clear, IMO, in what his work entails and what depends on others. He obviously can't speak in a channel basically made for him to give his videogame design and experience about what other people did, so he doesn't.

Same with talking about the Kirby games he's made, he can't talk about the others because he didn't work on them. I don't feel he's being dismissive about them as much as wanting whoever is working in the new games to take credit, and dispel the myth he's the one behind.

To be fair, i can also see someone reading his videos like you did, even if it's odd to me, so you might actually be onto something.
 
My issue with modern-day music in games, is the lack of memorable melodies and any identity. They are actively trying to be forgettable, so you can focus on other aspects of the game.

Breath of the Wild does music effectively, though.. I think of the towns, bosses and the Hyrule Castle songs constantly. The ambiance sounds for 80% of the game, makes actual music feels much more impactful.

but overall, I don't think any game in the last decade presented a SMB 1-1 or Green Hill Zone kind of composition that will become iconic.
 

oh no, this is gonna be another controversial video. isn't it? 😨

i definitely get where he's coming from. but there's definitely going to be a lot of nostalgic people coming out of the woodwork to proclaim that the focus on ambient sound "just isn't the same".
he's also done a good job flexing his game knowledge again, implementing music from both Sweet Home and Getsu Fūma Den in the same video is certainly something.
 
My issue with modern-day music in games, is the lack of memorable melodies and any identity. They are actively trying to be forgettable, so you can focus on other aspects of the game.

Breath of the Wild does music effectively, though.. I think of the towns, bosses and the Hyrule Castle songs constantly. The ambiance sounds for 80% of the game, makes actual music feels much more impactful.

but overall, I don't think any game in the last decade presented a SMB 1-1 or Green Hill Zone kind of composition that will become iconic.
For a bunch of the large AAA games I agree, but there are still plenty of games with memorable, iconic music being made. In the last decade (and just off the top of my head on the Switch), we’ve had stuff like Megalovania (Undertale), Jump Up Superstar (Mario Odyssey), Strike the Earth (Shovel Knight), Calamari Inkantation (Splatoon), Life Will Change (Persona 5), and Lifelight (Smash Ultimate).
 
For a bunch of the large AAA games I agree, but there are still plenty of games with memorable, iconic music being made. In the last decade (and just off the top of my head on the Switch), we’ve had stuff like Megalovania (Undertale), Jump Up Superstar (Mario Odyssey), Strike the Earth (Shovel Knight), Calamari Inkantation (Splatoon), Life Will Change (Persona 5), and Lifelight (Smash Ultimate).
I'll give you Megalovania and Strike the Earth... :whistle:
 
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Sakurai brings up the subject of media and gaming subscription catalogs.

I wonder if there will ever be a time in the future when Nintendo has too many quality retro games to where a person could be satisfied with only playing games offered with a Nintendo membership.
But I feel like with Nintendo they'll still make some of their older games hard to get, just to be able to resell them again.
 
I wonder if there will ever be a time in the future when Nintendo has too many quality retro games to where a person could be satisfied with only playing games offered with a Nintendo membership.
But I feel like with Nintendo they'll still make some of their older games hard to get, just to be able to resell them again.
Kind of a weird conclusion when Nintendo went out of their way to make older games more accessible at times. Best example would be Mario Advance 4 where the re-release gives you all 38 e-reader levels from the start. Something you can't even do in the original physical release. (it can only save up to 32)

Though I guess the other side would be the limited-time anniversary releases. But those are not hard to get, just have a deadline which still suck.
 


I seem to recall that Sakurai mentioned how he doesn't like to keep the player waiting in one of his previous videos before, but now he has a full video on it.
 
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Oh damn, Sakurai is finally talking about Meteos. One of the most addicting arcade puzzlers on DS, especially in local multiplayer. Please let it get a modern revival.

It's super interesting to learn that Sakurai isn't good at falling-block puzzlers! And he was still able to create such a fantastic entry to the genre by breaking down the essence of its gameplay. Not to mention how he injected more spontaneity into the gameplay by the variations in the physics of each planet, and like in Smash that sense of chaos really elevated the fun factor.
 
Meteos has to be my all time favourite falling blocks game of all time. The overall mechanics are so good and the different planets' gravity introduced great variability and replayability and changed how you tackled every mission. I played over 200h of Meteos and I would pay full price for a straight Switch port.

Also, that Powerpoint presention was to the point. Really well made.
 
him saying he declined being credited on those other games so it wouldn’t “look like he made them”/that it would be “unfair to the teams who worked on them” is very funny

but yeah Meteos is the best—extremely formative game for me, and playing it and Kirby Air Ride at a pretty young age and finding out who Sakurai is in nintendo power or online was probably my first exposure to the understanding that “game designers” were specific people who could have their own style that would come through in their games, beyond the companies and franchises they work for or make games within
 


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