With the success of the Switch, Nintendo is backand, coincidence or not, so is the rest of the Japanese games industry. If anything marks the year in games so far, its the abundance of exceptional Japanese games, starting with Nintendos own The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
And Nintendos Jordan Amaro worked on two of them. A game designer at Nintendos flagship studio in Kyoto (known as Entertainment Planning and Development, the division that makes Zelda and Mario, for starters), Amaro was one of the designers of 2017s Splatoon 2. Before coming to Nintendo, he was a level designer for Capcoms Resident Evil 7, also released in 2017. Amaro, who is originally from Paris, trained at Ubisoft, Crytek, and 2K before becoming the only non-Asian designer on Hideo Kojimas Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
I think what every video game player wants to know is, How do I get a job at Nintendo?
The thing to keep in mind is that, while Im technically a foreigner, Ive spent more time making games in Japan than in the West. Im into my fifth year now in Japan. And I spent three years making games in the West. So as a designer, Im a lot more Japanese than foreigner.
People who want to try it: Start with the language. Although when I started, I barely spoke Japanese. It was a different time. Hideo Kojima is the type of guy who likes taking chances on people.
Tell me more about that. How does the Japanese approach to game design differ from the Western approach?
There are several Japanese approaches. Every company has its own culture. It seems to me, when I look at the way game design was done at Kojima Productions, the way its done at Capcom and Nintendo, the way I feel its being done at Platinum Games or From Software, I feel theres a lot more importance and focus given to game mechanics over world, setting, story, message, all that stuff.
Im stereotyping, but in the West, scope, visuals, and features are the main attraction. For example, when we used to have Kojima Productions L.A.we had an office in Los Angeleswe would get proposals for new games, pitches. It always started with: This is the world youre in. This is the experience Im going to give you. And gameplay was relegated to page 5 or 6 or 10. It was always about who youre playing, who is the character, whats going on, but not the how, how am I playing this?
In Japan, a pitch is a page, maybe two. The first page you write what the game is about and how you play it. And the second page, maybe you need an illustration. We dont care about who, or what the story is, what the game world is, all of this doesnt really matter.
http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/splatoon-2-hideo-kojima-nintendo-japanese-games-w501322Would you like to see more collaboration between Western developers and Japanese developers?
I dont see why I would say no. But Im not thrilled if I say yes.
Why?
Look what happened 10 years ago when Capcom tried to make games with the West. It didnt work out so well. And now they seem to be doing everything here, in Osaka.
Then again, Nintendo worked with Ubisoft Milan, and we got Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which is getting amazing reviews. Nintendo has been working really well with Western developers. So I guess I could say yes. But Ive seen so many cases that went poorly.
Look at what happened between Microsoft and Platinum Games. You have Platinum Games, one of the best developers ever, under Hideki Kamiya, one of the top game designers that weve ever seen. The man cannot make a bad game. He wouldnt know how. And it still didnt work out. Kamiya-san is in my top five, definitely. And I think that my top five is all Japanese.
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