“Everyone Is A Director” At Nintendo, Says Former Dev, But Don’t Make Excuses

Motoi Okamoto, once a Nintendo creator and now custodian of the Silent Hill series at Konami, has posted online to weigh in on whether directors who can’t evaluate concepts without first building them might be labelled “inept”.

As Automaton summarised, Okamoto—credits include Pikmin, Luigi’s Mansion, and Wii Play—outlines a Nintendo environment where “each employee is a director,” granting staff the authority to call shots that could enhance a title.

Building prototypes and stress-testing them, he insists, is vital for crafting a polished, enjoyable experience. Coders who plead schedule or budget constraints to skip this loop are “booted from the squad instantly”.

“Lately I’ve spotted opinions like, ‘Shouldn’t a designer know if a spec stinks without coding it?’ or ‘Leaders who need builds to decide are useless.’ Yet at Nintendo, the build-and-play cycle is the verdict machine—paper theories don’t rule.

“Engineers who shrug off implementation, and planners or coders who hide behind timelines or cash limits to dodge iteration, are dropped from the roster on the spot.

“If a dev thinks a design is dull, they’re welcome to prototype it in a way that sparks joy. That’s the craft of veteran game makers. It’s a studio where every desk is a director’s chair.”

He adds that industry legends Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata stayed knee-deep in code and controllers, calling it “sheer hubris” to veto concepts before giving them a spin.

The anecdote offers a rare peek into Nintendo’s workshop, though the routine may have shifted since Okamoto’s exit. Still, stress-testing fresh notions to gauge their worth remains a sturdy practice.

How do you read Motoi Okamoto’s snapshot of Nintendo’s creative floor? Drop your take below.