In an exclusive interview with Edge Magazine, Jez San, founder of Argonaut Software, reveals what it was like working with Nintendo phenom Shigeru Miyamoto.
Argonaut worked with Nintendo on the development of the original Star Fox in 1993. “We were the technical team for Star Fox and did the programming, and Nintendo was the creative team, handling the characters, story, audio and level design,” Recalls San: “That’s how the partnership worked and they learned a lot about 3D from us, but we also learned from them, about how to create characters and a narrative – the way Nintendo makes games.”
San tells Edge more about Miyamoto’s somewhat chaotic creative process, revealing that “there wasn’t a level in Super Mario World that was designed in advance and he didn’t completely change it.”
In developing Star Fox with Miyamoto, San admits that “I would play guitar during meetings, go out for a smoke, we all smoked back then. A guy with his feet on the ground. Everything is practical with him and nothing is done in advance. He’ll ask you to do something, play it, and then he’ll say, ‘Okay, let’s scrap that and try something else.’”
“Play everything and change everything; it’s an iterative process,” says San, “That game design methodology only works when you have unlimited budgets and deadlines. In the real world, you have fixed budgets and deadlines, and very few people can say to the publisher, ‘Sorry, it’ll be done next year. Or the one after. Look, we’ll give it to you when it’s done.’ Nintendo could.”
The full interview with Jez San will appear in Edge #375, available in stores and through direct magazines (opens in a new tab) since Thursday
