Nintendo is the greatest developer in the world- it has shown time and time again that it has a complete, absolute mastery over game development. It showed us this most recently last year, with two of the best games ever released, and a slew of other great titles.
So of course, for a developer this special, the hiring process has to be special too, right? As it turns out, it is- it is also entirely counter intuitive to what you might think. Speaking to the New York Times, Miyamoto-san explained that the people he looks at hiring are ones who aren’t actually super passionate about games.
“I always look for designers who aren’t super-passionate game fans. I make it a point to ensure they’re not just a gamer, but that they have a lot of different interests and skill sets,” he said.
This makes sense- since people who aren’t gaming fans aren’t boxed in by pre-conceived notions and ideas of what games are and can do, and can suggest more out of the box ideas. That certainly explains why Nintendo consistently comes up with off the wall concepts.
