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Nintendo Garage (new internal programme) & new games in development (EDGE magazine)

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
This is from the interview with Miyamoto in the Edge Magazine:

Splatoon and the three prototypes are the first games to emerge from Garage, a new Nintendo development programme set up last year in which developers break off into small teams and work on new ideas. "There are increasing numbers of young staff at Nintendo's development studios these days," Miyamoto says, "and these young guys really want to express themselves." Work is done during office hours, but he compares Garage to an after-school club, in spirit if not in schedule. "Class time's over: they gather together and think about new projects completely apart from their everyday business assignments. When all of those projects have advanced to a certain stage, we gather together and exchange opinions on the outcome of each of them, and together we decide which ones should continue. We may have shown several software titles at E3 [that came from Garage], but there are many others in development too.
 

Seik

Banned
It's great to know Nintendo open doors for younger devs since last E3, well, that's when I realized it, the moment they announced Splatoon.

It can only mean good things and more variety.
 

Eolz

Member
Nintendo high school with Miyamoto being the head teacher.
This Edge issue really seems to be a must-read.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Years ago, Reggie kind of ignored Garage developers.

Now, Nintendo itself has a Garage. WHERE'S YOUR GOD NOW, REGGIE?!? /s
 

Sendou

Member
Wow that's amazing. Although I first read that as "international programme" and that would have been cool too.

This is exactly what I think everyone has wanted Nintendo to do. I know this is what I want to see. Can't wait to see more games that come out of this. Splatoon is a damn good start.

Guessing they were those games like Project Guard and such?

I would imagine Splatoon, Project Guard, Project Giant Robo and perhaps even StarFox.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Nintendo high school with Miyamoto being the head teacher.
This Edge issue really seems to be a must-read.

Yes, the interview is really interesting. He is commenting on that statement from the investor meeting regarding the repetitive bloody games and he makes it clear that he was attacking the publishers that rather than letting the developers be creative they push them to follow industry trends. It more like a "when the marketing dictates the kind of game to make there is no much freedom for creativity". But It's too much to write down here.
 

Metal B

Member
A similar system brought us Harmony Knights and not to forget Link's Awakening in the past, which was a just for fun project of some Nintendo developers and also described as an "afterschool club" [Source].
 

NateDrake

Member
This is the type of stuff Nintendo should have done during the transition from Wii to Wii U. They are setting themselves up for a good future if they take advantage of these new policies. Sadly, it will have little positive impact on Wii U and 3DS.
 
This is the type of stuff Nintendo should have done during the transition from Wii to Wii U. They are setting themselves up for a good future if they take advantage of these new policies. Sadly, it will have little positive impact on Wii U and 3DS.

They set it up too late, but I'm sure we'll see the benefits of it for both consoles over 2015 and 2016.
 
This sounds awesome. The next few years should be great for Nintendo fans.

I think I'm going to pick up this issue of EDGE from B&N in the coming weeks. It looks to be essential reading.
 

Vaddon

Member
Great news, very encouraging to hear Nintendo doing something such as this. Hopefully it produces some interesting results.
 

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
Wow that's amazing. Although I first read that as "international programme" and that would have been cool too.

This is exactly what I think everyone has wanted Nintendo to do. I know this is what I want to see. Can't wait to see more games that come out of this. Splatoon is a damn good start.

I would imagine Splatoon, Project Guard, Project Giant Robo and perhaps even StarFox.

1. Splatoon, yes.

2. Project Guard and Star Fox, Miyamoto says were work-in-progress prototypes from the Wii days. He is moving forward with. Then again, I guess you can just re-shove them back into the Garage initiative either way.

3. Nintendo employees were doing this behind Miyamoto's back for a while. That's how we got Flipnote Studio. I think Miyamoto is just like fine. Let's embrace this.
 
Edge is always worth buying but this issue especially was amazing. Miyamoto's interview and the chats with all the Nintendo devs are must reads.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Being more serious, this is surely one of the things we wanted, isn't it? More variety, more ideas, more devs talking with other teams, etc.etc.

This is going to work much better with the new R&D bulding, where devs are under the same roof.

Going even deeper, if the NintendOS plan is as effective as hoped, it'll be even better, since there's going to be more time for different projects, since there won't be the hurdle to, let's say, develop another MK for the other console after completing the development of MK for the portable.
 

V_Ben

Banned
That's fantastic, Nintendo finally realizing they need to let their younger devs make new stuff too, rather than relying too much on the old guard. How exciting! :D
 
I wonder if they will gradually let some of them flow into big projects. It's the big games/established franchises that could use young talents with fresh views.
Wanted to add; what I think is awesome is that all these young developers probably grew up loving Nintendo games. A passion for Nintendo's past + having new/fresh ideas is a healthy combination I think.
 
This can potentially be great. It's a little slower than I would have liked, but still. They definitely said at E3 that some Mario Kart staff had been moved onto this sort of Garage style projects.

Here, it was Miyamoto (http://kotaku.com/shigeru-miyamoto-weve-had-tough-time-before-1593390078):

“And of course we just finished Mario Kart, and what’s now going on is that a lot of the people working on Mario Kart, their hands are free and they’re coming up with ideas and doing a lot of experimentation with what they can do with two-screen gameplay and they’re having a lot of fun doing that.”

If Nintendo moves to a more universal hardware design where handheld and console software is shared, EAD might not need to work on two versions of games like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing each generation, which would free up a lot of their developers to experiment with other projcts like this, too.
 
Years ago, Reggie kind of ignored Garage developers.

Now, Nintendo itself has a Garage. WHERE'S YOUR GOD NOW, REGGIE?!? /s


I guess they finally realized that the "garage developers" are the only ones who are pushing gaming forward, while a lot of the larger publishers are content on stagnation. But that is how it always is.

And besides that, the old Nintendo guard won't be around forever, Nintendo will eventually have to put their company in the hands of new developers that can come up with some of their own original IP's. Got to invest now.
 

Phamit

Member
Always confusing when Miyamoto says young, some of The young People from splatoon are already about 10 years at Nintendo
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
This can potentially be great. It's a little slower than I would have liked, but still. They definitely said at E3 that some Mario Kart staff had been moved onto this sort of Garage style projects.

Here, it was Miyamoto (http://kotaku.com/shigeru-miyamoto-weve-had-tough-time-before-1593390078):



If Nintendo moves to a more universal hardware design where handheld and console software is shared, EAD might not need to work on two versions of games like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing each generation, which would free up a lot of their developers to experiment with other projcts like this, too.

Being more serious, this is surely one of the things we wanted, isn't it? More variety, more ideas, more devs talking with other teams, etc.etc.

This is going to work much better with the new R&D bulding, where devs are under the same roof.

Going even deeper, if the NintendOS plan is as effective as hoped, it'll be even better, since there's going to be more time for different projects, since there won't be the hurdle to, let's say, develop another MK for the other console after completing the development of MK for the portable.

Great minds think alike, etc.etc.
 

KooopaKid

Banned
Great initiative. Should have happened several years ago.
Not a big fan of the new concepts shown at E3 though other than Splatoon.
 

Sir TapTap

Member
So they're finally accepting "garage developers" eh?

Sounds like a good project, the sort of thing Nintendo probably should have set up halfway into the Wii's lifespan. It seemed to peter out in 2010 after at least one of almost all their franchises had been on Wii at least once. And in the broader sense, more experimentation is welcome.

Great initiative. Should have happened several years ago.
Not a big fan of the new concepts shown at E3 though other than Splatoon.

They were prototypes not games, be interested to see what if anything comes out of them. Makes sense they're no where near as ready as Splatoon.
 

10k

Banned
Exclusive footage of inside the garage. This is where the magic happens people.

94780-200089-hardcoregamerjpg-620x.jpg
 

Lunar15

Member
I had never heard of the Garage program before.

That's great, really psyched to see what this kind of thing can force out. Nintendo has the talent.
 

Exile20

Member
Great initiative. Should have happened several years ago.
Not a big fan of the new concepts shown at E3 though other than Splatoon.

Project guard and Project Giant Robot are concepts and Splatoon is a realized game.

I think you are confused.
 

emb

Member
If Splatoon is any indication, it sounds like this is exactly the thing Nintendo needs. More, please!
 
If these "garage developers" can come up with bigger games like Splatoon than that would be great. I'd really like to see more stuff like that from them.
Edit: yeah, I'm pretty sure project guard/giant robot won't be full games, but we might see the gameplay ideas in other games (like star fox or something)
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
I keep thinking Monster Garage when I see this.

Miyamoto is Jessie James and he's giving challenges to the devs.
 
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