I've been thinking about Gunpei Yokoi a lot lately. Before his tragic death in 1997, Yokoi was a game designer at Nintendo — one of the first, in fact. For them, he created the Game & Watch, the Virtual Boy, and the original Game Boy; over in games, he produced games like

TL;DR: The author asserts that Nintendo is able to be so creative because they retain employees long term rather than hiring and firing like other game developers.

Some excerpts that I found interesting:

All of the designers of the original Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo Entertainment System are credited designers on Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Back in 2013, the late Satoru Iwata — the former president of Nintendo — said this at a shareholder meeting:

“If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease, and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.”

  • @[email protected]English
    46•9 months ago

    This is exactly right. Having worked in these environments before (and currently), no one wants to stick their neck out if their head is just more likely to be chopped off. As a result, only the projects that are least objectionable to a committee of decision makers (so formed to reduce risk) move forward.

    • @[email protected]English
      11•9 months ago

      I work in the opposite environment now, and it’s great. Most people have been there for 15+ years, and the CEOs are super chill about everything, besides missing demo deadlines (which I get).

      The company is very successful because everyone there is happy and not in constant fear of being fired.