Miyamoto: Get to the Point of Fun More Quickly

Posted on 6/14/2012 by Austin Dickson

Recently, Shigeru Miyamato was questioned about the long tutorial times in the Zelda series as well as some Mario titles. His reply:

This is actually a topic that has been a big discussion internally for us lately. I think there a couple of things going on. One is that, often times we're creating games where you're doing a lot of different actions. Zelda is an example of one of those. And, particularly with these types of games, you have to first learn the action and then you have to master the action and then you have to have more actions added in and master those. Then, when you have a lot of actions you can do all at once is when the game really becomes fun. And with a game like Zelda, on top of that, you have the story elements that also take additional time to tell.

So one of the things we're talking about internally is how can we get people to that point of fun more quickly, and 'How do we balance the need to teach them how to do something with the need for them to be able to master it and feel they can do it well?'—and also tell the story—and 'What is that overall balance and how we approach it?' That's one of the key things we're talking about with Zelda right now. It used to be that actions [in older games] were very simple and you could do them very quickly and easily. Now we're making games that have so many more actions that you have to learn how to do them.

I think back and actually was discussing Super Mario World with Tezuka-san and how that was a game where, for the first time, you would run along and hit blocks and these text messages would pop up and they would have a little bit of tutorial information in them. That worked very well for that game and we thought that was a great idea, and then, gradually, that type of tutorial sort of became rather commonplace and now we're starting to have these games where it is taking longer and longer to sort of get to that core fun. So that's precisely what we've been having discussions about.

Having a Zelda game without a lengthy tutorial sounds like an amazing idea - I always loved figuring things out on my own. What about you?

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Comments:

Fizz on 6/14/2012 4:45:21 PM
It's one of the reasons why A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening (and to a lesser extent OoT) are still so well paced, and some of the easier games to replay in the series. You mostly learn by doing, rather than being told. OoT still struck a fairly good balance I think, but I remember when it came out, there was a lot of discussion about how Navi and the introduction dumbed down the series.

Nintendo seem afraid to let people get stuck in Zelda these days, but I remember being stuck was kind of a staple of the series. Some of my fondest Zelda memories were finally overcoming a somewhat obscure puzzle. I don't know how much this happens to new players of the series in the newer games.

Doc on 6/14/2012 7:14:11 PM
Do you have that image in a bigger size?

Autydi on 6/14/2012 8:04:41 PM
I can most likely get one - do you need it?

thelostkokiri on 6/15/2012 3:47:06 PM
Well, as difficult as it may be, I think they need to get back to the days were they had optional tutorials not ones built into the fabric of the game. For example, in wind waker, rather than having Orca teach you sword techniques before he gives you the sword, just give us the sword, but still give players the option to go talk to him again for some lessons.

I appreciate that nintendo want to appease the core and the casual, and I think the sheikah stones in Skyward Sword and OOT 3D were great, they gave the casual players a chance for some extra help, but they were never intrusive, and never affected the game for us that don't need it.

As easy as I find the majority of zelda games, I still have friends who have never even finished some of them, because they find it difficult, and I don't think the answer is to leave those people in the dark.