1999. That’s 13 years ago. While I was in year 10, struggling to keep my days absent below 20 (yes, I was crazy truant), Shigeru Miyamoto already had the legacies of Mario, Zelda and Star Fox on his mantle. He also delivered the keynote for that year’s Game Developers Conference, which you can now watch online and freely absorb the legendary designer’s wisdom.
The official recording of this talk spent most of its time stored away, probably somewhere dusty, until it was made available mid-last year, but didn’t really get the attention it deserved. Miyamoto starts out speaking English, but quickly switches over to a translator before delving into his perspective on the role of a game designer and how creators have evolved from doing everything themselves to the multi-disciplined teams of modern games development. Even a decade on, his insights are as fresh as ever… as is his turtle neck.
There is an hour’s worth of the Japanese designer’s insights here and while the talk itself is informative, its nostalgia value is beyond measurement.
Keynote GDC 1999 [GDC Vault]
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