"No matter what kind of games a developer makes, we all have one goal in mind: to entertain our players. Whatever you do, never lose sight of that goal." That part put a smile on my face.
Tell that to those Game companies who keep pushing out quick cash grab half ass game. I won’t named name any company. But seriously, they need to stop.
@@akirakilluar Where there's a market, there's always opportunities for making profit. Yes, some of the blame goes to those certain game companies, but part of the blame also goes to the players who does continue to buy these annual-release games (EA sports and CoD games come to mind).
@@_Just_Another_Guy oh definitely, people enable anti-Consumer rubbish, or hype broken stuff endlessly. Let alone the rants for things they buy every year and FOMO. Just wish it was acceptable for things to be average given the sheer volume of games made every month. I do feel thankful for engines like Mario maker, rpg maker, and the fan made mega man maker so we can all be casual designers. 1:27 and 2:38 were fun I admit.
I've been a quality assurance tester (bug finder, basically) for a big publisher for several years now, and a lot of that time has been spent testing games I don't like. Two things have been helping me get through those projects. The first is the people I work with. The second is the idea that, even if I don't like these games, other people do, so if I can figure out what makes those people like them, then maybe I can find an appreciation too.
@@dugoo3405 not much to say honest, the most ive gotten was testing friends or other peoples games, ive tried apply through websites but want more like a concrete advice from a experience person
That point still remains. It’s your creative brainchild, but you still have to face the other exhausting, maybe less appealing sides of game development like marketing. The moment it becomes a job, one has to reconsider the approach one has on a task.
"You gotta do what you gotta do!" This is very true. And it's a double edged sword too. I've seen many people get into game dev as a job because they loved making games in their spare time for themselves, and they ended up getting burnt out doing it for a living. It's really important to consider all aspects of why you want to be a game dev.
Surprised to see this kind of “harsh reality” dropped by him. I myself don’t aspire to be a pro developer but I still appreciate this and I can relate to the fact that I’m not necessarily making games entirely for myself regardless, I’m making stuff to be enjoyed by other players and that means restraining myself a little… but even then, working with that condition is a challenge in of itself that is satisfying when it works out.
Sakurai always came across as a diligent, hard worker to me. He often put his own schedule and vacation days aside in order to develop his games. During the production of Smash Wii U and Ultimate in particular, Sakurai updated his fans via Twitter almost daily and shared his work ethic. Japan also has a very competitive corporate climate where it’s mostly seen as normal to take off personal days in order to finish a project. 6-day work weeks are not uncommon, so it comes to no surprise that Sakurai shared his knowledge on the harsh reality that is game development. He has experienced serious crunch himself.
@@MisterDutch93 Yeah, people will tell you they want to make videogame for a living and idolize Sakurai but barely one of them will be willing to almost kill themself with the workload he and a lot of other people went through to make a game. Of course this isn't how the work environment should be by any means but people should know that professionals ahve serious dedication and it's not only thinking of cool monsters and maybe write a few lines of code
I had the feeling he had a somewhat "cold" approach to it. They've asked him before why he makes games and he does mostly give those "it's what I'm good at" -type answers. In fact I think this channel is when he's been the most open about actually liking video games in and of itself (I guess one could tell before because of his massive collection, but still).
I always appreciate when a hard truth is presented as a challenge to overcome rather than just some depressing thing you can't do anything about. When you learn that life isn't all sunshine and roses, the real hard to swallow part is remembering that they're still there.
as a game developer myself, I can confirm everything Sakurai has said. Game Dev isn't as glamorous as most people think. Sometimes, it can be grueling and thankless, with lots of overtime, and then reading bad reviews of your game. But being able to work on the things you're most passionate about is its own reward, and the driving motivation to keep going.
What I can tell you is that it isn't for everyone because how people have in mind. Someone like him had hardship of his own and learn to care for the mass than yourself.
I see the industry has successfully programmed you to not question their premise of "We will treat you like shit, and you'll thank us for it!". When a manager or director says "How dare you demand better treatment and compensation? Don't you love games? Show us your passion! I was also underpaid and crunched half to death when I was a lowly dev, but you don't see me crying about it. That's just how things work in this industry!" do you just nod approvingly? The industry's treatment of its employees is appalling, and workers should never give up on demanding better conditions just because "that's the way it's always been". Sorry, rant over.
@blackcat19 While your point is very much valid & important, I'm not sure OP was chidding people for complaining about abuse rather than explaining the harsh realities that, while not always ideal or even fair, game devs aspire to endure for the nature of creative production. As someone who has a production skillset, even in my personal work do I recognize & encounter trade-offs from my comfort zone that I must breach in order to get to a good ending. Liken it to strain in your muscles from prolonged workouts - the pain is temporary, but so long as you know your limits, the end result will make it all better.
@@blackcat19 I was mostly talking about starry-eyed people wanting to get into the industry thinking that it's all fun and games. it's not. I've had my fair share of abusive producers and bad management. that's why I don't work in those companies anymore, and why some of them shut down. Please don't assume things about people using your own personal experiences.
@@white_rabbit909 you literally will never make anything artistic and meaningful in your entire life because you'll waste it comparing everything to homosexuality
didn't realize how important that last part was until a friend of mine, a nurse, told me that what kept him going through his days was knowing his video games were waiting for him at home. Felt a little prouder of my job somehow.
Just to add to this idea: Getting into game development usually means working on someone else's idea for a game. Maybe you get to make some creative input, or maybe you're stuck just following directions. This is a job. If you want to have creative control you have to work at getting it. Either convince others that you're the person for the job, or become an entrepreneur and start your own studio to realize your own game. The entrepreneur route has a lot of risks.
I had to help with a game build as a final project for my degree. It was someone else as the director, using a game engine I've never touched before, with a genre I've never liked, but at least it ran in the end and I got the lighting to look good for a cave segment.
An addendum to this: being a game designer or director also means being able to work with your team and find ways to incorporate their feedback and ideas as well. Usually they are the closest thing you have to a player community before launch, and while that may mean killing some amazing ambitions you had for the project, it also will bring in loads of fresh ideas you never would have thought of either.
@@massgunner4152 It's funny how this example sounds like hyperbole, but the Moldenhauer brothers who made Cuphead literally did mortgage their home to fund the game. Making something big can have a huge payoff, but it also comes with a lot of risks, and unfortunately it doesn't work out as well as it did for them in a lot of cases.
It’s still so wild thinking about how he’s giving us great advice through such well made videos for FREE. When normally you’d have to pay a decent amount to get such information from an industry veteran with half as much experience as Sakurai. He never ceases to be a damn legend.
Here's one example: One of the people involved with creating Resident Evil also made Goof Troop for the SNES and was pretty open how much he didn't like horror.
@@Nintentohtori This very video also implies that Sakurai HIMSELF is well aware of the story. People who like making cute games (Goof Troop) are stuck animating Spiders (Residetn Evil), and were very open about it. By the end of the day, this statement proves that it's a JOB that needs to be taken as seriously as any other. This is examplified by Meteos, a game he worked on despite him not being very good at them vs Kirby's Adventure, a passion project.
@@ls.c.5682 I remember reading news stories about employees who, as a result of working on the violent fighting game Mortal Kombat, had recurring nightmares of blood and gore. Some even claimed to have gotten PTSD and can no longer watch even simple videos such as a butcher chopping some beef/pork or surgery videos. I think it's the MK game where it shows characters ripping internal organs of their enemies and the sceeen doing an x-ray zoom super close up of the violent act.
I'm a psychologist who is studying to be a school counselor, and I have something to say. Although in this video Sakurai talks about how to face game development as a job, I think it can be applied to most jobs. It's important to find a job you enjoy, but, as Sakurai says, this isn't always possible; and, when possible, you have to understand that it's still a job. There is a mantra which says "Work at what you like and you won't have to work never again", and that's a myth and a big lie that Sakurai refutes very well. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but this video is not only a game development lesson, but also a general job lesson and, why not, a life lesson. Thanks Sakurai, I've seen all the videos on this channel so far, and I'm sure I'll keep watching them. This channel is such a gift, a game developer I admire (Smash Bros. is very important in my life, and I love Kirby) talking about game development with that passion is the best thing that could have happen to gaming RUclips.
The specific wording of “Entertain Players” is perfect. You can scare them, have them manage resources, or give them a world to mess around in. But whatever the game you create is about, make sure your player is entertained while playing!
You could say a game developer's job is the same job as a clown's. They both work to entertain others. When I was a child, I used to say that I wanted to become a scientist... and a clown. And as a game dev, that is precisely what happened; using coputer science for the purpose of entertaining others (the job of a clown).
I think I speak for everyone when I say how great it is that a channel like this exists for audiences outside of Japan, hopefully it's also translated into other languages besides English
Having spent time in the industry myself... I'm so glad THIS video came so early in the channel's life. Every single game I've worked on is something I only really played during dev, and not necessarily for my own pleasure. One of them is one of the most popular games of the last decade, but working from my angle of it... Really was just a "job." I remember the work more than I remember the game itself!
would you say you found fulfillment in it regardless? i'm mostly pursuing game development as a job so that i can stay involved in some way with games even at work, as games are my biggest passion. I imagine you enjoy games as well, but would you say that passion is not really present in your work?
@@evo683 It depends on the work. I'm a developer as well and shipped around 4 games. I felt fulfilled only once because the development of the other 3 were convoluted and messy. But those 3 didnt have a good planning and that's what you get from not planning things.
@@nankininkThe planning is what I struggle with the most. I have the skills. I have the vision. But I never actually get that far into developing any of the projects I start and I KNOW it's because of poor planning. I just wish I knew how to properly do so 😞
@@evo683 I absolutely found fulfillment in it, but more so for the fact that we did a good job, made people happy, and moved forward, rather than "I love this game so much!" The finished product is the result of a lot of meetings, struggles, etc, and by that point, you've spent 40-60 hours a week on something as your livelihood; the passion for the work changes because you start to view it as a responsibility rather than something you "enjoy" for the sake of enjoyment. I still have a passion for games for sure, however, but not in the "personal" way I did when I was younger. Games enrich and, in some cases, enable my other pursuits, rather than being the ONLY one, from top to bottom
This advice can apply to all jobs. When I pushed carts, I got through the hardest of days by remembering I wasn't doing it just for me. I was doing it so people had carts to shop with. It was a job that needed to be done. Over time, I found out just how many people appreciated my efforts. It was far more than I ever realized. Thank you again, Mr. Sakurai.
The gaming industry can be brutal sometimes. Thank you Sakurai for giving that light of hope for struggling game developers: the ultimate goal of game development is the entertainment of players. Every other goal follows that goal.
I love how positive mr Sakurai is, he drops a hard cold fact that we will never always always get what we want, but try to find the fun in it. He emphasis the word Fun, because as gamers and devs, thats what we all strive to do, and its the one emotion and meaning we can accept and try our best to find it.
This is an interesting topic as we still need to consider that game developers aren't a machine. We can't just expect a game to be done in a minute or so since we not only had to constantly play test the game to check for bugs. Coding a game isn't easy, but that just the tip of the iceberg.
Coding a game is just a part of the overall work. Asset creation is just as important, and often overlooked- people don’t think of it when they say ‘game developer’.
The coding and assets, game engine, machine specs, etc. are all very important aspects of development, but a great majority to the time spent in said development cycle that makes the difference between a game on time vs delayed also comes down to the business side of things. I'm not sure if Sakurai will get into the weeds too much there, but it would be really interesting to hear of some of his experiences working with other game companies since he himself is technically an indie developer. It's one thing to tell a group of programmers to add a list of things into a game, but it's another story altogether to get executives of different companies to meet and discuss what should be the priorities even before the game is sent down to the programmers. This happens all the time even with in-house projects from large game companies depending on the complexity of the company structure; needless to say, with some that constantly outsource work to smaller subsidiary companies.
Software Engineering is Hard, Iterative Design is Hard, Art Creation is Hard. And in a game you need to create all of these together in a coherent manner
He knows. What this video is, is a reality check for young to-be game devs We do sadly live in a very competitive and capitalist world still, so we should be prepared for that
I think that comes down to whom we hire as our managers or directors. Usually we need more than just militant commanders at our disposal, we need real people on top who care about dev efforts and not quash them.
In case some of y'all end up realizing that making games/working on games just isn't for you no matter the project (trust me it will happen to at least a few of you): you might feel like you failed your goals, but that's not the case. You simply realized that your inital goal wasn't quite right for you to begin with. It was an opportunity to both learn about yourself and your needs, and work on a bunch of skills which will definitely be useful no matter what kind of job you do afterward. And you don't have to give up entirely on working with videogames, there are many different types of videogame related jobs you can do, and in all of them, the more you know about games the better you'll do! Sincerely, A sound designer that realized she'd rather reasearch videogame history and write papers than deal with a production/dev team.
I'm a webdev, not a gamedev, but I can verify that the core advice here is absolutely correct: if you're gonna try to be a dev, it should be because the nature of the work suits you, and you have to find the elements of the work that motivate you to keep doing it. Even though I work on a financial services website, which is not a topic I inherently care about, I enjoy the problem-solving nature of the work, so I like my job overall. Game dev work is undoubtedly the same.
This is an extremely mature perspective on making games. Asking people to take off the rose-tinted glasses and realize that gamedev is a job just like any other job, and to keep your expectations in check. This reality seems like a very important thing that more people who aspire to make games should be aware of as they're poising to enter the industry. Setting aside your own personal wants may be difficult and disappointing, but he's so very right about the fact that game developers should be laser focused on making their games entertaining, not trying to affect the direction of the game for their own personal tastes.
"We all have one goal in mind: to entertain our players. Whatever you do, never lose sight of that goal." - Masahiro Sakurai "If it's not fun, why bother?" - Reggie Fils-Aime
As a fighting game lover who actually programs basic games for children, this is still something I'm very much in the process of learning. If one of the games can be that game that the kid grows up and 20 years later, says "Oh I remember that game! It was great!" that would be a cool feeling.
Now that you mention it, I fondly remember some old educational games I used to play in elementary school. I don't remember the name, but I remember having a lot of fun completing the challenges and I've sometimes found myself wanting to revisit some just to see if they hold up at all. I doubt you were working on a game I played 20 years ago (god, I can't believe it's been that long), but thank you for the work you're doing and I hope you are able to work on games you enjoy
@Marco Kitty I unironically would love to try that game. I'm sure a typing game already exists along those lines where you have to type the words to do attacks or something like that .
I wish I had this advice during my RPG Maker days. I enjoyed making maps and doing little events while trying to make a game, but I didn't have the time and definitely the motivation. It also didn't help my peers were just far better at it, but I didn't reach out for help or even try to truly make something.
This is easily my favorite video on this channel so far. It really highlights another angle of game development. At the end of the day, legends like Miyamoto, Sakurai, Nogami, Aounma are just doing their jobs to make a living. But they find fun in their work and that fun leads down to us, the players, to enjoy
I would genuinely love to see a game that is 100% what Mr. Sakurai himself wants to make. I know Smash Bros. is something he's put his heart and soul into for almost the last decade, but we know most of that was done out of a sense of obligation and respect he had for Mr. Iwata. I want to see what someone like himself can create without any restraints, just him and a team of developers he picks out for the process.
I thought Smash was a game he wanted to make. Or rather, he wanted to make a fighting game (initially called Dragon King) and ended up using Nintendo characters after everyone was pleased with the prototype for Dragon King.
The funny thing is he probably can if he wants to. His company Sora Ltd is still classified as freelance so whilst he has loyally developed Smash Bros (and KI Uprising) surely he can go try his own thing if he really wanted just for once?
"the desire to entertain can help provide the motivation you need to keep going" What a mantra. It's really something I needed to hear because it doesn't just apply to game dev. It also applies to streaming, podcasting, and anything creative, really. You always want to keep your audience happy, but, as mentioned earlier in the video, sometimes numbers, money, and business can cloud your judgment. Really great video!
As a Game Director, I really needed to hear these things again! I also can't believe we have a "Work Ethic" category in this channel, that's awesome to see. Thank you Mr. Sakurai
Not just a good lesson for game development, but this also feels like a good lesson for life in general. Never lose sight of your goal as we adjust to the hardships that come with working with what we love as a career.
I love the brutal honesty of this video instead of selling a story about the motivations behind being a developer to promote his image. He really is a pro.Thank you Sakurai!!! Can't wait for the next piece of advise
I can relate to this video. My favorite game genres are RPGs, Action Adventure, and Puzzles. The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite video game series. However, the majority of the games I work on for my job and level design projects are First-Person Shooter games, but I still enjoy it.
@@SebaCape55 Exactly! To be honest, I do not play a lot of First-Person Shooter games in my own time, but learning how these games are built is exciting for me.
As both someone working on their own game now and someone that's been a part of bigger teams, working on games I both loved and hated, it's incredibly easy to end up feeling very lost at a certain point. I spent so much of the past few years always trying to say something important with my games, which is in itself a noble endeavor, but forcing it will exhaust you and burn you out. It's nice to stay grounded and realistic about things too. Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Sakurai. This is such an important video.
This is both great advice, and more than a little troubling of a mentality. Yes, the reality of life and any job is that it won't be all fun and games; hard work in game dev often equates to many hours of brutal trial and error, staring at code wondering what's breaking it or adjusting individual frames of animation to make a foot stay in place, but if you're working on something you care about to some degree that sort of busywork is worth it in the end. It's crazy what genuine passion can drive you through at the end of the day. On the other hand, being forced to work on something you not only feel indifferent about, but something you actively dislike, is damaging to your mental health plain and simple. If you have to plug your nose and distract yourself somewhat from what you're doing, why the hell are you in game dev at that point? There are so many other jobs you can also use similar axioms of "At least my work is worthwhile" or "I'm sure I'm making somebody happy!" to get through that are far more stable and pay far better than game dev, with the added bonus of not souring your relationship with something you really enjoy along the way. Yes, if you work in game dev, your job will have hardships. But your job itself should not BE the hardship. At that point, get out while you can.
Yes. This is a much healthier standpoint than what Sakurai said at face value. Working on something you actively dislike leads to madness. Madness doesn't make great games.
@@RaifSeverence Work is effort that produces result, not self-harm you put yourself through for the sake of money. While the latter is sadly often the reality for many in the work force, it is not a necessity of work. If you want to suffer for money, there's way better fields to go into than game dev. You do this profession because you love it, not because you have to force yourself through it. Hard days will always exist, but if that's the whole job, quit while you're ahead.
Of course gamedev is difficult and involves a lot of compromise and unglamourous work and for most will just end up as a job, and that's an important reality to highlight. But why go into a creative field, especially one that's notoriously cruel to its workers, if you're not getting ANYTHING out of it except a paycheck? I don't think many people would work for games if they had no expectation of ever being able to contribute their own ideas or make something they truly believe in. And realistically, the designs and visions have to come from somewhere. For him to say that you should just accept that you'll probably never be able to work on something you want to work on, why go into games at all then? That just seems like a very cynical or even bitter take on professional art.
based on my experience, working in the gaming industry means you mostly wont be working on stuff you'd personally play. i think a lot of people come into this field starry eyed, especially now that the indie scene is as advanced as it is. nice to see Sakurai address this, i think its something a lot of aspiring developers, artists, and programmers need to hear.
This video is probably aimed more at professionals in the industry, but I wanna add that passion is, of course, a big driving force for a lot of game developers nowadays too. It's mostly indie games, but I guess it's more than just making it 'fun' that encourages some people to continue. I just think this is an important thing to add.
I don't know if I find more amazing how He drops these ideas and concepts very bluntly but relaxed or how He looks so young and cool while speaking of serious facts!
Anecdote: That title brings to mind a time when my dad as a teen worked at an ice cream place for the summer. When they fired him and his buddy, they said "There's no room for clowns in the ice cream business!"
Even clowns have standards to uphold. If they don't take their job seriously, they can bring the entire circus production down. Heck, if they are the type that do stunts, a mistake can cost a person's life. There's no room for clowning in the clown business.
1:40 I learned this from my hiring manager at my current internship, but figuring out what those motivators are and putting them into words is a really good thing to include on your resumé. If your job doesn't provide any motivation, the output / quality of your work decreases, and the hiring manager knows whether or not you'd be a good fit for the role
That final phrase. "The desire to entertain". That hit me really hard! I just realized I had the must fun making a game when I thought of entertaining others!
I’m sorry I know there’s already been a few videos out and I said this multiple times, but the fact Sakurai is on RUclips still blows my fucken mind away.
0:20 Finally someone who understands me. I've heard people saying "Do what you like" my entire life, so it's nice to have a new perspective for a change. I do what I'm good at. Work is work. Fun is fun.
Sakurai bringing those hard truths, but I absolutely agree. The game in your head will always stay just that if you never learn to put in effort on things you don't find personally appealing. Most of making a game is definitely busy-work! But if you can get used to that hard truth, then it'll serve you well when you're actually making the things you *do* enjoy.
i think the one of the biggest problems in gaming right now to me is that people still think games are just made by robots who just so happen to splurt out a game every few years, when that is very much not the case.
And most of the triple AAA games takes a few years to make at best, especially if all assets (character models, world model, etc.) have to be built from scratch starting with designs on paper. And triple AAA games have at least a minimum of 100 - 200 employees working on them, bigger game titles can have as much as 500 - 1000 people working on them.
Replace "people" with "corporation shareholders" and i absolutely agree. Games are art. You can't industrialize art. Try and you'll end with soulless garbage like call of duty.
Whenever I think of game development vs. liking video games, I always think of how Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, creator of Cave Story, said that he didn't want to make games as his career, because to him, game development is a hobby he does for fun, and it becomes different when it becomes a job. At least, that's what I remember hearing about him years ago, and I remember hearing Thomas Happ echoing similar sentiments after he finished Axiom Verge. I can kind of see why this mentality exists, doing something because it's fun to do and doing something because it's work and you get paid to do it are two different mindsets. My uncle always said that if your job is what you love, you never work a day in your life, but I've come to find, at least from people whose hobbies become their primary means of income, that isn't necessarily the case. When you do something for fun, you're doing it recreationally, that is, you're doing it for it's own sake and not expecting to get anything in return. When you're doing something as a job, though, suddenly it's not just about having fun, now there are stakes to it, now you need to make sure to do it or else you won't be able to afford food or rent or taxes, what have you. I've actually seen people who either play games (either as part of Let's Plays or streaming) or draw art for a living go through minor breakdowns because they can no longer distinguish between doing it because it's fun or doing it for work, or at the very least, they feel the time they spend playing games or doing art COULD be better spent on something more productive and work-related. It feels like a nightmare scenario, losing the thing you enjoy because it's tied to work... But, not everyone feels this way, some people legitimately are able to separate what's work and what's done for fun in these cases. Still, if you're thinking about getting into game development just because you like playing games, I'd consider your options hard before going down that route; it's like running a restaurant just because you like eating food or because you think cooking is fun, it's not quite the same thing.
Excellently put comment. I myself am a drummer, I loved and love it. But, I tried to make an online business out of it at one point - I believe it was a good idea and would have been successful - but, the act of turning it into a business, with all of what that entailed, totally sucked the joy out of it. I ditched the business because I preferred to keep drumming as something that brought me joy in my life. So, yeah, your comment is very well put, just wanted to say that.
This exact thing happened when I tried to make "game analysis" videos for youtube, for a while I didn't enjoy games cause I was too self concious of what people thought of my thoughts even tho I didn't actually end up making any videos! I've canned that for now and now I'm able to enjoy games more again! :D
More detail on Pixel, the creator of Cave Story. When he was working on his games, he knew that the chaotic life of going professionally indie and scraping for funds would not be for him, so he worked a steady easy job programming printers while he worked on his games as a hobby. It was in this work-life that he eventually made Cave Story. While he was doing that, he would have his games tested by his family and his friends and he would often get comments like “this sucks” and “this isn’t fun”, things anyone would hate to hear after working on a project for so long. He forced himself to start over from scratch when things weren’t working on the original Cave Story. Even in this no-stakes development environment it wasn’t always self-gratification and good feelings. He had to remain very self-motivated to create excellent games.
@@schwa4883 because people are catching on that he comments on everything just to try and gain attention, not to give meaningful feedback to the videos
Honestly, it would've been really good if he did gamehut styled videos (digging into the very details of his game, showing how they achieved it in a more technical way), but he said he would tone it down so that a casual viewer could watch it, so there's that.
It's really interesting to see these direct looks at what being a game developer is like. I really wanted to be involved in making video games as a kid, and actually took some coding, but I couldn't understand the principals of it very well and ended up picking a different career path, but I still like learning about what goes into making games
I'd love it if he covered more "industry" videos. Learning about how developers change the shape or direction of games on the fly, due to orders from above, is interesting if not super stressful.
This is the kind of perspective we have needed for decades. Its so heartwarming to see him give the reality but sign the praises of both pro and indie devs. as well as pointing out how experienced he is with games yet he approaches design with goals that arent FOR him. Thank you very much Sakurai!
As someone who's currently working on a zombie game for a game company while making my own cozy slice of life sim and various other things, I can attest that just cause you're doing something for work, doesn't mean you're ever stuck in it. Keep doing what you love!
Love these videos so much, they're small, easy to understand and digest and explained by non other than Mr. sakurai himself. But it's interesting that the smash presentations did show this side of Sakurai a little bit, he had his fun making those and it showed how much he enjoys teaching and passing on his experience and knowledge to others.
Unfortunately many larger companies are forgetting the difference between "entertain" and "addict" now... which is very depressing. As someone who wants to enter the industry, but has a hard time focusing on anything for a long term... I really don't know how to enter the industry. Good to know what to focus on though when possible.
As a developer I've seen this statement interesting: "I often play them after release, too". Often, we are tasked to develop games we don't specially like and, personally, the success of a project like that is when I play a bit because I want to, not because I have to. I'm fortunate that I've been able to work in a few projects I really enjoyed but as I want my career to grow it seems harder to be able to continue to do so.
I have been playing games that I supported in its early builds and well after its 1.0 release. There's still bugs and exploits to report even as the problem list shrinks. Kenshi is known for its bugs due to being built on Ogre framework, and I use AMD graphics card on the game that uses Havok and PhysX. I threw the developers for a loop when I reported unexpected texture issues that made people look like disco checkers even in the beta build with new map sectors, because they use Nvidia GPUs. Even after the 1.0 release, I remain in the bleeding edge of Experimental branch as while the developers work on Kenshi 2, some improvements may trickle down, and unexpected things breaking is where the Experimental builds come to play.
Absolutely love seeing Sakurai drop these truths to general audiences. As a game dev, I have a hard time explaining my job and how the industry works to outsiders. Yet he's a pro at summarizing and explaining in elegant, succinct videos.
I'm an indie game dev I made Vairon's Wrath, Myoubouh Catcher and some others. It's really a dream come true to be able to ear you speak about video games like that Mr Sakurai. I love Super Smash, but I looked every video you made for each characters because we can feel you love video games and know a lot about every games. Thanks a lot for making all this video for us. Could listen you speak about gaming all day. :D
What an awesome message! When I was young, I thought making games would be like a game and desired to be a game developer. As I've matured, I've seen how difficult and stressful indie/pro game development can be. It can even have years of life turn into an undesirable product. I still love video games, but have decided I'm not the right person for development. Thanks for sharing some insight on some of the realities.
"That's what it means to be a pro! I'm glad you learned something." -Natsuki, from Doki Doki Literature Club. When seeing this video's thumbnail I couldn't help but happily remind of that line, since it's one of my favorites from DDLC. And so, it now makes me wonder what would Dan Salvato (its creator and director) would say on the matter, especially since he's been so insightful about its development in his own past streams.
I like this sentiment a lot. “Doing something you want to do” and “doing something you enjoy” are not always the same thing. Obviously we tend to enjoy the things we want to do (it’s why we do them), and finding enjoyment (or at least contentment) with all that we do is an incredible skill in general, not just for game design. Mad respect to this man. 🙇
As a game dev, I agree with that last bit. Back then , when I still made games as a hobby, I ususally made the in order to have fun or mostly to pass the time. But when my friend didn't have as much fun with the game due to the harsh difficulty, I had it tweaked so that both of us could enjoy it. And that's the principle I use till now. Strive to make games that entertains you enough to keep working on it as well as your audience. Thanks Sakurai, I had almost forgotten that, but this video gave me a huge reminder. I needed it.🙂
Yep, it's more a case of "make games that are monetized to the hilt! FLEECE OUR PLAYERS". This isn't hyperbole, I've sat in monetization presentations and meetings. Which led me to leave and join a company whose games I actually want to make, in contrast to Sakurai-san's main point in the video.
@@ls.c.5682 I can imagine. Honestly the gaming industry doesnt seem like a fun field to be in, with how hard the work is and how little control you have as a junior developer in a creative field. Not to mention the horribly demanding gaming fans
@@degreeskelvin3025 No - it's absolutely fantastic. You just need to grind it out a little at the start, and then when you get experienced you just need to be very careful with accepting offers when some big companies. They flash the $$$ in front of you when their HR headhunts you on LinkedIn. Make sure the probation period is longer than 3 months so you can get a feel for the company and get out of there with a week's notice if things are in opposition to your values.
@@degreeskelvin3025 I'm working on a Single Player AAA game based on a big IP. It's a blast. I'm a programmer, I've previously worked on games' engine and graphics code to handle file i/o and memory, but now I mainly work on gameplay code as I feel I could talk with the designers and influence the feel of the game more. My current role has a lot of flexibility in the design brief, so I get to design how the systems I work on, well, work - so I guess I could argue that I'm a technical designer.
That, actually, is a sheer difference between indie and AAA development. AAA games are to appeal to the crowd, and indie games are made for someone who was just like you. Truly, in the case of indie games, becoming a profesional depends on choosing one of the target audiences, and being able to properly appeal.
It depends even in indie games you see certain trends based on demographic preferences. I believe it differs how the game was created, most of the time the passions works are games that started as a hobby and turned out to be commercial later on or those ideas who were crowdfunded, but as soon you step into the market it hard to blur out market demands. Also indie games are more likely to change their game over time due to player input because the pressure is much higher to satisfy a perhaps loud minority.
@@Ageleszly Yea I feel like the specific dynamics of indie game development and distribution makes taking risks actually LESS feasible than what you see in AA or AAA games. So many indie games are just as much if not more so wrapped up in nostalgia or other proven concepts and gameplay ideas.
Even then, theres tons of AAA games that are just inherently niche, kind of line with what sakurai said about game essence and broad appeal. Its not black and white
@@Ageleszly Sakurai pretty much nailed it already, if you do it for fun do what you want but if you do it for money you are a professional, i see a lot of indie devs that think they are above things like marketing and target audiences because they make a honest product but there is no shame in thinking about what other people want and how to show your game to them.
“Sakurai is my favorite youtuber” You have no idea how happy I am to be able to say that. Thank you. You are helping me and many others learn about game development and improve at our passion and future careers. Big chad energy
Not a game developer, but having read articles about working conditions and crunch, as well as seeing online interactions between developers and fans on social media, it’s definitely a job you need to get some passion or purpose from in order to survive or retain your sanity.
As a game developer, I can respect what Sakurai is saying, and definitely relate to it. I would have liked to see him elaborate on this topic though, because I want to learn more about it. *...scratch that. I want to learn more about ALL of his topics.*
This attitude is commendable for it's impersonal and self-sacrificing character. Doubtless hardly a single game would ever be made without submitting to these facts of life. However, there are serious evils with it as well. The evil of banality. The deprivation of possibility. There is almost a science to producing art that will sell and satisfy players, but great art that creates visions that forward the entire medium -- even the age itself -- comes from passion and personality (I will not say "individuality" because this has connotations of individualism as opposed to collectivism, when what is needed is really both.) Genius is always imprecise, messy, impossible to understand or replicate and never predictable. That is what makes it superior to what is merely good. You may not be able to produce a cherished vision every time you take on a project, but there will be nothing left for your plays but stagnation if you are never selfish enough to produce something that truly matters to you. It is always a risk, but just as life is impossible without hard work and sacrifice, it isn't worth living without possibility and renewal.
As an aspiring game developer I've gotta say this is pretty true... personally, I find the aspect of creating anything fun. The task itself can be lack luster, but seeing it come together like you want it to is just... *chefs kiss*. It's like any job you'd have passion for. In a way, creating and revising the rough edges of said creation is fun in its own way... sometimes it is certainly aggravating though.
TL;DR: A child laughed because of my game, and that’s why I continue making them. The first game I worked on as a programmer was a very hardcore game that I was never able to beat. It was not my kind of game, very fast paced with very aggressive foes. One day I was presenting the game at ComicCon, and a 4ish years old kid cosplayed as Kidpool came with his dad (of course, dressed as Deadpool) and wanted to play the demo. Realizing the kid wouldn’t understand anything in the game, I started up a level for him, gave him the mouse, and just told him that when he was holding the mouse button, it would throw deadly balls of light that can kill bad guys. He clicked randomly, and almost accidentally killed one. He was all happy, I congratulated him, he high fives his dad, and was the happiest kid in the world at that instant (of course, the dozen other foes had killed him almost at the same time, but that’s not important!) That’s why I make games. No matter what, at least one person will have at least a little part of their lives brightened by the games I worked on. When I think about it, it always put a smile and happy tears on my face.
regardless of what these videos are covering I am very much enjoying them all the same! I don't usually comment on a video unless I have some sort of deeper commentary to give, but I get an infectious level of joy watching these videos. I must commend the extra artists on their hand in making such a cheery playful tone. The little illustrations to the music, not to mention the general sound and graphic design!
the fundamental issue with the commercialization of art and media is just as Sakurai said here, that you must set aside aspects of your own vision and preferences in order to appeal to a wide demographic. there's no getting around it when money's involved, it's a job, however it's impossible to ignore that the product suffers as a result of this treatment furthermore, indies are often held back in terms of overall profit when they are more dedicated to the achievement of their vision to the fullest extent, appealing to more niche audiences what can you do
Well I think Nintendo is a good example of the amount of creativity that's possible even when you're a company whose goal it is to appeal to a wide audience. If you set a team of creatives on a goal of making a product that entertains lots of people, even though it's not necessarily a "passion project" for them (except in the way that doing a great job is a passion of its own), great results can follow.
The big thing to keep in mind here is that Indies can survive on far, far less money than a commercial studio. If I released a game and sold it at say $10, minus the store front cut let's say I get $7 per copy, and it "only" sells 30,000 copies in the first year, which would be a disaster for even a double AA game. That's $210,000. If I had the company set up as an LLC and were able to write off some tax via expenses, I would be able to pay myself a pretty decent wage, even after paying contractors to do tasks that are needed. Even better, if I were able to get an indie publisher to publish my game and give me an advance, it's quite easy to get amounts of around $300,000 and negotiate so you can get a percentage of the sales money even before the publisher has had their advance paid back. For an extreme case look up "11 years without a hit" GDC talk, and any GDC talks about indie publishing and pitching, if you're interested
This video should be presented to more than just video game developers. I feel like it can encompass the entire entertainment industry. So many comic book writers, movie directors, or book authors seem to just make content that were specifically catered to them. This causes a problem since they're trying to target an audience that doesn't reciprocate with their preferences sometimes. In the end, the goal should be to entertain the player/reader/watcher. Sakurai just GETS IT.
Not being able to do what I want was always my biggest fear of becoming a game dev. I am so glad that the indie games have taken over, it's just the best way on making a game with your own ideas. If you get a job at a company the chance is way too low you'll make it to the top.
1:23 this reminds me of Takashi Miyamoto working on the characters for flower sun and rain, i remember him saying in an interview that working in the character design was complicated since he wasn't used to design very colorful characters and the style of the game was nothing similar to the previous silver case game where everything was more darker and serious compared to flower sun and rain more colorful style and setting.
Today, as I'm watching this video, I am a game developer who has lost their way. Everything in me wants to quit because I'm so miserable. It's terrible because I remember how hard I fought just to have the privilege to work in this industry. But I'm feeling completely crushed by the weight of everything my job demands from me. No matter what I do, it feels like my work is never good enough, I'm never learning fast enough to keep my head above water. Thank you for this lesson in humility.
I know he's right but he also said that indies making the games they want to make is an admirable trend, and that felt very good :3 (Also Work Ethic being a category is a big win!) Thank you mr. Sakurai!
working in gamedev, my favorite thing to do is not necessarily working for the player themselves, but developing and enhancing the tools my colleagues use to achieve that goal! a lot of the content pipeline is customized for each game you make, because each game has its own needs and specificities. making content makers work with less hurdles and difficulties makes them quite happier, more productive, and it's very satisfying!
This is a really valuable lesson! Helping people set realistic expectations is so important, especially when many youtubers would just conveniently ignore it and say whatever they think you want to hear. If you're serious about game design though, you can't simply ignore big aspects of the industry!
Thank you, Mr. Sakurai for taking time to talk to us about the different elements of game development. I think I lost track of the game development goals by trying to add in features I didn't understand, and still don't understand. I hope that you may be able to continue giving us these tips whenever you are able.
This is an important reminder for anyone wanting to make games. In fact the gaming industry is full of brutal work schedules that can test the body of many people. Many programmers end up working at a traditional software company because the crunch is not as bad in those companies over gaming company. You need to be pationate about your job in order to make it.
Thank you for making these. I think aspiring developers and players alike could stand to learn more about the realities of game development. I think you are well suited to delivering such information, both because of your experience and because of the respect the industry and the community has for you.
I'm so insanely happy that Sakurai-san decided to make this channel. He's been an inspiration to so many of us aspiring game devs over the years and although I already know that many of the concepts he'll be talking about here are ones that at least personally I've already known about, I'm still quaking with anticipation for each and every video.
This is very unique advice among the existing RUclips game dev content. Industry and actual job advice from a known professional is what makes this channel incredibly useful
![Development Secrets of the Original Kirby [Grab Bag]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZUY2AtBD6Sk/mqdefault.jpg)
![Development Secrets of the Original Kirby [Grab Bag]](/img/tr.png)
![Down with Lag! [Grab Bag]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gjoKKyskco4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Making a Living Making Games [Planning & Game Design]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_-WyivvfibM/mqdefault.jpg)
"No matter what kind of games a developer makes, we all have one goal in mind: to entertain our players. Whatever you do, never lose sight of that goal."
That part put a smile on my face.
*kill la kill ost starts playing*
Tell that to those Game companies who keep pushing out quick cash grab half ass game. I won’t named name any company. But seriously, they need to stop.
@@akirakilluar Where there's a market, there's always opportunities for making profit.
Yes, some of the blame goes to those certain game companies, but part of the blame also goes to the players who does continue to buy these annual-release games (EA sports and CoD games come to mind).
A clear alignment with his former colleague Satoru Iwata.
@@_Just_Another_Guy oh definitely, people enable anti-Consumer rubbish, or hype broken stuff endlessly. Let alone the rants for things they buy every year and FOMO. Just wish it was acceptable for things to be average given the sheer volume of games made every month.
I do feel thankful for engines like Mario maker, rpg maker, and the fan made mega man maker so we can all be casual designers. 1:27 and 2:38 were fun I admit.
I've been a quality assurance tester (bug finder, basically) for a big publisher for several years now, and a lot of that time has been spent testing games I don't like. Two things have been helping me get through those projects. The first is the people I work with. The second is the idea that, even if I don't like these games, other people do, so if I can figure out what makes those people like them, then maybe I can find an appreciation too.
Can you give any advice on how to become a tester? Ive been thinking of doing that myself in my spare time
@@Willgame21 Yeah, would love to hear your experience.
Thank you for your hard work!
@@dugoo3405 not much to say honest, the most ive gotten was testing friends or other peoples games, ive tried apply through websites but want more like a concrete advice from a experience person
@@Willgame21 i think he wanted the experience of the game tester , not you 💀
"But even if it's not your cup of tea, a job is still a job - you have to do it, and try to do it well."
This statement is so true on so many levels.
Amen
That point still remains.
It’s your creative brainchild, but you still have to face the other exhausting, maybe less appealing sides of game development like marketing. The moment it becomes a job, one has to reconsider the approach one has on a task.
kid named finger
"You gotta do what you gotta do!"
This is very true. And it's a double edged sword too. I've seen many people get into game dev as a job because they loved making games in their spare time for themselves, and they ended up getting burnt out doing it for a living. It's really important to consider all aspects of why you want to be a game dev.
This man takes both his life and work with the same seriousness and ethics. Mad respect
Surprised to see this kind of “harsh reality” dropped by him. I myself don’t aspire to be a pro developer but I still appreciate this and I can relate to the fact that I’m not necessarily making games entirely for myself regardless, I’m making stuff to be enjoyed by other players and that means restraining myself a little… but even then, working with that condition is a challenge in of itself that is satisfying when it works out.
I think making something of high quality that you enjoy will be successful.
Sakurai always came across as a diligent, hard worker to me. He often put his own schedule and vacation days aside in order to develop his games. During the production of Smash Wii U and Ultimate in particular, Sakurai updated his fans via Twitter almost daily and shared his work ethic. Japan also has a very competitive corporate climate where it’s mostly seen as normal to take off personal days in order to finish a project. 6-day work weeks are not uncommon, so it comes to no surprise that Sakurai shared his knowledge on the harsh reality that is game development. He has experienced serious crunch himself.
@@MisterDutch93 Yeah, people will tell you they want to make videogame for a living and idolize Sakurai but barely one of them will be willing to almost kill themself with the workload he and a lot of other people went through to make a game. Of course this isn't how the work environment should be by any means but people should know that professionals ahve serious dedication and it's not only thinking of cool monsters and maybe write a few lines of code
I had the feeling he had a somewhat "cold" approach to it. They've asked him before why he makes games and he does mostly give those "it's what I'm good at" -type answers.
In fact I think this channel is when he's been the most open about actually liking video games in and of itself (I guess one could tell before because of his massive collection, but still).
I always appreciate when a hard truth is presented as a challenge to overcome rather than just some depressing thing you can't do anything about. When you learn that life isn't all sunshine and roses, the real hard to swallow part is remembering that they're still there.
This series feels like a fever dream still. I’m learning a lot but it feels awkward saying my favorite RUclipsr at the moment is fucking Sakurai.
if youtube rewind comes back I want him front and center
@@conradmurraytv Doing the Iwata gesture
Feel the same as you man, even though its a bit awkward im so happy to see that this series is happening and it has amazing quality
PHRASING
Then Smash Bros must be a fever dream as well 🤔
as a game developer myself, I can confirm everything Sakurai has said. Game Dev isn't as glamorous as most people think. Sometimes, it can be grueling and thankless, with lots of overtime, and then reading bad reviews of your game. But being able to work on the things you're most passionate about is its own reward, and the driving motivation to keep going.
What I can tell you is that it isn't for everyone because how people have in mind. Someone like him had hardship of his own and learn to care for the mass than yourself.
I see the industry has successfully programmed you to not question their premise of "We will treat you like shit, and you'll thank us for it!".
When a manager or director says "How dare you demand better treatment and compensation? Don't you love games? Show us your passion! I was also underpaid and crunched half to death when I was a lowly dev, but you don't see me crying about it. That's just how things work in this industry!" do you just nod approvingly?
The industry's treatment of its employees is appalling, and workers should never give up on demanding better conditions just because "that's the way it's always been".
Sorry, rant over.
@blackcat19 While your point is very much valid & important, I'm not sure OP was chidding people for complaining about abuse rather than explaining the harsh realities that, while not always ideal or even fair, game devs aspire to endure for the nature of creative production. As someone who has a production skillset, even in my personal work do I recognize & encounter trade-offs from my comfort zone that I must breach in order to get to a good ending. Liken it to strain in your muscles from prolonged workouts - the pain is temporary, but so long as you know your limits, the end result will make it all better.
@@blackcat19 I was mostly talking about starry-eyed people wanting to get into the industry thinking that it's all fun and games. it's not.
I've had my fair share of abusive producers and bad management. that's why I don't work in those companies anymore, and why some of them shut down. Please don't assume things about people using your own personal experiences.
@@blackcat19 this guy really think's the game industry is rough, nobody tell him about the whole manufacturing industry
Oh my Goodness, I literally cannot be happier that Work Ethic is its own category
@@white_rabbit909 based
@@white_rabbit909 thank you for noticing im trying to do it more often
@@white_rabbit909 you literally could not sound any more cringe
@@white_rabbit909 Are you still stuck in late 2000's-RUclips era where using that word is still considered "hip" and "cool"?
@@white_rabbit909 you literally will never make anything artistic and meaningful in your entire life because you'll waste it comparing everything to homosexuality
didn't realize how important that last part was until a friend of mine, a nurse, told me that what kept him going through his days was knowing his video games were waiting for him at home.
Felt a little prouder of my job somehow.
Just to add to this idea: Getting into game development usually means working on someone else's idea for a game. Maybe you get to make some creative input, or maybe you're stuck just following directions. This is a job.
If you want to have creative control you have to work at getting it. Either convince others that you're the person for the job, or become an entrepreneur and start your own studio to realize your own game. The entrepreneur route has a lot of risks.
I had to help with a game build as a final project for my degree. It was someone else as the director, using a game engine I've never touched before, with a genre I've never liked, but at least it ran in the end and I got the lighting to look good for a cave segment.
An addendum to this: being a game designer or director also means being able to work with your team and find ways to incorporate their feedback and ideas as well. Usually they are the closest thing you have to a player community before launch, and while that may mean killing some amazing ambitions you had for the project, it also will bring in loads of fresh ideas you never would have thought of either.
The last part is something that's usually understated, everyone wants to be an indie until you have to sell your house.
@@massgunner4152 It's funny how this example sounds like hyperbole, but the Moldenhauer brothers who made Cuphead literally did mortgage their home to fund the game. Making something big can have a huge payoff, but it also comes with a lot of risks, and unfortunately it doesn't work out as well as it did for them in a lot of cases.
@@massgunner4152 Cuphead?
It’s still so wild thinking about how he’s giving us great advice through such well made videos for FREE. When normally you’d have to pay a decent amount to get such information from an industry veteran with half as much experience as Sakurai.
He never ceases to be a damn legend.
He's really kind we dont deserve him 😭😭
Nintendo stuff is usually so damn expensive, so this is a breath of fresh air.
Here's one example: One of the people involved with creating Resident Evil also made Goof Troop for the SNES and was pretty open how much he didn't like horror.
Imagine having a fear of spiders and you have to design the spiders in Resident Evil.
Yeah Goof Troop is scaaary
@@Nintentohtori This very video also implies that Sakurai HIMSELF is well aware of the story. People who like making cute games (Goof Troop) are stuck animating Spiders (Residetn Evil), and were very open about it. By the end of the day, this statement proves that it's a JOB that needs to be taken as seriously as any other. This is examplified by Meteos, a game he worked on despite him not being very good at them vs Kirby's Adventure, a passion project.
Goof Troop is a really good game. Puzzle adventure where the way to interact with the game IS the puzzle is such a neat approach.
@@ls.c.5682 I remember reading news stories about employees who, as a result of working on the violent fighting game Mortal Kombat, had recurring nightmares of blood and gore. Some even claimed to have gotten PTSD and can no longer watch even simple videos such as a butcher chopping some beef/pork or surgery videos.
I think it's the MK game where it shows characters ripping internal organs of their enemies and the sceeen doing an x-ray zoom super close up of the violent act.
I'm a psychologist who is studying to be a school counselor, and I have something to say. Although in this video Sakurai talks about how to face game development as a job, I think it can be applied to most jobs.
It's important to find a job you enjoy, but, as Sakurai says, this isn't always possible; and, when possible, you have to understand that it's still a job. There is a mantra which says "Work at what you like and you won't have to work never again", and that's a myth and a big lie that Sakurai refutes very well. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but this video is not only a game development lesson, but also a general job lesson and, why not, a life lesson.
Thanks Sakurai, I've seen all the videos on this channel so far, and I'm sure I'll keep watching them. This channel is such a gift, a game developer I admire (Smash Bros. is very important in my life, and I love Kirby) talking about game development with that passion is the best thing that could have happen to gaming RUclips.
The specific wording of “Entertain Players” is perfect. You can scare them, have them manage resources, or give them a world to mess around in.
But whatever the game you create is about, make sure your player is entertained while playing!
You could say a game developer's job is the same job as a clown's.
They both work to entertain others.
When I was a child, I used to say that I wanted to become a scientist... and a clown.
And as a game dev, that is precisely what happened; using coputer science for the purpose of entertaining others (the job of a clown).
I think I speak for everyone when I say how great it is that a channel like this exists for audiences outside of Japan, hopefully it's also translated into other languages besides English
Oh I know right? This is awesome, I really hope he gets enough views to make it worth the effort.
We are already lucky there is an english version. ..
if only youtube didn't remove the community subtitles function...
This is honestly a good lesson for someone going into the games industry. Dont make games for yourself, but for an audience
I'm sure we can all think of games that forget that lesson. They tend to be received poorly by gamers.
*cough-cough*
Unless you're Toby Fox
@@EthnicWeeb Unless you're Hakita.
@@EthnicWeeb Why are you coughing like we know what game you are directly referring too
@@-lord1754 I can start a flame war if you want.
Having spent time in the industry myself... I'm so glad THIS video came so early in the channel's life. Every single game I've worked on is something I only really played during dev, and not necessarily for my own pleasure. One of them is one of the most popular games of the last decade, but working from my angle of it... Really was just a "job." I remember the work more than I remember the game itself!
would you say you found fulfillment in it regardless? i'm mostly pursuing game development as a job so that i can stay involved in some way with games even at work, as games are my biggest passion. I imagine you enjoy games as well, but would you say that passion is not really present in your work?
Which game was it?
@@evo683 It depends on the work. I'm a developer as well and shipped around 4 games. I felt fulfilled only once because the development of the other 3 were convoluted and messy. But those 3 didnt have a good planning and that's what you get from not planning things.
@@nankininkThe planning is what I struggle with the most. I have the skills. I have the vision. But I never actually get that far into developing any of the projects I start and I KNOW it's because of poor planning. I just wish I knew how to properly do so 😞
@@evo683 I absolutely found fulfillment in it, but more so for the fact that we did a good job, made people happy, and moved forward, rather than "I love this game so much!" The finished product is the result of a lot of meetings, struggles, etc, and by that point, you've spent 40-60 hours a week on something as your livelihood; the passion for the work changes because you start to view it as a responsibility rather than something you "enjoy" for the sake of enjoyment. I still have a passion for games for sure, however, but not in the "personal" way I did when I was younger. Games enrich and, in some cases, enable my other pursuits, rather than being the ONLY one, from top to bottom
This video really reminded me of Reggie's "if it isn't fun, why bother?" Glad to see that enjoyment comes before money for Sakurai.
"Video games are meant to be just one thing: Fun! Fun for everyone." -Satoru Iwata
This advice can apply to all jobs. When I pushed carts, I got through the hardest of days by remembering I wasn't doing it just for me. I was doing it so people had carts to shop with. It was a job that needed to be done. Over time, I found out just how many people appreciated my efforts. It was far more than I ever realized.
Thank you again, Mr. Sakurai.
The gaming industry can be brutal sometimes. Thank you Sakurai for giving that light of hope for struggling game developers: the ultimate goal of game development is the entertainment of players. Every other goal follows that goal.
I love how positive mr Sakurai is, he drops a hard cold fact that we will never always always get what we want, but try to find the fun in it. He emphasis the word Fun, because as gamers and devs, thats what we all strive to do, and its the one emotion and meaning we can accept and try our best to find it.
This is an interesting topic as we still need to consider that game developers aren't a machine. We can't just expect a game to be done in a minute or so since we not only had to constantly play test the game to check for bugs. Coding a game isn't easy, but that just the tip of the iceberg.
Coding a game is just a part of the overall work. Asset creation is just as important, and often overlooked- people don’t think of it when they say ‘game developer’.
The coding and assets, game engine, machine specs, etc. are all very important aspects of development, but a great majority to the time spent in said development cycle that makes the difference between a game on time vs delayed also comes down to the business side of things. I'm not sure if Sakurai will get into the weeds too much there, but it would be really interesting to hear of some of his experiences working with other game companies since he himself is technically an indie developer.
It's one thing to tell a group of programmers to add a list of things into a game, but it's another story altogether to get executives of different companies to meet and discuss what should be the priorities even before the game is sent down to the programmers. This happens all the time even with in-house projects from large game companies depending on the complexity of the company structure; needless to say, with some that constantly outsource work to smaller subsidiary companies.
Software Engineering is Hard, Iterative Design is Hard, Art Creation is Hard.
And in a game you need to create all of these together in a coherent manner
He knows. What this video is, is a reality check for young to-be game devs
We do sadly live in a very competitive and capitalist world still, so we should be prepared for that
I think that comes down to whom we hire as our managers or directors. Usually we need more than just militant commanders at our disposal, we need real people on top who care about dev efforts and not quash them.
In case some of y'all end up realizing that making games/working on games just isn't for you no matter the project (trust me it will happen to at least a few of you): you might feel like you failed your goals, but that's not the case. You simply realized that your inital goal wasn't quite right for you to begin with. It was an opportunity to both learn about yourself and your needs, and work on a bunch of skills which will definitely be useful no matter what kind of job you do afterward. And you don't have to give up entirely on working with videogames, there are many different types of videogame related jobs you can do, and in all of them, the more you know about games the better you'll do!
Sincerely,
A sound designer that realized she'd rather reasearch videogame history and write papers than deal with a production/dev team.
I'm a webdev, not a gamedev, but I can verify that the core advice here is absolutely correct: if you're gonna try to be a dev, it should be because the nature of the work suits you, and you have to find the elements of the work that motivate you to keep doing it. Even though I work on a financial services website, which is not a topic I inherently care about, I enjoy the problem-solving nature of the work, so I like my job overall. Game dev work is undoubtedly the same.
This is an extremely mature perspective on making games. Asking people to take off the rose-tinted glasses and realize that gamedev is a job just like any other job, and to keep your expectations in check. This reality seems like a very important thing that more people who aspire to make games should be aware of as they're poising to enter the industry. Setting aside your own personal wants may be difficult and disappointing, but he's so very right about the fact that game developers should be laser focused on making their games entertaining, not trying to affect the direction of the game for their own personal tastes.
"We all have one goal in mind: to entertain our players. Whatever you do, never lose sight of that goal."
- Masahiro Sakurai
"If it's not fun, why bother?"
- Reggie Fils-Aime
As Sakurai also stated in his last video, what is "fun" is a very subjective topic.
Exactly. The point is, it must entertain, that's the primary goal, at least for good companies. If it's not fun, then it's not good.
As a fighting game lover who actually programs basic games for children, this is still something I'm very much in the process of learning. If one of the games can be that game that the kid grows up and 20 years later, says "Oh I remember that game! It was great!" that would be a cool feeling.
Please make Thomas The Engine game with a F zero like gameplay
Now that you mention it, I fondly remember some old educational games I used to play in elementary school. I don't remember the name, but I remember having a lot of fun completing the challenges and I've sometimes found myself wanting to revisit some just to see if they hold up at all.
I doubt you were working on a game I played 20 years ago (god, I can't believe it's been that long), but thank you for the work you're doing and I hope you are able to work on games you enjoy
@Marco Kitty I unironically would love to try that game. I'm sure a typing game already exists along those lines where you have to type the words to do attacks or something like that .
I wish I had this advice during my RPG Maker days. I enjoyed making maps and doing little events while trying to make a game, but I didn't have the time and definitely the motivation. It also didn't help my peers were just far better at it, but I didn't reach out for help or even try to truly make something.
This is easily my favorite video on this channel so far. It really highlights another angle of game development. At the end of the day, legends like Miyamoto, Sakurai, Nogami, Aounma are just doing their jobs to make a living. But they find fun in their work and that fun leads down to us, the players, to enjoy
I would genuinely love to see a game that is 100% what Mr. Sakurai himself wants to make. I know Smash Bros. is something he's put his heart and soul into for almost the last decade, but we know most of that was done out of a sense of obligation and respect he had for Mr. Iwata. I want to see what someone like himself can create without any restraints, just him and a team of developers he picks out for the process.
I thought Smash was a game he wanted to make. Or rather, he wanted to make a fighting game (initially called Dragon King) and ended up using Nintendo characters after everyone was pleased with the prototype for Dragon King.
The funny thing is he probably can if he wants to. His company Sora Ltd is still classified as freelance so whilst he has loyally developed Smash Bros (and KI Uprising) surely he can go try his own thing if he really wanted just for once?
Unfortunately, when creatives have complete reign over a project, it usually becomes too personal and it never gets finished.
@@RollieMcSplat Yeah, there needs to be a balance between both the publishers and the creatives.
@@RollieMcSplat I think this is what happened to Barkley 2
"the desire to entertain can help provide the motivation you need to keep going"
What a mantra. It's really something I needed to hear because it doesn't just apply to game dev. It also applies to streaming, podcasting, and anything creative, really. You always want to keep your audience happy, but, as mentioned earlier in the video, sometimes numbers, money, and business can cloud your judgment. Really great video!
As a Game Director, I really needed to hear these things again! I also can't believe we have a "Work Ethic" category in this channel, that's awesome to see. Thank you Mr. Sakurai
Not just a good lesson for game development, but this also feels like a good lesson for life in general.
Never lose sight of your goal as we adjust to the hardships that come with working with what we love as a career.
I love the brutal honesty of this video instead of selling a story about the motivations behind being a developer to promote his image. He really is a pro.Thank you Sakurai!!! Can't wait for the next piece of advise
I love how varied the content on this channel is getting already
Words to live by. They should play this video at the beginning of every game dev academy.
I can relate to this video. My favorite game genres are RPGs, Action Adventure, and Puzzles. The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite video game series. However, the majority of the games I work on for my job and level design projects are First-Person Shooter games, but I still enjoy it.
@@SebaCape55 Exactly! To be honest, I do not play a lot of First-Person Shooter games in my own time, but learning how these games are built is exciting for me.
As both someone working on their own game now and someone that's been a part of bigger teams, working on games I both loved and hated, it's incredibly easy to end up feeling very lost at a certain point. I spent so much of the past few years always trying to say something important with my games, which is in itself a noble endeavor, but forcing it will exhaust you and burn you out. It's nice to stay grounded and realistic about things too.
Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Sakurai. This is such an important video.
This is both great advice, and more than a little troubling of a mentality.
Yes, the reality of life and any job is that it won't be all fun and games; hard work in game dev often equates to many hours of brutal trial and error, staring at code wondering what's breaking it or adjusting individual frames of animation to make a foot stay in place, but if you're working on something you care about to some degree that sort of busywork is worth it in the end. It's crazy what genuine passion can drive you through at the end of the day.
On the other hand, being forced to work on something you not only feel indifferent about, but something you actively dislike, is damaging to your mental health plain and simple. If you have to plug your nose and distract yourself somewhat from what you're doing, why the hell are you in game dev at that point? There are so many other jobs you can also use similar axioms of "At least my work is worthwhile" or "I'm sure I'm making somebody happy!" to get through that are far more stable and pay far better than game dev, with the added bonus of not souring your relationship with something you really enjoy along the way.
Yes, if you work in game dev, your job will have hardships. But your job itself should not BE the hardship. At that point, get out while you can.
Yes. This is a much healthier standpoint than what Sakurai said at face value. Working on something you actively dislike leads to madness. Madness doesn't make great games.
If work wasn't a hardship, then it wouldn't be considered WORK.
@@RaifSeverence Work is effort that produces result, not self-harm you put yourself through for the sake of money. While the latter is sadly often the reality for many in the work force, it is not a necessity of work.
If you want to suffer for money, there's way better fields to go into than game dev. You do this profession because you love it, not because you have to force yourself through it.
Hard days will always exist, but if that's the whole job, quit while you're ahead.
Of course gamedev is difficult and involves a lot of compromise and unglamourous work and for most will just end up as a job, and that's an important reality to highlight. But why go into a creative field, especially one that's notoriously cruel to its workers, if you're not getting ANYTHING out of it except a paycheck? I don't think many people would work for games if they had no expectation of ever being able to contribute their own ideas or make something they truly believe in. And realistically, the designs and visions have to come from somewhere.
For him to say that you should just accept that you'll probably never be able to work on something you want to work on, why go into games at all then? That just seems like a very cynical or even bitter take on professional art.
based on my experience, working in the gaming industry means you mostly wont be working on stuff you'd personally play. i think a lot of people come into this field starry eyed, especially now that the indie scene is as advanced as it is. nice to see Sakurai address this, i think its something a lot of aspiring developers, artists, and programmers need to hear.
This video is probably aimed more at professionals in the industry, but I wanna add that passion is, of course, a big driving force for a lot of game developers nowadays too. It's mostly indie games, but I guess it's more than just making it 'fun' that encourages some people to continue. I just think this is an important thing to add.
I don't know if I find more amazing how He drops these ideas and concepts very bluntly but relaxed or how He looks so young and cool while speaking of serious facts!
Anecdote: That title brings to mind a time when my dad as a teen worked at an ice cream place for the summer. When they fired him and his buddy, they said "There's no room for clowns in the ice cream business!"
Even clowns have standards to uphold.
If they don't take their job seriously, they can bring the entire circus production down.
Heck, if they are the type that do stunts, a mistake can cost a person's life.
There's no room for clowning in the clown business.
@@BknMoonStudios I get to die in clown business bro sign me up
1:40 I learned this from my hiring manager at my current internship, but figuring out what those motivators are and putting them into words is a really good thing to include on your resumé. If your job doesn't provide any motivation, the output / quality of your work decreases, and the hiring manager knows whether or not you'd be a good fit for the role
Well I’m fucked then lmao
That final phrase. "The desire to entertain". That hit me really hard! I just realized I had the must fun making a game when I thought of entertaining others!
I’m sorry I know there’s already been a few videos out and I said this multiple times, but the fact Sakurai is on RUclips still blows my fucken mind away.
0:20 Finally someone who understands me. I've heard people saying "Do what you like" my entire life, so it's nice to have a new perspective for a change. I do what I'm good at. Work is work. Fun is fun.
Sakurai bringing those hard truths, but I absolutely agree. The game in your head will always stay just that if you never learn to put in effort on things you don't find personally appealing. Most of making a game is definitely busy-work!
But if you can get used to that hard truth, then it'll serve you well when you're actually making the things you *do* enjoy.
i think the one of the biggest problems in gaming right now to me is that people still think games are just made by robots who just so happen to splurt out a game every few years, when that is very much not the case.
Yeah. Your favorite games are made and tested by teams of people.
@@bb010g sometimes a few sometimes a lot
I feel like that's something a lot of game company heads think of their designers and programmers too, hence stuff like crunch being so rampant.
And most of the triple AAA games takes a few years to make at best, especially if all assets (character models, world model, etc.) have to be built from scratch starting with designs on paper.
And triple AAA games have at least a minimum of 100 - 200 employees working on them, bigger game titles can have as much as 500 - 1000 people working on them.
Replace "people" with "corporation shareholders" and i absolutely agree. Games are art. You can't industrialize art. Try and you'll end with soulless garbage like call of duty.
This is a video for any job, not just game development
Whenever I think of game development vs. liking video games, I always think of how Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, creator of Cave Story, said that he didn't want to make games as his career, because to him, game development is a hobby he does for fun, and it becomes different when it becomes a job. At least, that's what I remember hearing about him years ago, and I remember hearing Thomas Happ echoing similar sentiments after he finished Axiom Verge.
I can kind of see why this mentality exists, doing something because it's fun to do and doing something because it's work and you get paid to do it are two different mindsets. My uncle always said that if your job is what you love, you never work a day in your life, but I've come to find, at least from people whose hobbies become their primary means of income, that isn't necessarily the case. When you do something for fun, you're doing it recreationally, that is, you're doing it for it's own sake and not expecting to get anything in return. When you're doing something as a job, though, suddenly it's not just about having fun, now there are stakes to it, now you need to make sure to do it or else you won't be able to afford food or rent or taxes, what have you. I've actually seen people who either play games (either as part of Let's Plays or streaming) or draw art for a living go through minor breakdowns because they can no longer distinguish between doing it because it's fun or doing it for work, or at the very least, they feel the time they spend playing games or doing art COULD be better spent on something more productive and work-related. It feels like a nightmare scenario, losing the thing you enjoy because it's tied to work...
But, not everyone feels this way, some people legitimately are able to separate what's work and what's done for fun in these cases. Still, if you're thinking about getting into game development just because you like playing games, I'd consider your options hard before going down that route; it's like running a restaurant just because you like eating food or because you think cooking is fun, it's not quite the same thing.
Excellently put comment. I myself am a drummer, I loved and love it. But, I tried to make an online business out of it at one point - I believe it was a good idea and would have been successful - but, the act of turning it into a business, with all of what that entailed, totally sucked the joy out of it. I ditched the business because I preferred to keep drumming as something that brought me joy in my life.
So, yeah, your comment is very well put, just wanted to say that.
This exact thing happened when I tried to make "game analysis" videos for youtube, for a while I didn't enjoy games cause I was too self concious of what people thought of my thoughts even tho I didn't actually end up making any videos! I've canned that for now and now I'm able to enjoy games more again! :D
More detail on Pixel, the creator of Cave Story. When he was working on his games, he knew that the chaotic life of going professionally indie and scraping for funds would not be for him, so he worked a steady easy job programming printers while he worked on his games as a hobby. It was in this work-life that he eventually made Cave Story.
While he was doing that, he would have his games tested by his family and his friends and he would often get comments like “this sucks” and “this isn’t fun”, things anyone would hate to hear after working on a project for so long. He forced himself to start over from scratch when things weren’t working on the original Cave Story. Even in this no-stakes development environment it wasn’t always self-gratification and good feelings. He had to remain very self-motivated to create excellent games.
Sakurai out here spittin' FACTS
A Vailskibum comment that doesn’t already have 1K likes? Wow.
@@schwa4883 this is the second time it happened to me
@@WalnutAnimations it’s become common for me tbh
yeah
@@schwa4883 because people are catching on that he comments on everything just to try and gain attention, not to give meaningful feedback to the videos
Best RUclipsr in the game right now and it isn't even close.
Honestly, it would've been really good if he did gamehut styled videos (digging into the very details of his game, showing how they achieved it in a more technical way), but he said he would tone it down so that a casual viewer could watch it, so there's that.
It's really interesting to see these direct looks at what being a game developer is like. I really wanted to be involved in making video games as a kid, and actually took some coding, but I couldn't understand the principals of it very well and ended up picking a different career path, but I still like learning about what goes into making games
Damn bro making that big bred now
I'd love it if he covered more "industry" videos. Learning about how developers change the shape or direction of games on the fly, due to orders from above, is interesting if not super stressful.
This is the kind of perspective we have needed for decades. Its so heartwarming to see him give the reality but sign the praises of both pro and indie devs. as well as pointing out how experienced he is with games yet he approaches design with goals that arent FOR him.
Thank you very much Sakurai!
As someone who's currently working on a zombie game for a game company while making my own cozy slice of life sim and various other things, I can attest that just cause you're doing something for work, doesn't mean you're ever stuck in it. Keep doing what you love!
Love these videos so much, they're small, easy to understand and digest and explained by non other than Mr. sakurai himself. But it's interesting that the smash presentations did show this side of Sakurai a little bit, he had his fun making those and it showed how much he enjoys teaching and passing on his experience and knowledge to others.
I love this series, Mr. Sakurai.👍
I'm learning new things everytime and most importantly, taking notes.
Ngl this content is genuinely really great and informative, and seeing more sakurai is just a treat in itself!
The ending felt like a goddamn anime monologue about friendship and I love it
Unfortunately many larger companies are forgetting the difference between "entertain" and "addict" now... which is very depressing.
As someone who wants to enter the industry, but has a hard time focusing on anything for a long term... I really don't know how to enter the industry.
Good to know what to focus on though when possible.
As a developer I've seen this statement interesting: "I often play them after release, too".
Often, we are tasked to develop games we don't specially like and, personally, the success of a project like that is when I play a bit because I want to, not because I have to.
I'm fortunate that I've been able to work in a few projects I really enjoyed but as I want my career to grow it seems harder to be able to continue to do so.
I have been playing games that I supported in its early builds and well after its 1.0 release. There's still bugs and exploits to report even as the problem list shrinks.
Kenshi is known for its bugs due to being built on Ogre framework, and I use AMD graphics card on the game that uses Havok and PhysX. I threw the developers for a loop when I reported unexpected texture issues that made people look like disco checkers even in the beta build with new map sectors, because they use Nvidia GPUs.
Even after the 1.0 release, I remain in the bleeding edge of Experimental branch as while the developers work on Kenshi 2, some improvements may trickle down, and unexpected things breaking is where the Experimental builds come to play.
Absolutely love seeing Sakurai drop these truths to general audiences. As a game dev, I have a hard time explaining my job and how the industry works to outsiders. Yet he's a pro at summarizing and explaining in elegant, succinct videos.
I'm an indie game dev I made Vairon's Wrath, Myoubouh Catcher and some others. It's really a dream come true to be able to ear you speak about video games like that Mr Sakurai. I love Super Smash, but I looked every video you made for each characters because we can feel you love video games and know a lot about every games. Thanks a lot for making all this video for us. Could listen you speak about gaming all day. :D
What an awesome message! When I was young, I thought making games would be like a game and desired to be a game developer. As I've matured, I've seen how difficult and stressful indie/pro game development can be. It can even have years of life turn into an undesirable product. I still love video games, but have decided I'm not the right person for development. Thanks for sharing some insight on some of the realities.
"That's what it means to be a pro! I'm glad you learned something."
-Natsuki, from Doki Doki Literature Club.
When seeing this video's thumbnail I couldn't help but happily remind of that line, since it's one of my favorites from DDLC. And so, it now makes me wonder what would Dan Salvato (its creator and director) would say on the matter, especially since he's been so insightful about its development in his own past streams.
I like this sentiment a lot. “Doing something you want to do” and “doing something you enjoy” are not always the same thing. Obviously we tend to enjoy the things we want to do (it’s why we do them), and finding enjoyment (or at least contentment) with all that we do is an incredible skill in general, not just for game design. Mad respect to this man. 🙇
We live in a universe where Masahiro Sakurai himself is sharing his core work philosophy on RUclips - for free - and I am here for it.
As a game dev, I agree with that last bit.
Back then , when I still made games as a hobby, I ususally made the in order to have fun or mostly to pass the time. But when my friend didn't have as much fun with the game due to the harsh difficulty, I had it tweaked so that both of us could enjoy it. And that's the principle I use till now. Strive to make games that entertains you enough to keep working on it as well as your audience.
Thanks Sakurai, I had almost forgotten that, but this video gave me a huge reminder. I needed it.🙂
3:33
"We all have one goal in mind: to make games that ENTERTAIN OUR PLAYERS"
I wish more Triple A companies actually thought like this
Yep, it's more a case of "make games that are monetized to the hilt! FLEECE OUR PLAYERS". This isn't hyperbole, I've sat in monetization presentations and meetings. Which led me to leave and join a company whose games I actually want to make, in contrast to Sakurai-san's main point in the video.
@@ls.c.5682 I can imagine. Honestly the gaming industry doesnt seem like a fun field to be in, with how hard the work is and how little control you have as a junior developer in a creative field. Not to mention the horribly demanding gaming fans
@@degreeskelvin3025 No - it's absolutely fantastic. You just need to grind it out a little at the start, and then when you get experienced you just need to be very careful with accepting offers when some big companies. They flash the $$$ in front of you when their HR headhunts you on LinkedIn. Make sure the probation period is longer than 3 months so you can get a feel for the company and get out of there with a week's notice if things are in opposition to your values.
@@ls.c.5682 Really? That's good to hear. What type of games do you work on? And what do you do? Modeling, texturing, programming?
@@degreeskelvin3025 I'm working on a Single Player AAA game based on a big IP. It's a blast.
I'm a programmer, I've previously worked on games' engine and graphics code to handle file i/o and memory, but now I mainly work on gameplay code as I feel I could talk with the designers and influence the feel of the game more.
My current role has a lot of flexibility in the design brief, so I get to design how the systems I work on, well, work - so I guess I could argue that I'm a technical designer.
He is the best teacher for Game Developers!
That, actually, is a sheer difference between indie and AAA development. AAA games are to appeal to the crowd, and indie games are made for someone who was just like you.
Truly, in the case of indie games, becoming a profesional depends on choosing one of the target audiences, and being able to properly appeal.
It depends even in indie games you see certain trends based on demographic preferences. I believe it differs how the game was created, most of the time the passions works are games that started as a hobby and turned out to be commercial later on or those ideas who were crowdfunded, but as soon you step into the market it hard to blur out market demands.
Also indie games are more likely to change their game over time due to player input because the pressure is much higher to satisfy a perhaps loud minority.
@@Ageleszly Yea I feel like the specific dynamics of indie game development and distribution makes taking risks actually LESS feasible than what you see in AA or AAA games.
So many indie games are just as much if not more so wrapped up in nostalgia or other proven concepts and gameplay ideas.
There's still a ton of work for hire in the indie space, it's not like you're guaranteed to work on something you like
Even then, theres tons of AAA games that are just inherently niche, kind of line with what sakurai said about game essence and broad appeal. Its not black and white
@@Ageleszly Sakurai pretty much nailed it already, if you do it for fun do what you want but if you do it for money you are a professional, i see a lot of indie devs that think they are above things like marketing and target audiences because they make a honest product but there is no shame in thinking about what other people want and how to show your game to them.
“Sakurai is my favorite youtuber”
You have no idea how happy I am to be able to say that. Thank you. You are helping me and many others learn about game development and improve at our passion and future careers. Big chad energy
Not a game developer, but having read articles about working conditions and crunch, as well as seeing online interactions between developers and fans on social media, it’s definitely a job you need to get some passion or purpose from in order to survive or retain your sanity.
As a game developer, I can respect what Sakurai is saying, and definitely relate to it.
I would have liked to see him elaborate on this topic though, because I want to learn more about it.
*...scratch that. I want to learn more about ALL of his topics.*
This attitude is commendable for it's impersonal and self-sacrificing character. Doubtless hardly a single game would ever be made without submitting to these facts of life. However, there are serious evils with it as well. The evil of banality. The deprivation of possibility.
There is almost a science to producing art that will sell and satisfy players, but great art that creates visions that forward the entire medium -- even the age itself -- comes from passion and personality (I will not say "individuality" because this has connotations of individualism as opposed to collectivism, when what is needed is really both.)
Genius is always imprecise, messy, impossible to understand or replicate and never predictable. That is what makes it superior to what is merely good.
You may not be able to produce a cherished vision every time you take on a project, but there will be nothing left for your plays but stagnation if you are never selfish enough to produce something that truly matters to you.
It is always a risk, but just as life is impossible without hard work and sacrifice, it isn't worth living without possibility and renewal.
As an aspiring game developer I've gotta say this is pretty true... personally, I find the aspect of creating anything fun. The task itself can be lack luster, but seeing it come together like you want it to is just... *chefs kiss*.
It's like any job you'd have passion for. In a way, creating and revising the rough edges of said creation is fun in its own way... sometimes it is certainly aggravating though.
TL;DR: A child laughed because of my game, and that’s why I continue making them.
The first game I worked on as a programmer was a very hardcore game that I was never able to beat. It was not my kind of game, very fast paced with very aggressive foes. One day I was presenting the game at ComicCon, and a 4ish years old kid cosplayed as Kidpool came with his dad (of course, dressed as Deadpool) and wanted to play the demo. Realizing the kid wouldn’t understand anything in the game, I started up a level for him, gave him the mouse, and just told him that when he was holding the mouse button, it would throw deadly balls of light that can kill bad guys. He clicked randomly, and almost accidentally killed one. He was all happy, I congratulated him, he high fives his dad, and was the happiest kid in the world at that instant (of course, the dozen other foes had killed him almost at the same time, but that’s not important!)
That’s why I make games. No matter what, at least one person will have at least a little part of their lives brightened by the games I worked on. When I think about it, it always put a smile and happy tears on my face.
regardless of what these videos are covering I am very much enjoying them all the same!
I don't usually comment on a video unless I have some sort of deeper commentary to give, but I get an infectious level of joy watching these videos.
I must commend the extra artists on their hand in making such a cheery playful tone. The little illustrations to the music, not to mention the general sound and graphic design!
the fundamental issue with the commercialization of art and media is just as Sakurai said here, that you must set aside aspects of your own vision and preferences in order to appeal to a wide demographic. there's no getting around it when money's involved, it's a job, however it's impossible to ignore that the product suffers as a result of this treatment
furthermore, indies are often held back in terms of overall profit when they are more dedicated to the achievement of their vision to the fullest extent, appealing to more niche audiences
what can you do
Well I think Nintendo is a good example of the amount of creativity that's possible even when you're a company whose goal it is to appeal to a wide audience. If you set a team of creatives on a goal of making a product that entertains lots of people, even though it's not necessarily a "passion project" for them (except in the way that doing a great job is a passion of its own), great results can follow.
“What can you do”
Get lucky. Hope the market shares your taste. Worked with Eugene Jarvis on Defender.
The big thing to keep in mind here is that Indies can survive on far, far less money than a commercial studio. If I released a game and sold it at say $10, minus the store front cut let's say I get $7 per copy, and it "only" sells 30,000 copies in the first year, which would be a disaster for even a double AA game. That's $210,000. If I had the company set up as an LLC and were able to write off some tax via expenses, I would be able to pay myself a pretty decent wage, even after paying contractors to do tasks that are needed.
Even better, if I were able to get an indie publisher to publish my game and give me an advance, it's quite easy to get amounts of around $300,000 and negotiate so you can get a percentage of the sales money even before the publisher has had their advance paid back.
For an extreme case look up "11 years without a hit" GDC talk, and any GDC talks about indie publishing and pitching, if you're interested
I always got the sense that Sakurai was a fairly serious person and clearly very driven. I think these pieces of advice bear that out.
I always dream of becoming a game designer, this taught me the challenges I’m ready to face and I’m prepared
Sakurai explained such a controversial topic in a very digestible way.. Kudos!
This video should be presented to more than just video game developers. I feel like it can encompass the entire entertainment industry.
So many comic book writers, movie directors, or book authors seem to just make content that were specifically catered to them.
This causes a problem since they're trying to target an audience that doesn't reciprocate with their preferences sometimes.
In the end, the goal should be to entertain the player/reader/watcher.
Sakurai just GETS IT.
Not being able to do what I want was always my biggest fear of becoming a game dev. I am so glad that the indie games have taken over, it's just the best way on making a game with your own ideas.
If you get a job at a company the chance is way too low you'll make it to the top.
1:23 this reminds me of Takashi Miyamoto working on the characters for flower sun and rain, i remember him saying in an interview that working in the character design was complicated since he wasn't used to design very colorful characters and the style of the game was nothing similar to the previous silver case game where everything was more darker and serious compared to flower sun and rain more colorful style and setting.
Today, as I'm watching this video, I am a game developer who has lost their way. Everything in me wants to quit because I'm so miserable. It's terrible because I remember how hard I fought just to have the privilege to work in this industry. But I'm feeling completely crushed by the weight of everything my job demands from me. No matter what I do, it feels like my work is never good enough, I'm never learning fast enough to keep my head above water. Thank you for this lesson in humility.
I know he's right but he also said that indies making the games they want to make is an admirable trend, and that felt very good :3
(Also Work Ethic being a category is a big win!)
Thank you mr. Sakurai!
working in gamedev, my favorite thing to do is not necessarily working for the player themselves, but developing and enhancing the tools my colleagues use to achieve that goal!
a lot of the content pipeline is customized for each game you make, because each game has its own needs and specificities. making content makers work with less hurdles and difficulties makes them quite happier, more productive, and it's very satisfying!
A job is still a job; you have to do it, and try to do it well.
-Masahiro Sakurai, 2022
This is a really valuable lesson! Helping people set realistic expectations is so important, especially when many youtubers would just conveniently ignore it and say whatever they think you want to hear. If you're serious about game design though, you can't simply ignore big aspects of the industry!
This was the very first bait to all devs that want to chase their dream and ended up maintaining games in GameLoft
Thank you, Mr. Sakurai for taking time to talk to us about the different elements of game development.
I think I lost track of the game development goals by trying to add in features I didn't understand, and still don't understand.
I hope that you may be able to continue giving us these tips whenever you are able.
This is an important reminder for anyone wanting to make games. In fact the gaming industry is full of brutal work schedules that can test the body of many people. Many programmers end up working at a traditional software company because the crunch is not as bad in those companies over gaming company. You need to be pationate about your job in order to make it.
Thank you for making these. I think aspiring developers and players alike could stand to learn more about the realities of game development. I think you are well suited to delivering such information, both because of your experience and because of the respect the industry and the community has for you.
Thank you so much for helping us game devs
I'm so insanely happy that Sakurai-san decided to make this channel. He's been an inspiration to so many of us aspiring game devs over the years and although I already know that many of the concepts he'll be talking about here are ones that at least personally I've already known about, I'm still quaking with anticipation for each and every video.
We need more wholesome game developers. It really shows there's passion behind the work even when money is involved.
Sakurai, you have to remember that you're a player too!
You work really hard, and don't let the other 'hurr durr more smash' comments get to you!
This is very unique advice among the existing RUclips game dev content. Industry and actual job advice from a known professional is what makes this channel incredibly useful