Despite this supposed limited appeal, Sakamoto spoke to a packed (and rapt) audience, describing the influences and processes that allow him to develop both “serious” and “comical” titles, an ability that he noted Nintendo President Satoru Iwata found “puzzling.”
“It’s not that Iwata finds it odd I’m capable of working on both serious and comical titles, actually,” he said. “It’s that I’m capable of working on serious titles at all!”
Sakamoto’s legacy of “serious” titles began with the original Metroid. However, though often characterized as the creator of the series, Sakamoto noted that the title had been created through “trial and error as a team.”
“I feel a bit of resistance to being called the sole creator of Metroid. I feel more like the one who raised Samus… after all, the one who gives birth to a Metroid would be a Queen Metroid, right?”
Speaking of parenthood reminded Sakamoto of Metroid 2: Return of Samus for the original Gameboy. Although he was not involved in the development of that title, he noted that it was the reason that Super Metroid exists, as he found the baby Metroid’s attachment to Samus at the end of the game inspiring—and in turn this same relationship forms the beginning of the upcoming Metroid: Other M. Other M also is the continuation of something Sakamoto began with Metroid Fusion on GBA, the lifting of his “ban” on developing Metroid’s storyline with in-game text, and fits directly between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.
Moving on to discuss his role on the WarioWare series, Sakamoto’s first work on the series was with WarioWare: Twisted. A concept that resulted from an Nintendo engineer testing a gyroscope cartridge via a “microgame”-style interface, Sakamoto took it to Iwata, and knew they had something when he observed Iwata spinning his GBA on an office chair.
He also revealed that WarioWare: Touched, a DS launch title and generally considered one of the weakest of the series, was the work of a new team due to the overlapping development time with Twisted. “The new team wasn’t as familiar with the sense of humour of WarioWare or what makes it work, so the tone wasn’t unified. I had to work very closely with the new game director to help control the direction of the game and select viable ideas.”
However, the upcoming WarioWare: D.I.Y., to launch in North America on March 28th, results from realizing that when making WarioWare games every individual on the team has their own ideas for microgames, and so gives everyone an opportunity to produce them—Sakamoto himself creating a Metroid-themed microgame for the title that he hopes to be distributed outside of Japan sometime after WarioWare D.I.Y. is released.
“Maybe it’ll help get people excited for Other M?” he asked.
Surprisingly, Sakamoto claimed the greatest influence on his creative process was the works of cult Italian director Dario Argento, in particular his 1975 horror Deep Red.
“I was really taken back by the originality of his technique, I wanted to create games in the same way that Argento made films,” said Sakamoto, explaining that he discovered the importance of four key methods to create an effect on a player/viewer: mood, timing, foreshadowing and contrast.
Though not a “film fanatic” Sakamoto went on to discuss other directors that he felt were influential, including Luc Besson, John Woo and Brian De Palma, particularly noting their ability to show in films such as Leon “deep sorrow as something beautiful.”
He noted that though he watched “many different types of films,” he wasn’t drawn to Hollywood films. “Maybe it’s my affinity for niche things,” he laughed.
But films had “opened his eyes to techniques that can bring a story to life,” just as his interest in music and comedy has also influenced his processes. In particular, as a person who “seeks to make people laugh every day” Sakamoto realized of himself that he likes “controlling audience reaction; ‘engineering’ the laughter.”
The same techniques are used for comedy as for horror, said Sakamoto—where with horror you may intend to control the mood, comedy is about finding something complimentary to the mood. And timing is just as important for a one-liner as with a shock scare.
“If you miss the lull in a conversation that would be perfect for a one-liner, it’s gone forever,” he lamented.
“This is the core of my game-making methods,” Sakamoto continued “You use the same mechanisms to control someone’s response to something whether it’s funny or serious, but in order to create something valuable that the player can be passionate about, developers must experience all kinds of things in day to day life and use them in their work.”
“I just happen to be passionate about cult films and comedy; the serious and the comical,” he said “and there’s no difference in my approach, it’s all about technique. As long as you’re open to new experiences and feeling them deeply, you can create processes that allow you to use those experiences to make things that move the player.”
“Experience many things,” Sakamoto continued. “My spirit has been moved by my personal experiences. It’s our job to take the moments when our spirits have been moved and represent them in an understandable way to other people.”
To summarize his point, Sakamoto retold a story in which several years after the release of Metroid a fan sent the team hand-made chocolates with a letter explaining that she had made them simply because she had enjoyed the game so much.
“At that moment, it felt like I had woken up. As embarrassing as it was, this was the first time I realized that what we create as developers can create things that can touch the hearts and spirits of people. That can move them. When we know this, we can create games that will last forever.”