Super Mario Galaxy Inspired by Pet Hamster
Shigeru Miyamoto's hobbies are a well-guarded industry secret at this point, and for good reason: Games like Pikmin, Nintendogs, and Wii Fit all sprung from the day-to-day occurrences in the Mario creator's personal life. But what about the inspiration for Super Mario Galaxy? Has Miyamoto developed a thing for space travel? Might we soon see the legendary Nintendo designer take to the stars like Richard Garriott before him?
Actually, Super Mario Galaxy's existence can be traced back to a tiny, seemingly-insignificant hamster. Miyamoto revealed as much during a symposium at this year's Japan Media Arts Festival over the weekend (via Andriasang).
During his speech at the conference, Miyamoto discussed the difficulties of allowing players to control Mario in a 3D environment, and how breaking the levels down into spheres let even inexperienced users run freely without fear of getting lost -- an idea the designer credits to a hamster he was caring for during the game's development.
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