Sakurai on Creating Games: PR (9 Topics)

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series, shares a wealth of game-development know-how on his YouTube channel “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games”. This article summarizes and restructures the content of that channel by topic.

That said, a summary is only an entry point. So much of the value — Sakurai’s own words, his real-world examples, his pacing, and the footage itself — can only be gotten from the videos. So please don’t stop at reading the article; I strongly encourage you to also watch the original videos embedded under each topic.

“If it isn’t known, it’s as if it doesn’t exist” — this category covers the activity of getting your game known, the other wheel paired with development. Here we bring together the key points of both videos in the “PR” category (9 individual topics), structured in 2 parts following the 2 source videos. Each part opens with its explanatory video, so please watch along.

Part 1: PR is multiplication, portray the product right, demos, reveal trailers (#01–#07)

This category is themed not on the game itself but the elements that make it known. Sakurai is broadly involved in PR too. It covers “if it isn’t known, it’s as if it doesn’t exist” — an activity paired with development as two wheels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGT6xcnB0x8

1. PR is multiplication

A game being good and fun is necessary, but being well-known early is equally important. If it isn’t known, it’s as if it doesn’t exist. To make use of what you’ve made, people must first know the game exists. The activity for that is PR (broadly, sales), which Sakurai actively does.

Reveal trailers, the old Smash Bros. DOJO, fighters’ artwork — all are made on the premise of being used individually. He doesn’t write the official Twitter or website text, but he never fails to check and propose. “I’m a director, not a producer,” yet he does an alarming amount of producer work aside from the money math. That’s how much he weights it. Development and PR are multiplication; the result of one is proportional to the other. Steam had an estimated 10,000-plus games in 2021. To be known among them, due effort is needed. Drawing attention may be “just right when overdone,” he also says.

2. Portray the product accurately

A game’s contents are unknown until you play. You learn from the name, package, screenshots, reveal trailers. What you mustn’t do here is, however much you want to surprise in-game, put out something different from the product image. Buying a banana and it tasting like an apple is no good.

The image at purchase and the fun expressed in-game must match. If product image and reality diverge, you not only fail to reach interested customers but also disappoint those who bought it by mistake. Surprising with various elements isn’t bad, but there should be no discrepancy between the product image and the image you conveyed. Note that for a title, consider how it abbreviates to 4 characters in Japanese (“Dairantō Smash Brothers” → “Smabura,” etc., thought of the moment it’s decided).

The most contrary-to-content package among Sakurai’s works is the Japanese Kirby Super Star. A flashy work yet a simple package, on the concept that a luxurious work is in an elegant cut-glass disc — an idea by Shigesato Itoi. Seemingly contrary, yet it hits the essence — directly expressing isn’t the only PR; he bows to Itoi’s brilliance. What prompts picking it up in a shop is the product art. Surprising is a tactic, but you’d want to convey the product accurately.

3. Demos

As a trial of a game, making a demo is generally quite effective. Since most things in the world go unknown, you should strive to be known rather than not. But making a demo takes tremendous effort. It’s not as simple as cutting out a portion; at worst it’s as hard as one small piece of software.

Before release there’s info-leak risk. If the ROM contains spoilers, it could be analyzed, so you need to carefully strip them, and fully grasping which file holds what is hard. From the moment it’s made, it’s two-version management — updates, tuning, debugging all separate. Since it goes public, near-retail debugging is needed, and stripping elements makes bugs more likely. Plus, being unbalanced can get it written off. If you want retail-equal balance, you can only release it a while after launch, which is itself of dubious effect.

Thus demos squeeze tight dev resources. Making it by removing elements after completion is easier but less effective. As games grow huge and complex, production gets harsher, but demos are very effective, and it’s true that being known beats not. Whether to make one depends on the publisher’s or developer’s policy.

4. The website

A website was indispensable for learning game info. Poring over them has decreased from their heyday, and short info dispatch like SNS may fit the modern era, but it does matter that consolidated info is dispatched correctly. Official sites won’t vanish from major works.

Sakurai was involved in the structure of Smash Ultimate’s site and checks every update. A fighter list, how to play, each mode and technique, network, amiibo, 100-plus stages, items, sound (with a listening feature), movies, tournament and event info — far more information than other games. PR matters, and a place that serves as the info backbone matters too; you’d want a form suited to that work.

This actually continues from the first game’s bitter experience. Before the first Smash’s release, it was hard to get people to understand how to play and its mind games, and he struggled with biases like “Nintendo characters beating each other up is outrageous” and “shallow compared to fighting games.” So he compiled how-to-play materials, sent them to magazines, and the technique guide that repurposed that content was the first game’s official site, Smash Bros. DOJO. Sakurai wrote the HTML himself. A bitter experience becomes a foothold for a breakthrough. Working hard on reveal trailers may also continue from the first game’s setback, he reflects.

5. Reveal trailers

The reveal trailers that colored Smash fighter entries. It began with the idea, in Brawl, of making movies with interplay among fighters (officially the “X joins the battle” wording started in Smash 4). But they got uploaded online before release and couldn’t be a reward. So they stopped inserting movies mid-game and switched to a policy of making movies that don’t affect progress and are fun for anyone to watch, since they’ll be shared anyway. They reportedly made as many as 37.

For the CG parts, Sakurai wrote nearly all the plots (the exception being Pyra/Mythra). He often even decides the musical timing, proceeding meeting with the CG firm → storyboard → animatics (rough edit) → production. Game parts are captured by the Smash dev team moving the camera via debug/replay features. He always puts in supervision everywhere — “more boldly,” “increase the interplay,” “balance of serious and comical,” “match the musical phrasing,” and so on. The worldwide frenzy over reveal trailers was astonishing and a strong encouragement to staff and Sakurai. He’s truly happy to have been involved in such work, he says.

6. Show me the game screen!

When pitching a game, a movie of the game actually running matters a lot. People get interested via the so-called promo movie, and a game without it can’t be bought unless it’s something special. It’s out of the question, so consider movie production a must.

But sometimes the opening movie or character explanation is long and won’t get into the game screen. Some Steam top videos have no game screen at all — please stop this. For famous series or creators, a teaser-style approach is tolerable, but otherwise — especially for big titles or indie games — it’s better to show the game right away. Sakurai nearly developed a habit of skipping the start of promo movies. Since it’s for learning what the game is, you want to see the crucial game right away. Story and worldview can come after. There are exceptions like tech demos, but a pitch is speed; showing the heart swiftly pays off.

7. Playing a game in front of people

Sakurai plays games in front of people a remarkable amount — perhaps the most among game directors, he says. Especially the “How to use X” series, and pitch-plays at each DLC announcement. Even for non-own works, he’s played at the Game Designers Award for over a decade.

In test play he’s careful to always show all special moves and the Final Smash, not make it too one-sided a win, and show plenty of normal moves too. Plainly, he’s conscious of “good footage.” You can’t play without understanding the game’s content. Showing it live is probably the highest-effect pitch.

And thinking about a pitch helps organize your own thoughts, the same as a teacher being taught. Even if you think showing your own work to people is unthinkable, assuming you’ll show it to people has many merits, so he recommends doing a show-play in your head. Imagine the customer’s reaction and you’ll start to see things.

Part 2: Pitfalls of targeting & marketing, the path of Smash Bros. DOJO (#08–#09)

The second half is a two-parter: a slightly surprising view on marketing theory, and the path of the official site Smash Bros. DOJO, continuing from the first game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du3kXjhbL_4

8. Targeting and marketing

More sales strategy than PR. In game planning and pitching, you’re often told “clarify your target audience” — dividing mainly by age, gender, and taste which segment you most want to sell to. Even Nintendo’s works get surprisingly detailed data on which segment supports them. Aiming at the segment with hot support (and shoring up weak segments) is targeting; investigating that tendency is marketing.

He has no objection, but Sakurai recommends not taking it too seriously, especially when devising a new game. Both are data assumed from existing things and don’t show the road ahead. User boundaries are vague — there are elderly who like cute things, and kids who prefer hardcore expression. The first Kirby is for beginners, but he never said “for kids”; beginners include adults and kids, men and women. Targeting isn’t about age.

Marketing is data on completed things, analyzing a road someone has walked. The safe road (the avenue more people have walked) is clear, but keep chasing it and you become average and ordinary, and conversely don’t sell. In the Super Famicom era, Japan put out heaps of DQ/FF-like works. As data that RPGs sell it’s correct, but diving into a red ocean is meaningless. Those who do something novel are always alone, opening a road no one has walked. But that broadens the horizon, and the pioneer becomes a guidepost for those who follow. What’s necessary for business sometimes doesn’t apply — and that’s exactly what’s important, he says, hoping even bosses devising strategy keep it in mind.

9. Smash Bros. DOJO

How the first Smash’s official site Smash Bros. DOJO!! was run. The first game had deep gameplay from release, but it wasn’t getting across. With Nintendo characters whaling on each other, going in a different direction from traditional fighting games, there was a tendency, even before release, to write it off without grasping its essence.

Back then there was more time between master-up and release than now. In that gap, he handed out the “Smash Bros. Book of Secrets,” compiling Smash’s mind games and gameplay, to magazines, but the effect was thin; making that public as a player’s guide was Smash Bros. DOJO. In an era of slow lines and poor tools, Sakurai wrote the HTML alone, finishing it while staying overnight. As an official site of the time, it was clearly unusual. The effect is unclear, but the first game spread by word of mouth and ultimately became a mega-hit, which led to a sequel.

For Melee, the “DOJO Bulletin” inherited the name, dispatching bulletins of screenshots and info from the grueling dev site. A rare operation where the director himself worked hard on info release (because he knows it best). He also exchanged with posted comments. For Brawl, it updated daily on weekdays, putting out one piece of info Monday–Friday, and supported 6 languages. When there’s some change every day, checking the site for info becomes a routine, which is highly effective.

There are downsides from a development view. A director mid-development is busiest, so it’s better to delegate, but it ends up taking supervision time anyway. Even so, development and PR are two wheels, a multiplication. However good a work, if it isn’t known it’s as if it doesn’t exist. In today’s SNS culture, how to dispatch good info is an ever-present challenge — and “How to use X” is, he thinks, a new direction for info dispatch, he concludes.

Summary

We’ve now gone through both videos and 9 topics of the “PR” category. Finally, let’s recap the key points of each part (= each source summary video) by individual topic.

Part 1: PR is multiplication, portray the product right, demos, reveal trailers (#01–#07)

Part 2: Pitfalls of targeting & marketing, the path of Smash Bros. DOJO (#08–#09)

There’s a lot here, but I hope you’ll revisit it starting from whichever part caught your interest. Please also check out the related categories.