Wii

Super Mario Galaxy, the first 3D Mario action game for Wii, will go on sale on November 1st. (11/12 in North America) I know there are quite a few people who question whether a game like a 3D Mario is truly fit for Wii. So I have decided to ask the developers in detail about what went through their minds while they were creating this latest addition to the Mario series. By the way, this time around I have asked for help through this interview from (Akinori) Sao-san, the former editor-in-chief of the Nintendo Dream magazine, who is now a freelance writer.
Sao-san, thank you for being with us today.

The pleasure is mine. Thank you for having me.
Actually, it’s been a full six years since I last talked with you up close.

Yes, I remember. That was the year the GameCube was released, and it was the very last work day of the year.

You remember so well! (laughs) Back then I had asked you to do an extended, full interview with me. Still, this time I feel a little nervous being involved in such a special occasion now that I am in a different position. But at the same time, I’m really excited that I get to hear about the true successor to the Mario 3D action game series from the various developers in this four-part interview.

Super Mario Galaxy was developed by our EAD (Entertainment Analysis and Development) Tokyo office. The staff is going through the toughest time of the development cycle during this interview, so I have decided to personally head over here to Tokyo.
This and the next interview, the first two of the four, will be brought to our readers as an interview special, "Iwata Asks (Business Trip Edition)" Now, for the part 1 of these interviews, I would like to ask questions of the two of you, the producer and the director.
Please begin by introducing yourselves.

I am Shimizu, and I work as the producer at EAD Tokyo. For Super Mario Galaxy, my main task was to create a work environment where everyone in the staff could focus on development.

Hi, I am Koizumi. I am the director, and I’m also from EAD Tokyo. Since Shimizu-san handled the task of communicating with all our outside sources, I was able to focus on development with the other staff members in the lab, getting knee deep in the process. Oh, and it was also my job to “translate” what (Shigeru) Miyamoto-san was saying to the developers so they could understand what he was saying.

Now, please tell me how this project first started.

The story goes back to the year 2000. It was during the GameCube presentation event¹, where we revealed a demo software called Mario 128². I was the director of that demo. After that event, I kept thinking of ways of somehow turning that system, used in Mario 128, into a product. However, I had always thought that realizing this would be close to impossible.

*1	. The GameCube unveiling event was held at SpaceWorld 2000, a video game trade show hosted by Nintendo, which was held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan on August 2000.
*2	Mario 128 is the name of the demonstration software that offered a glimpse of the power of the GameCube.

Why did you think this was impossible?

It was for technical reasons. In Mario 128, the platform was built in the shape of a flying saucer, but in order to change the platform into a spherical shape where Mario could freely roam around, it would require a high level of technical expertise. I also felt that the motivation of the team members had to be very high in order to overcome this obstacle.

Incidentally, I had heard about the spherical platforms from Miyamoto-san more than five years ago, though at the time, I didn’t quite understand why having spherical platforms would be so ground-breaking. However, as Mario Galaxy began to take shape, I finally started to understand.

At the time, I felt the same way. It sounded interesting, but I wasn’t sure whether or not it would be worth the effort. Thinking back, this probably was a thought that was shared by everyone on the staff. But Miyamoto-san kept saying over and over again that he wanted to make it happen.

So, about two years ago, after we were finished developing Donkey Kong Jungle Beat ³ for the GameCube, we had some time to plan what our next game would be. I had suggested creating a new, original game on our own, but then Miyamoto-san said in a rather sad tone, "I wish you could make a game with Nintendo characters..."(laughs)

The EAD Tokyo office had just opened in 2003, and at the time, we didn’t think we were able to make such a large-scale game. So I had suggested plans for a rather smaller, compact game title. But then Miyamoto-san asked me, "Don’t you want to work on something bigger?" So I asked the staff members for their opinions, and somebody on the team said he wanted us to use our skills to make the next Mario game with our hands. By working on Jungle Beat together, I got to know the staff well enough by then, and I thought, if it was with this team, we may just be able to tackle the new and difficult challenge of making spherical platforms work.

But the development process wasn’t smooth.

Of course. I worked on this project thinking that I had taken on the role of the cook. First, I showed the recipe to everyone saying, "I want to make a kind of dish like this on Wii", but nobody in the staff was able to imagine the finished plate.

Just showing them the recipe wasn’t enough to get them to figure out whether the finished dish would taste good or not.

Miyamoto-san did tell me though, that “this looks good”. However, almost everyone on the staff told me how they couldn’t make a dish of this grandeur. Hearing that, I felt the need to make a sample plate. Gathering several staff members, we created a prototype that took about three months to make. A spherical shape would be best understood as a planet, so we put that in outer space and added gravity. It looked just like a bare minimum version of the current Super Mario Galaxy. That’s where the development really took off.

Even if you showed the most wonderfully written recipe, it’s a lot easier for everyone to understand the finished dish if they actually try a sample. Even if it’s in small portions.

Correct. I look at this as if I had borrowed a vegetable garden from Miyamoto-san. It was as if I had asked him, "Please let me borrow your secret garden. From it, I promise I will produce great things." Then I started sowing the seeds with my staff members, and after harvesting the crops and cooking the dish, we decided to have Miyamoto-san be the first one to taste it. He is the owner of the garden, after all. We sent every plate to Kyoto for him to sample, and he would comment back by saying things like, "this is a little too hot" or, "this tastes better". Towards the end of development, we had him come visit our "restaurant" in Tokyo. While he was here, we had him sample an unbelievable number of dishes. We had him eat until he was very full.

He ate every plate that we could throw at him, it must have been almost torturous for Miyamoto-san! (laughs)

By doing so, we were able to finish the dish by seasoning the flavor, based on hearing what our customers had to say.

It seems like you had quite the luxury to have Miyamoto-san as the taster! (laughs)

As the cook, having him taste the dishes really helped! (laughs)

For this title, I had asked Miyamoto-san to do only one thing, and that was to have Miyamoto-san do what only he could do. A 3D Mario game hadn’t come out in a long time, and I wanted him to make this into a game that would represent Wii.

So, even on days off, I received emails from him asking, "let’s change this to that" at very early in the morning! (laughs) Though we were working at distant locations, I really didn’t feel like we were working so far away from each other. We even had a setup where the game that was being worked on in Tokyo would be accessible in Kyoto at the same time. Also, I was really grateful that towards the end of the development cycle, he often came to the Tokyo office.

But I’m sure you had differences in opinion with Miyamoto-san from time to time, right?

That definitely happened. However, when that happened he would clearly explain to me why his suggestions were better, and at times he would even understand my point of view and we would decide to go with what I was saying. This was a long time ago, but there was a time that I just didn’t budge no matter what he did, and I finally budged when he said to me, "Trust what the old guy says!" (laughs)

So he would convince people in that manner. I was never convinced by him in that way, though! (laughs)