Topic: Yoshiaki Koizumi Dishes More on Super Mario Galaxy Development

[Kairon]

In three more interviews, Galaxy's Director tells that he doesn't believe there's any real difference between casual and hardcore gamers, he's been sneaking plot and story into Nintendo games for years.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14936

 Recently Super Mario Galaxy Director Yoshiaki Koizumi has been making the rounds on the interview circuit to talk about the development of Super Mario Galaxy. He recently sat down for interviews with  Next-Gen, Game Daily, and Wired to delve deeper into his development history at Nintendo.    

For instance, when asked by Next-Gen whether Nintendo designed Super Mario Galaxy thinking about the difference between casual gamers and hardcore gamers, Koizumi describes his discussion with Nintendo Designer Shigeru Miyamoto about on this topic.    

…we feel that ultimately there's no real difference between the two groups. Games should be something that anyone can play, and if you're doing that correctly then there’s no reason to pay quite so much attention to this idea of a huge divide between hardcore and casual.    

Wired talked to Koizumi about how he joined Nintendo after first playing the original Super Mario Bros. at the age of 21 and eventually focused on the topic of story in Nintendo games, which turns out to have been influenced heavily by Koizumi.    

For example, I always liked the idea of you coming upon another character and hearing little bits of conversation that slowly begin to reveal different parts of the story… but those are aspects of the games that Miyamoto wasn't nearly as fond of and occasionally didn't like.    

Finally, Koizumi talked with Game Daily about where Nintendo's level designers found inspiration: food. Because food can be so visually appealing, a lot of Galaxy's planetoids started out as peanuts and watermelons. Even Super Mario Sunshine was inspired by food.    

When I was talking to people about how to create the sludge effect, I always described it in terms of food - like, "Think of this one as covered with chocolate sauce, or this one as a raspberry, or this one as marbled with all different kinds of flavors. And make it like it's sticky and you're walking through it.    

If you’re feeling hungry for more, be sure to check out the full interviews from Next-Gen, Wired, and Game Daily.

[UltimatePartyBear]

Koizumi was the one behind the story of Link's Awakening.  

Nice pun, by the way, Mr. Kairon.

[Nick DiMola]

All interesting interviews. I think the way development happens at Nintendo is ultimately the best way. If someone just tells you what they are thinking it kills all creative flow of the project. Miyamoto filters his thoughts through Koizumi who in turn filters through all the people in his team. Along the way a little bit of everyone is added to the idea and Miyamoto's original vision is still largely preserved. This probably keeps everyone interested in the project and keeps the game from being entirely the thoughts and ideas of one man. I will be interested to see what things are like when Miyamoto is no longer the person feeding the original ideas. It seems he is prepping Mr. Koizumi very well to eventually take over for him with Mario. Mr. Aonuma is also very well prepped to take over the Zelda franchise. I'm hoping more of this is happening with other games all throughout Nintendo. People need to learn as much as possible from Miyamoto before he retires from gaming or god forbid passes away.