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Influential Video Game Designers
Shigeru Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda
Video games are considered by many to be just entertainment-essentially void of skillful, artistic intervention. But as any gamer knows, there's incredible technical and graphic talent behind even a flickering Gameboy screen.
You may have never heard Shigeru Miyamoto's name, but you've probably spent many a lazy afternoon absorbed in his work. Joining Nintendo as a video game designer in the late 1970s, Miyamoto created the powerhouse franchises Super Mario Bros. , The Legend of Zelda , and Donkey Kong -games so ubiquitous that Miyamoto was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2007.
Combining critical essays with interviews, bibliographies, and striking visuals, Shigeru Miyamoto unveils the artist behind thousands of glowing gaming screens, tracing out his design decisions, aesthetic preferences, and the material conditions that shaped his work. With this incredible (and incredibly unknown) figure, series editors Jennifer DeWinter and Carly Kocurek launch the Influential Video Game Designers series, at last giving these artists the recognition they deserve.
You may have never heard Shigeru Miyamoto's name, but you've probably spent many a lazy afternoon absorbed in his work. Joining Nintendo as a video game designer in the late 1970s, Miyamoto created the powerhouse franchises Super Mario Bros. , The Legend of Zelda , and Donkey Kong -games so ubiquitous that Miyamoto was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2007.
Combining critical essays with interviews, bibliographies, and striking visuals, Shigeru Miyamoto unveils the artist behind thousands of glowing gaming screens, tracing out his design decisions, aesthetic preferences, and the material conditions that shaped his work. With this incredible (and incredibly unknown) figure, series editors Jennifer DeWinter and Carly Kocurek launch the Influential Video Game Designers series, at last giving these artists the recognition they deserve.
200 pages, Paperback
First published April 23, 2015
19 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 16, 2016
Pues lo he dejado abandonado por varias razones: 1- la mayor parte del texto que he leído son fragmentos de otros libros, de entrevistas o de artículos de otras personas, pegado uno tras otro, sin reflexión propia. 2- fuera de un par de anécdotas, el libro está más enfocado a analizar el éxito comercial y los avances técnicos de Nintendo con Miyamoto que de los temas, el simbolismo o temas más reflexivos sobre Miyamoto. Y yo, para leer datos técnicos o para leer una lista de sus videojuegos, no necesito leer un libro.
August 9, 2023
‘I think that inside every adult is the heart of a child. We just gradually convince ourselves that we have to act more like adults.’ - Shigeru Miyamoto
Aptly titled ‘the father of videogames’, the man is an absolute pioneering genius, and every developer should study his work and unchanging philosophies closely.
Rated 4 star as the book is slightly outdated having been released in 2015, before the release of the Switch and its respective Mario and Zelda titles.
Aptly titled ‘the father of videogames’, the man is an absolute pioneering genius, and every developer should study his work and unchanging philosophies closely.
Rated 4 star as the book is slightly outdated having been released in 2015, before the release of the Switch and its respective Mario and Zelda titles.
June 30, 2019
I really wanted to like this book since I love design and video games and respect what Miyamoto has created, but they way this was written just didn’t cut it for me. It might seem like a really minor thing but using in text citations and the fact that the author felt the need to explain what was going to happen or just happened made it seem like an engineering student’s term paper. The quotes and heavy use of other people work didn’t leave this book feeling like an original view on Miyamoto or his works, but rather a collection of things he’s said and what others have said about him with a sprinkling of original ideas or interpretations of his philosophy.
November 21, 2020
Recommended reading for anyone growing up with anguish at how brutally difficult Super Mario Brothers was. Or God forbid, received practical training in social psychology from "playing" Dokapon Kingdom with their "friends" on the Nintendo Wii or emulators.
When the printed book became a commercially viable medium in the 15th century in Europe, it called forth a new kind of creator. Equal parts thinker, writer, scholar, creative writer, entrepreneur, adventurer, outlaw, mechanic, librarian, courtier, and the list goes on, the printer-publisher would go on to play a critical role in European history from then on. (See Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change.)
In a similar way video games called forth a new kind of creator. Equal parts artist, engineer, entrepreneur, manager, and the list goes on. Shigeru Miyamoto is a very representative sample of this new kind of creator. Industrial engineer-designer by training, artist by temperament, his career charts the story of how video games come to define and differentiate itself from other medium. A very peculiar mix of creativity and technical know-how. The story of man-machine interface. A medium characteristic of our technolyzed world.
When the printed book became a commercially viable medium in the 15th century in Europe, it called forth a new kind of creator. Equal parts thinker, writer, scholar, creative writer, entrepreneur, adventurer, outlaw, mechanic, librarian, courtier, and the list goes on, the printer-publisher would go on to play a critical role in European history from then on. (See Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change.)
In a similar way video games called forth a new kind of creator. Equal parts artist, engineer, entrepreneur, manager, and the list goes on. Shigeru Miyamoto is a very representative sample of this new kind of creator. Industrial engineer-designer by training, artist by temperament, his career charts the story of how video games come to define and differentiate itself from other medium. A very peculiar mix of creativity and technical know-how. The story of man-machine interface. A medium characteristic of our technolyzed world.
May 23, 2024
This book belongs to a series, but having not read the others in that series, I don’t know how it fits into that group. Stand alone, the book is a mostly fair presentation of Miyamoto as a designer, thinker, and businessman. The academic formatting and presentation supported the subject matter organically, providing a nonintrusive framing for the biographical depiction of a person within an industry where direct credit was once very rarely given.
My only issue with this book is the broad expanse of time from which Miyamoto’s words were curated. It’s difficult to say whether or not the presentation in this book, while fairly cultivated from his own ideas, represents a contemporary Miyamoto, or if it’s a phantom amalgam cobbled together from sentiments over the years he may or may not still share.
I did enjoy the book, and it’s a fairly quick read that’s worth checking out if you’re interested in design or video game development.
My only issue with this book is the broad expanse of time from which Miyamoto’s words were curated. It’s difficult to say whether or not the presentation in this book, while fairly cultivated from his own ideas, represents a contemporary Miyamoto, or if it’s a phantom amalgam cobbled together from sentiments over the years he may or may not still share.
I did enjoy the book, and it’s a fairly quick read that’s worth checking out if you’re interested in design or video game development.
June 13, 2025
Beyond having some accurate information about a legend, this book is pretty lackluster. It feels like a sophomore game design student wrote it for a class. Tons of grammatical and spelling errors that a first grader could spot. There’s even a screenshot from MarioKart 64 that’s labeled as being from Super Mario Kart, like did you even review the book you wrote one time?
Sad that there aren’t more succinct, professional books on Miyamoto to turn to. This author just feels incredibly off base. They made one entire chapter of the book a verbatim transcript of a Miyamoto speech? A book that already barely clears 100 pages? Just feels like a disservice to the man. Happy to be done with it.
Sad that there aren’t more succinct, professional books on Miyamoto to turn to. This author just feels incredibly off base. They made one entire chapter of the book a verbatim transcript of a Miyamoto speech? A book that already barely clears 100 pages? Just feels like a disservice to the man. Happy to be done with it.
March 3, 2022
A little dry and academic for my tastes. However, there are still some interesting tidbits on Shigeru Miyamoto and game design in this book, as well as a great keynote speech by Miyamoto. I was hoping for something a little different, but if you are looking for academic books on influential game designers, this is a good one.
January 3, 2020
Well... that foreword already did not give me much confidence in this book and sadly it turned out to be true.
Not that this book had no good qualities, it did, but not enough in my mind. I was hoping to learn more about the franchises in question but that is not what I got.
It was of course nice to read that the reason we have Mario and Donkey Kong is because Nintendo could not develop the game with Popeye and Brutu. And he was named Mario because a warehouse owner in Seattle that annoyed Arakawa was named Mario. And not only was Zelda originally designed with Mario as a protagonist, but if that Don Gabacho character is really the inspiration for Mario, you would not know if you hadn't been told.
And that the Zelda games are about the journey and what you do, that explains a lot about Breath of the Wild. However, that castles in those games used German castles as reference art seems odd to me as I have never seen German castles so far, that look like those in the games.
The biggest irony here was, however, that the problem with the tamagotchi was that the kids were such devoted caretakers that they paid more attention to it than to school.
However, the book ultimately disappointed me, as it was about Miyamoto’s role as a designer and not a person, not really. And conceiving, as he once did, of women only as wives and mothers regarding being potential customers is indeed questionable.
Also, the book deals with the technical aspects of game-design, but I am more interested in the artistic aspects. But I did not get it and so this was getting boring, I skipped a chapter and in the end, it was just disappointing.
Not that this book had no good qualities, it did, but not enough in my mind. I was hoping to learn more about the franchises in question but that is not what I got.
It was of course nice to read that the reason we have Mario and Donkey Kong is because Nintendo could not develop the game with Popeye and Brutu. And he was named Mario because a warehouse owner in Seattle that annoyed Arakawa was named Mario. And not only was Zelda originally designed with Mario as a protagonist, but if that Don Gabacho character is really the inspiration for Mario, you would not know if you hadn't been told.
And that the Zelda games are about the journey and what you do, that explains a lot about Breath of the Wild. However, that castles in those games used German castles as reference art seems odd to me as I have never seen German castles so far, that look like those in the games.
The biggest irony here was, however, that the problem with the tamagotchi was that the kids were such devoted caretakers that they paid more attention to it than to school.
However, the book ultimately disappointed me, as it was about Miyamoto’s role as a designer and not a person, not really. And conceiving, as he once did, of women only as wives and mothers regarding being potential customers is indeed questionable.
Also, the book deals with the technical aspects of game-design, but I am more interested in the artistic aspects. But I did not get it and so this was getting boring, I skipped a chapter and in the end, it was just disappointing.
February 6, 2016
Shigeru Miyamoto is the first in a series of books about influential video game designers. The mastermind behind many of Nintendo's most beloved and successful franchises, Miyamoto's importance to the world of gaming cannot be understated. It is with this mindset that author Jennifer deWinter explores his contributions, with a keen eye on the socio-cultural impact of his work.
Instead of providing a play-by-play of his time spent developing and producing games, she targets specific innovation in the areas of narrative, experience, expression and control. The book also includes a transcript of an influential speech he gave along with a gameography of sorts. By forgoing the traditional framework of a biography, deWinter is able to tell us something more about the man, lending credibility to the idea he is 'the father of modern video games'.
Personally, I found the information presented to be both interesting and insightful. Written in an academic style and tone, it may come off to some as a little dry. There are no overarching narratives or themes other than Miyamoto's commitment to play as a design axiom. It's still a fast read, however, one that I would recommend to fans of his work. I look forward to future entries in the series.
Instead of providing a play-by-play of his time spent developing and producing games, she targets specific innovation in the areas of narrative, experience, expression and control. The book also includes a transcript of an influential speech he gave along with a gameography of sorts. By forgoing the traditional framework of a biography, deWinter is able to tell us something more about the man, lending credibility to the idea he is 'the father of modern video games'.
Personally, I found the information presented to be both interesting and insightful. Written in an academic style and tone, it may come off to some as a little dry. There are no overarching narratives or themes other than Miyamoto's commitment to play as a design axiom. It's still a fast read, however, one that I would recommend to fans of his work. I look forward to future entries in the series.
January 9, 2017
This was an insightful look at Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the most influential and successful video game designers ever. Touching classics from Donkey Kong, to Super Mario Bros. and Zelda, deWinter goes into detail working through Miyamoto's influences, early training, and design philosophy. Some excellent insights into his success and revealing research in his own words. At times the book feels perched on over-formality, which seems a hallmark of some game studies texts. This makes the book feel like it lags at some points, but the overall blush is a solid read for those interested in video games at any critical level.
January 17, 2016
This book is ideal for two groups of people, game scholars and game developers. If you're not either, there might be some information that would be appealing. Sometimes it's fun to know about the work and the history of the people putting out the media we consume. But if you have an interest in creating or studying games, this short and concise book is an ideal starting place.
May 2, 2017
This book has the advantage of gathering lots of information and insights from Miyamoto. As such, it's an interesting read for any game scholar or game developer/designer. However, it's lacking in depth of analysis, don't expect to learn much from it if you're already well-versed in the work method, gameography and life of the japanese game designer. If you don't mind a few inaccuracies here and there (namely mislabeled screenshots and poor occasional poor descriptions of games) you'll find a game design oriented and non-romanticized description of the Nintendo legend, and in and of itself, I found that quite valuable.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews