Masahiro Sakurai, Creator of Super Smash Bros. on his New Youtube Channel
The channel doesn’t sound very original for that matter. The channel titled Masahiro Sakurai on creating games went live earlier today. You’d figure it’ll take some time for a channel like that to grow, but Masahiro Sakurai is a pioneer and legend in game design in the video game industry and his reputation precedes that. His name was enough to gather Nintendo fans across the globe to subscribe to his new Youtube channel garnering him over 100,000 subscribers within just the first few hours the channel went live. That must be a record. Masahiro Sakurai opens up in his first video and addresses fans that he won’t be streaming games like traditional gaming channels do. Instead, he’s going to specifically talk about game design, game development, and what exactly makes games fun. This could be considered as a free master class or freebie course for those that want to learn from the legendary Nintendo game designer and creator Masahiro Sakurai. Sakurai has some plans in mind. The channel aims to teach a wider audience about the ins and outs of game development and what exactly makes a game good. He has loads of experience under his belt as he’s created one of the most iconic game franchises and worked on the development and design teams of many other hit titles as well. “I’ll instead be talking about topics like game development and what makes games fun.” He’s often asked to give presentations and lectures in game development schools. While he has no qualms with that and tries his best to teach the younger generation about game design, he feels that it can’t reach an audience outside of a classroom setting. Masahiro Sakurai wants to expand beyond a room and reach and extend his learnings and teachings to a wider audience which explains his independent debut on Youtube. While developer conferences are good at explaining and showcasing a few technical concepts, they don’t provide the platform or the time frame to go into the depths of teaching game design theory. The stage is big enough but the setting isn’t appropriate as many fans have questions and not all of them can be answered. Using Youtube as a platform for his new channel, he can reach a wider audience, and answer their comments and questions in upcoming videos. “and while I think it’s a great idea, such presentations can only reach so many people.”
While documentaries and videos online do share tidbits about game development and game design, Sakurai feels that there’s still a lot he hasn’t revealed to the world and there’s plenty of game design knowledge to go around for everyone. He still has lots of tricks up his sleeve that he wants to share. As for beginners hoping to make a mark in the gaming industry, they do need to start from somewhere and obtain a solid foundation, and Sakurai aims to do exactly that with his new Youtube channel. With Sakurai’s new Youtube channel, upcoming game design artists will get an insider peek at what the gaming industry is like. Masahiro Sakurai of course has pledged his allegiance to Nintendo, the Japanese gaming company and he needs to run things by the company before he takes any drastic steps like revealing insider information to the public. “I hope that by covering a variety of topics on this channel, I’ll be able to help more people see what game development is all about.” While Nintendo is pretty cut-throat when it comes to content being showcased or fan-games being created, or roms being illegally distributed, it gave Masahiro Sakurai the go-ahead to talk about industry secrets and techniques. With Nintendo’s blessing, Sakurai has been allowed to showcase a prototype software on his new Youtube channel. In addition, fans and viewers will get to see some behind-the-scenes material as well as footage on games that he’s created and worked on in the past. That’s a big step in the right direction from Nintendo. “which of course means I’m running all this by Nintendo. Sakurai made it clear that Nintendo is not involved in the channel in any way whatsoever asides from approving or disapproving whatever content Sakurai can show. He’s doing this all on his own and considers it a personal project. Sakurai debuted his new Youtube channel with his first lesson about game design which is titled “Stop for Big Moments”, which showcases how slowing down or freezing scenes during key frames of action during games can make the game feel a lot more satisfying. Sakurai explained in the video the impact of powerful and hard-hitting attacks when the freeze effect is removed, which does indeed become negligible. He went on to explain how artificially adding the same mechanic to older and retro titles could further improve them.
Sakurai’s Legacy
Masahiro Sakurai made his debut in the videogame industry when he started working for HAL Laboratory in 1989, a Japanese video game company that has been working closely with Nintendo since 1983. Under the company, Masahiro went on to create Kirby’s Dream Island and the main character, Kirby. Kirby was his go-to character for many upcoming titles but then, he embarked on his journey in directing and creating the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. HAL laboratory didn’t give him the freedom he desired so he went on to resign from the company in 2003. His resignation from HAL allowed him to seek a job at Q Entertainment where he worked with Tetsuya Mizuguchi on the creation of Meteos for the Nintendo DS. He went on to direct Super Smash Bros. and Kid Icarus: Uprising and is still active in the videogame industry to this day. Masahiro Sakurai is currently reaching seniority at the age of 52. It’s possible he knows there’s not a lot of years left ahead for him and with that, he started a Youtube channel to pass on his teachings to upcoming game designers, game artists, and video game developers, so they could create expressive, exciting and unique games of their own. And that’s it for today’s news. Will you tune in to Masahiro Sakurai’s new Youtube channel and learn about game design or do you just like playing his games? Let us know in the comments below. We upload daily on Appuals so stay tuned for more. Till then, see you later and goodbye.
