During the recently concluded E3 in Los Angeles, the IDSA hosted a spotlight Q&A session with Shigeru Miyamoto, director of Nintendo Company Limited and creator of such popular franchises as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda. During the session, which was emceed by Newsweek editor Ngai Croal, Miyamoto discussed a wide array of topics, including his approach to game development, the emphasis he puts on creating a fun gameplay system in his titles, and the upcoming Mario and Zelda games.

　　On a lighter note, Miyamoto also discussed the origins of such characters as Donkey Kong and Zelda. According to Miyamoto, for his first game, he wanted the name of the now-famous gorilla to reflect its personality, one of dimwittedness. At the time, Miyamoto was under the impression that donkey meant stupid or dumb, so naturally he chose to call his character Donkey Kong. When he presented the idea to people at Nintendo of America, he soon learned that donkey didn't mean exactly what he thought, but because the name sounded appropriate, he decided to keep it regardless. On the other hand, Princess Zelda was named such because Miyamoto wanted to give the character a strong female name. He felt that the name Zelda matched that criterion.

　　Following the discussion of broader game development issues and general topics related to his early years of game development, Miyamoto turned his attention to the Nintendo GameCube. Miyamoto has said in the past that, with the arrival of the GameCube, Mario may need to grow up. When asked exactly what he meant, Miyamoto revealed that although Mario won't age, his design will indeed be changed when he makes his first appearance on the GameCube. "When I had said that Mario needed to grow up, what I really meant is that Mario's design needs to change," Miyamoto explained. "I was getting worried that he was appealing too much to a younger age group, so I want to see his design grow up and appeal to a wide range of ages. So, that is really what I meant when I said that Mario needs to grow up, and I'm planning to show you something this summer." Miyamoto later added to this by saying that the new Zelda game will also be unveiled this summer--likely during the Space World show in late August.

　　Although Nintendo held back its two primary franchises--Mario and Zelda--at E3, the company did unveil two new games that are being developed under Miyamoto's supervision, Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin. During the Q&A session, Miyamoto spoke about the inspiration for both games, Pikmin in particular. "Both Pikmin and Luigi have no jump options, and it is very rare for me to make a game that has no jump option," Miyamoto said. "We wanted to be able to make something that was actually fun without that kind of action element to it. I've been interested in gardening and plants for a while, and I actually had a few game ideas based on gardening. So, Pikmin was sort of an amalgamation of two of those ideas, and it happened very recently."

　　"All the resources for the background scenery for [Pikmin] we gathered by walking around my neighborhood and taking pictures to use in the game," he added. "You can actually see the light of the sun moving around in the game as the day goes by and as the sun moves across the sky. With this game, I want you to get a feeling that when you're walking around, you wonder, 'Are there really Pikmin down there in the grass?'"

　　Miyamoto has built his game design philosophy on a fun gameplay experience. So, it is only natural that, despite the graphical power of the GameCube console, his primary concern is to create an intuitive and entertaining gameplay system with games such as Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin and upcoming titles such as the new Mario and Zelda games. Miyamoto is currently overseeing more than 30 projects for the GameCube, so expect more game unveilings leading up to the launch of the console on November 5. To view the Q&A session in video form, click on the appropriate media link below.