In an interview originally featured in Japanese strategy guides and now available on Shmuplations, the legendary developer and producer of Super Mario 64 discussed the game’s development at length. When discussing playtesting, Miyamoto revealed that the team had a group of 10 middle schoolers, including his own child, play around on King Bob-omb’s stage, Bob-omb Battlefield.
“Seeing him try dozens of times, over and over, to get up this unclimbable hill, as a parent I couldn’t help but think, ‘Geez, does this kid have any brains?’” Miyamoto laughed. Thankfully, the children’s abilities (or lack thereof) aside, the playtest had been a success. “Afterwards we asked the children what they thought of the game, and they said it was fun, and that they wanted to play it again.”
It’s a good thing they saw firsthand the beginnings of understanding that when players are given an open 3D expanse to explore, even with a set goal in mind, the fun is as much about the exploration on the journey to get to that goal as it is about completing the goal itself.
I also wonder, from watching those kids play and try to break the boundaries of the game, what he would think of all the grown adult speedrunners and YouTubers who do all that as a hobby now, lol.
I play with my niece a bunch. I launched A Hat in Time, since it is cute, forgiving, but also not easy. She went around the entire map clearing every enemy in the game. Using various different methods - i.e. luring an enemy on a beach to its death in the water. Going on a boardwalk, attacking the enemy once, so it dives at her attacking, sidestepping the attack and leading to it falling off. Ignoring all collectibles - be it money, be it yarn, etc. She then gets bored, asks me to play for a while when she plays with the cat (doesn’t matter if he wants to play or nah, he’ll get balls thrown even if he shows no interest in chasing them). I quickly grab the collectibles she missed and she moves on to do the goal of the mission. She often asks “where do I go now?” when there is an “obvious” path to take, even marked with the collectible currency. She tries something maybe twice before asking me to do it for her, but as time goes on and the mechanic is used more, she learns it and does it herself. Often when playing she watches me play. I go to an interesting spot / puzzle, ask her if she wants to try it and she goes “yeah”. Biggest issues are with timed segments / when the game pressures you. Also when the camera changes position unexpectedly / locks from a specific direction. There is a stage where you need to get to a locomotive on a moving train, which is exploding. It’s timed, you need to grab extra time on the way. The timer is incredibly generous though. But the mere presence of the timer, with the added vigorous music and everything exploding makes her overwhelmed and she very quickly wanted me to go through the entire stage. In the same world, there is a mission where they want to film a parade on the rooftops. You are the conductor and the players go behind you, repeating your actions, and when they touch you, you get damaged. Same issue - lots of noise, quick movement required, rockets firing off everywhere, she just passes the keyboard to me and asked me to do it.