Super Mario Galaxy Inspired by Pet Hamster

**Valigarmander** · 02-08-2010, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Shigeru Miyamoto's hobbies are a well-guarded industry secret at this point, and for good reason: Games like Pikmin, Nintendogs, and Wii Fit all sprung from the day-to-day occurrences in the Mario creator's personal life. But what about the inspiration for Super Mario Galaxy? Has Miyamoto developed a thing for space travel? Might we soon see the legendary Nintendo designer take to the stars like Richard Garriott before him?

Actually, Super Mario Galaxy's existence can be traced back to a tiny, seemingly-insignificant hamster. Miyamoto revealed as much during a symposium at this year's Japan Media Arts Festival over the weekend (via Andriasang).

During his speech at the conference, Miyamoto discussed the difficulties of allowing players to control Mario in a 3D environment, and how breaking the levels down into spheres let even inexperienced users run freely without fear of getting lost -- an idea the designer credits to a hamster he was caring for during the game's development.

If something as innocuous as a hamster could lead to a game like Super Mario Galaxy, then other publishers certainly have their work cut out for them when it comes to decrypting Shigeru Miyamoto's hobbies. Pretty soon we'll be hearing about how the guy's addiction to VH1 reality shows triggered the development of the next Kid Icarus.

lol Miyamoto and his crazy ideas.

Metal Man · 02-08-2010, 09:31 PM

Genius comes from eloquent ideas taken from real life like that.

Jere · 02-09-2010, 03:21 AM

He is awesome from that point of view yes.

Dark Seraphim · 02-09-2010, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Shigeru Miyamoto's hobbies are a well-guarded industry secret at this point, and for good reason: Games like Pikmin, Nintendogs, and Wii Fit all sprung from the day-to-day occurrences in the Mario creator's personal life.

What inspired these games?

Robotazy · 02-09-2010, 10:17 AM

Apparantly, Gardening is what inspired Miyamoto to make Pikmin.

Also, Miyamoto's childhood memories inspired him to make the Legend of Zelda Franchise.

I assume Nintendogs came from his dog and Wii Fit came from Morning Exercise.

***Cosmonautical*** · 02-09-2010, 10:35 AM

No offense to the big M, but I prefer games that are easy to get lost in. The part where I'm totally aware of where I am and what I'm doing isn't totally my schtick. I especially like finding missed paths, etc.

***Ace Mercury*** · 02-09-2010, 11:01 AM

This is why I think people who didn't want to be game designers make good game designers. Like Miyamoto, a graphical artist; so is Keita Takahashi. Shigesato Itoi is a copy writer. Suda51 is a music guy, like everyone at Harmonix. I'm sure they like being game designers now, but having the outside experience gave their games certain trademark styles.

Do you guys know about other video game auteurs who started in a different industry?

Also:

Quote:

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Shigeru#Personal_life

Miyamoto also has stated that he has a hobby of guessing the measurements of objects, then checking to see if he was correct, and apparently carries a tape measure with him everywhere [citation needed].

lol

02-08-2010, 09:31 PM	#2
Metal Man Fairy-Slaying Maniac Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: 1592 Miles Away From Here Gender: Posts: 18,062 Thanks: 148 Thanked 683 Times in 482 Posts	Genius comes from eloquent ideas taken from real life like that.

02-09-2010, 03:21 AM	#3
Jere Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Sutme Gender: Posts: 3,650 Thanks: 404 Thanked 331 Times in 256 Posts Blog Entries: 3	He is awesome from that point of view yes.

02-09-2010, 10:17 AM	#5
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	Apparantly, Gardening is what inspired Miyamoto to make Pikmin. Also, Miyamoto's childhood memories inspired him to make the Legend of Zelda Franchise. I assume Nintendogs came from his dog and Wii Fit came from Morning Exercise.

02-09-2010, 10:35 AM	#6
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,102 Thanks: 2,157 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	No offense to the big M, but I prefer games that are easy to get lost in. The part where I'm totally aware of where I am and what I'm doing isn't totally my schtick. I especially like finding missed paths, etc.