Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games: Finale Special
I’ve written about Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games before, but the Finale Special is a grand slam.
I love Director’s Commentaries and Behind the Scenes featurettes, and Sakurai-san’s Finale Special is the ultimate combo of both.
I’m trying hard not to spoil it, but apparently there was such low viewership of his channel here in the US, we all need a little nudging to watch these.
If you love games, Sakurai-san is right there with you. He has a deep understanding of what works, what doesn’t, and how to get there. The bottom line: making a game comes down to hard work, guts, and teamwork. That equally applies to running your own YouTube Channel.
And Sakurai-san shows you how he did it. All of it.
As mentioned in my last piece:
…if you’re a branded content creator, there’s so much to learn from how to produce valuable content here.
Here’s the reality folks: producing content or media is expensive.
He has the receipts to prove it, but you have to watch the video to see the final amount spent.
He worked in close cooperation with Nintendo, showing stuff you won’t find elsewhere (or won’t find easily). He even re-recorded his own in-game footage for maximum visual fidelity and quality of teaching. Given the varying resolutions / image rasters of older consoles, that’s quite a feat – even if you factor in capturing footage from emulators on a host workstation.
And yet, Sakurai-san confesses he consciously decided not to monetize the channel. No ads; interruption free.
The goal of the channel is to give the good people who make games a quality boost. He also waxes a bit on his age, the possibility of retirement, and the need to pass on what he knows to the next generation. Based on what little I know about one of his mentors, this channel follows in the same footsteps as the legendary Satoru Iwata. But this channel doesn’t live in his shadow, it stands on its own. Iwata-san would’ve been proud of this project.
Finally, I want to say Thank You to Sakurai-san for extensively acknowledging and crediting his production and post-production teams:
And of course, Yuzo Koshiro.
I agree: this would’ve been a project of a lifetime.
If you live in the United States and love video games, you owe it to yourself to watch this channel. It’s not just about video games, gaming, or game development. Any aspiring or practicing creative professional will get something out of this labor of love.
Apparently he and his team really read the comments, so one last time: thank you, Sakurai-san. Your hard work keeps paying off, and we’re all better people for it.
