My first Game Design/Development Grandparent is Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto grew up in the Japanese village of Sonobe. Since Sonobe was a rural village, there was no television. Miyamoto also had no toys so he made his own. He grew up surrounded by nature and spent a lot of time hiking and biking. Miyamoto tries to recreate the sense of childhood wonderment he felt when making his own toys and exploring nature in his games. Miyamoto has helped develop many well-known and influential games including
Duck Hunt,
Ice Climber,
The Legend of Zelda series, and the
Donkey Kong Series. Perhaps what he is most known for is being the creator of the
Mario franchise. Mario Mario made his first appearance as Jupman in the original
Donkey Kong arcade game in 1981. Since then he has appeared in many games on pretty much all of Nintendo's systems. The
Mario franchise his brought a number of memorable characters into the gaming world including Mario's brother Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and Yoshi. The amount of influence that the
Mario franchise and Miyamoto's other games have had on the gaming industry is innumerable. It is for this reason, in addition to the fact that
Super Mario 64 is my favorite videogame, that I chose Miyamoto as one of my Game Design/Development Grandparents. I'm not sure if there is anyone who is unfamiliar with the
Mario franchise, but I would tell someone who is unfamiliar with Miyamoto's work that he is one of the main reasons that Nintendo is the successful company it is today.
Sources:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/master-of-play
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594427/
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