Miyamoto is one of the driving forces in the computer game industry, by changing it completely with his unique and maintained ideas. He has created one of the most renowned duos in all of gaming history, Mario and Luigi, due to his preference for animation style characters as opposed to photorealistic characters and scenarios. This has led to many other gaming companies following him and steering towards cartoons more often than not. This has influenced me in the computer games that I play, that continuously use animation, such as in Super Mario Bros and Fifa. 

 

His earlier game designs were also based on a character moving along or through a series of platforms or scenes, having one linear path to the end to allow the audience to have a more immersive experience. I like this design as it gives users the chance to choose the journey for their characters and experience the game as a whole.

 

Miyamoto also greatly influenced the way video games are played today by first introducing the Nintendo Entertainment System handset that had left and right shoulder buttons to move the characters. This later was developed to a joystick that allows characters to have greater functionality and movement. Joysticks are now used in almost all computer and video games, to control the characters and make them more developed, such as in a more recent product called the Nintendo Switch.

 

Miyamoto also differed from many other creators by going with a non-traditional route of not only testing games with experts in gaming, but also with a wider range of audiences who range in skill level. By doing this, he got a variety of feedback and also made sure his games were able to be introduced to people of all skill levels and create a new audience for them, thereby creating a bigger revenue. This has greatly influenced me because I am not a skilled gamer, but have been encouraged to play more computer games after having discovered Miyamoto’s principles. 

 

By Priyal Dhanjal