Psst! There's a Draft Demo Available Now

Hey. Hey you. Yeah, you.

You wanna play an early build of the first level?

Woah, woah, slow down. I need to explain something first.

So, this demo is not actually finished yet. Also, it might never be finished. I've been sitting on this for a while, trying to decide what to do with it. I'm thinking the project might need to be shelved.

Let me rewind a little.

When I first had the idea for a game about Satoru Iwata, it seemed like a perfect fit. I'd been wanting to do some form of biography about Iwata for a while, with this title. Satoru Iwata Saves the World. It just felt right.

How to tell his story, though? A series of YouTube videos? A book? Neither option felt perfect.

Around the time that the Ask Iwata book released, I had a genius idea. The best way to tell the story of an influential game developer was with a game itself. Since Iwata was involved with a series of prominent platfomers - Kirby, Smash Bros (it counts as a platformer in my book), I liked the idea of making a non-violent, relaxed, wholesome platforming game.

This idea was justified when, as part of my research, I read an account from one of Iwata's school friends who literally said that he loved to jump. Perfect.

At the same time, I worried that this new game project might feel inappropriate to some people. Was this in poor taste? I asked a few of my closest friends, some fellow YouTubers who I trust and respect, and they all said no, as long as it was handled with dignity, such a game didn't feel problematic.

Ten or so months later, after learning a lot and spending a lot of time developing the game, I zipped up the version that is now available to download and sent it off to my friends to get their feedback. Two people played it, and their feedback was nothing but positive.

One friend, a really talented and cool guy who I admire a lot, said of it: "Really impressed with what you've done here. Such a neat way to tell the Iwata story."

I think about those two lines of positive feedback a lot. It was a small thing, but it made a big impact on me. Made me feel like I'd achieved exactly what I set out to do with this.

Then, I sent the prototype to a prominent game journalist and member of the Nintendo fan community. Someone who reviews games for a living, someone with a strong connection to Nintendo.

His feedback was less positive.

I won't share all of what he said, but here are some highlights:

"I don't like controlling Satoru Iwata. That feels wrong to me. I just felt icky moving him around and making him jump. Like, spiritually and emotionally, I really don't want to do that. It made me feel bad.

"I'm all for honoring Mr. Iwata's contributions to the world and his lasting legacy more in the future, but making him a playable game character doesn't sit right with me. It's different when it's like his Mii character being used in a Mii-compatible game like Mario Kart 8 or whatever -- that's his Mii, not him. And it's not within a game experience that's all about him. This, though, actually is meant to be Iwata himself running through a world of his own memories. Nah. That's not right. It's creepy.

...

"Don't push the responsibility of taking control of his movements onto everyone else. I really think that'll backfire on you if you do."

So, that was a strong response, to say the least. If nothing else, I can take pride in the fact that I've made a piece of art that elicited a strong reaction.

It's just a shame that it was the complete opposite reaction to the one I was hoping for. The last thing I wanted to do was upset people.

When talking about the game on our YouTube channel, every now and then we'd get a comment from someone saying they didn't think the idea was appropriate. I made a point to address these comments personally, saying that I hoped once they saw the game in action they'd see that it came from a perspective of love and respect. This generally seemed to allay people's fears, but comments from my journalist friend made it clear that the game wasn't going to be as well-received as I had hoped.

As I panicked over what to do with this game level, which took nearly a year of my life to make, I figured I needed a wider pool of opinions. I put up a poll on the Video Game Story Time YouTube channel, asking whether people thought the game was in any way problematic.

I left the poll up very briefly, letting just a hundred people vote. This would give me the general mood of our most dedicated Notification Squad members, the people most likely to give us the benefit of the doubt.

14% of those polled said the game was either slightly or significantly problematic. That was a large chunk of potential players.

So, I put the prototype down. I stopped working on it. The last thing I wanted to do was offend anyone.

I've been working on a new game idea bit by bit, using the things I've learned from the Iwata project, but to be perfectly honest, it's just not clicked with me the same way the Iwata game idea did. I've also tried turning my research into a book; both a traditional prose book, and a graphic novel (novel isn't the right word for a non-fiction story, but you get my point). Neither of these attempts really seemed to work either.

So what changed? Why am I releasing this imperfect draft of a game I'm probably not going to finish?

Well, today I got my copy of Reggie Fils-Aime's autobiography, Disrupting the Game. It's a lovely book, which serves as a beautiful companion piece to Ask Iwata (I suspect the size and formatting deliberately mirror that book).

The first chapter is all about Reggie's relationship with Iwata. I knew this book would be great for providing insight into this friendship, but I didn't expect it to be this perfect for my needs as an amateur (semi-pro? I guess?) gaming historian.

In the chapter, Reggie recounts a time when he and Iwata disagreed on something, and Reggie stuck to his guns, asking Iwata to trust him. Things worked out exactly as Reggie had expected.

Reggie then gives his first piece of advice to the reader:

"There is a fine balance between stating true to your beliefs versus just being stubborn. Do you truly believe in a particular course of action or is it your ego talking? When you are making a difficult or complex judgement, it's especially difficult to know your own motivation.

...

"If you decide you're being true to your beliefs, present your perspective as persuasively as you can...You can't just try to steamroll the other perspective.

...

"But sometimes you need to take a stand."

This hit me hard.

I think it's fair to say I have self-esteem issues. It's not so much impostor syndrome, because I feel like I'd actually need to achieve something to feel like an impostor, but certainly I don't value myself or my work very highly. I have a difficult time being kind to myself. I'm working on this, I know I need to change.

As I read Reggie's advice, I couldn't help but think about this game. I appreciate that it's not for everyone, and that some people really don't like the idea. At the same time, a lot of people do think this subject can be handled sensitively in a game. You, the person reading this, may have even gone out of your way to seek out this download. That has to count for something.

I am very proud of what I've made here. It is my love letter to Satoru Iwata, and to Nintendo as a whole. I do not mean offense, I only wish to share my love of games and game history.

I don't know if I'll carry on with this project, I probably won't. I feel, though, that I need to take Reggie's advice, stick to my guns, and at the very least show off what I've made here.

I hope you like it.

Let me know your thoughts on the demo, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. Especially with regards to whether the whole project is in poor taste. I will definitely listen.

Thank you.

(Edit: fixed the times my phone embarrassingly autocorrected Satoru to Satori)