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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai and Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya recently participated in a live discussion event hosted by Hamster Corporation. The two game developers shared their thoughts about retro arcade games and Hamster Corporation’s “Arcade Archive” series of emulated arcade games. One piece of expert critique offered by Sakurai to the publisher earned a big round of applause from the crowd, and it has to do with how game developers make use of players’ time.

The Arcade Archive has been re-releasing emulated arcade games from the 70s, 80s and 90s for the past ten years. As a fan of the project (who apparently buys multiple copies of each game that gets released) Sakurai comments that the only thing he would like the publishers to improve is the waiting time before each game launches.

“When you’re at the arcade, you swiftly jump from one machine to another, switching between various games. But why is it that you don’t get the same impulse with Archive Arcade games despite there being many games to choose from? Rather than just tossing in a coin and getting into the game immediately, you must click an icon, wait for the logo, wait for the title, look at the instructions screen, wait until everything loads, and then you’re finally at the main screen, after which you can start playing. I want you to measure the total time this takes and shorten it by even one second.”

Masahiro Sakurai and Hideki Kamiya’s guest appearance on the Arcade Archive’s 10-year anniversary event (their dialogue starts around the 3:54:00 mark)

While Sakurai says this in the context of recreating the sense of speed felt in arcades, he also mentions that not making the player wait is an ideal that he personally pursues when developing games. “For example, I make it so that the player can reduce waiting time to a minimum by mashing the A button.”

Furthermore, Sakurai reveals that his Kirby Air Ride from 2003 was originally supposed to support Dolby Surround audio, but that he abandoned the idea because he would have had to display the Dolby logo for over one second.

“I feel very sorry for making the user wait,” Sakurai adds. “If you take one second from each user, that means you’ll be taking 10,000 seconds from 10,000 people. The more this repeats over the years, the more time you will cause players to lose.”

Masahiro Sakurai emphasizes “not wasting a second of the player’s time” in games - AUTOMATON WEST

In a recent event, Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai emphasized the importance of developers not wasting players' time.

automaton-media.com

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

The man knows what he's talking about.

 

[Sintoid]

He's saying don't play Kid Icarus Uprising?

 

[Bernardougf]

Yeah... from sometime now I just cant be bothered by completing check boxes and walking and talking simulators... I just want to sit and play games ... guess Im old.

 

[apple_of_enlightenment]

It's by far the most significant barrier for entry for me.

 

[ssringo]

Kinda rich coming from someone at Nintendo to say "don't waste a player's time" with their endless tutorials and little cutscene jingles for finding something.

But looking at his games list I suppose if anyone there can say that it'd be him.

 

[mitch1971]

While it's not the main point of the game, I loved Drive Club because of how fast - in comparison to other driving games - you could restart the track. no game tips loading screens, just quick black screen then back to racing.

 

[BaldingAshCrimson]

I very much agree, but more specifically with the "Mash A" part.
Because I believe there are certain studio/company logos that put in the effort to add to the experience.

Platinum Games for example, has a really nice logo intro. It sounds great.
Treyarch had that fantastic logo intro in Call of Duty World At War.
Konami had that nice intro with those whispery vocal(?)/vocal-like melodies.
Ubisoft during the Splinter Cell days had a fantastic logo intro.

Anyway, my point is, give the player the option to watch them if they want, or completely skip them.
And push for companies to make their logos part of the experience somehow, or something worth looking at or hearing.

Every time I played Metal Gear 1, I wanted to hear those vocal-like melodies.

 

[Xyphie]

He should apologize for the time I had to waste to play Subspace Emissary then.

 

[kunonabi]

If he really believed that I'd have that damn football helmet from Smash 4 by now.

 

[diffusionx]

Kinda rich coming from someone at Nintendo to say "don't waste a player's time" with their endless tutorials and little cutscene jingles for finding something.

But looking at his games list I suppose if anyone there can say that it'd be him.

He doesn't work for Nintendo, he has his own company and hires out staff or an external dev to make his games.

 

[cireza]

Guy just killed every single open-world game out there.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Everyone has a different definition of what constitutes wasting their time.

For me, having to run back to a boss when there could have been a checkpoint right next to it is a huge waste of time while others get off on that kind of thing. Hell, a lot of things in Souls games alone could be considered a huge time waster. Traveling through an open world enriches the experience for me creating negative space that benefits the immersiveness of that world. Others hate that shit.

I know this goes quite a bit beyond what is quoted above but it's also more common things that are brought up on the subject. Getting into the game faster is...nice, I guess but not something that's really that big of deal unless you have to start the process many times during what gaming session you have or you're just constantly switching between that many games (unlikely). Aside from the length of loading, it's just not that big of a deal.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Everyone has a different definition of what constitutes wasting their time.

For me, having to run back to a boss when there could have been a checkpoint right next to it is a huge waste of time while others get off on that kind of thing. Hell, a lot of things in Souls games alone could be considered a huge time waster. Traveling through an open world enriches the experience for me creating negative space that benefits the immersiveness of that world. Others hate that shit.

I know this goes quite a bit beyond what is quoted above but it's also more common things that are brought up on the subject. Getting into the game faster is...nice, I guess but not something that's really that big of deal unless you have to start the process many times during what gaming session you have or you're just constantly switching between that many games (unlikely). Aside from the length of loading, it's just not that big of a deal.

Well I would say he is focusing on what objectively wastes time, compared to what some people see as features. I don't think the player sees any value in an unskippable title screen upon starting the game, or longer load times in between areas. I understand what you are saying, but you can't take the same approach Sakurai's talking about to subjective time wasters, as some people enjoy them and some games are designed completely around them (Death Stranding).

 

[Rentahamster]

Sounds right. Smash bros lets me get right to it.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Well I would say he is focusing on what objectively wastes time, compared to what some people see as features. I don't think the player sees any value in an unskippable title screen upon starting the game, or longer load times in between areas. I understand what you are saying, but you can't take the same approach Sakurai's talking about to subjective time wasters, as some people enjoy them and some games are designed completely around them (Death Stranding).

Definitely. It's still worth (I think) delving a bit further into the subject beyond it.