Shigeru Miyamoto’s keynote speech at GDC

… is available as a webcast.

After a glowing introduction by GDC Executive Director Jamil Molidina, Miyamoto steps up to deliver “A Creative Vision”. It’s almost comical to see the audience cheering for this humble little man who honestly, could afford to dress more smartly. He greets the audience in English, before reverting to his native Japanese.

Miyamoto discusses Nintendo’s corporate vision, to take risks in the name of expanding the marketplace. To challenge the negative perception of gaming and gamers that exists.

He also discusses his own guiding vision and principles. His mental focus is on the imagined look of pleasure on a gamer’s face, rather than gameplay specifics. He describes his humourously dubbed “wife-o-meter” where he uses his wife’s interest level to gauge whether his games will have popular appeal.

Having never played games in the past, she is now warming to them since discovering games like Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, Animal Crossing, Wii Sports and the Mii creation tools on Wii.

The Mii tools demonstrate another of his principles: tenacity. The concept has been a pet project through many failed implementations all the way back to the N.E.S disk system in Japan. So you might say he’s been working on it for twenty years.

He wraps up with the newly released footage of Super Mario Galaxy.

It’s a rare and fascinating opportunity to see a master of his art like Miyamoto talk at length about what drives him. His simple, honest approach to giving his audience pleasure and new experiences speaks to creative fields beyond his own.