Camp Hyrule Interview: Kent Miller

Camp Hyrule, an online virtual camp held by Nintendo every year, is under full swing. Every year, Nintendo invites employees to take questions from the campers. Even Reggie Fils-Aime, who is now the president of Nintendo of America, has been a featured presenter! This year, the first chat has finished up and we have a full transcript for you.

Kent Miller is the Senior Online Producer for Nintendo of America. As someone who works on many of Nintendo’s websites, he is currently working on the sites for Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Elite Beat Agents, Yoshi’s Island 2 and Children of Mana. As expected, he talked about every one of those games. I’d say the most intriguing tidbit was when he revealed that a demo of Elite Beat Agents would be hitting DS Download Stations! As a camper, I was able to get a complete transcript of what was said in the chat. I’ll try and get the upcoming chat transcripts as well.

Remember that these are all questions asked by the campers at Camp Hyrule. Some may be pointless, but others reveal more about some interesting games. Also, since it’s a live chat, some typos have been made by the chatters!

Click “Full Story” for the complete transcript.

Camp Hyrule, an online virtual camp held by Nintendo every year, is under full swing. Every year, Nintendo invites employees to take questions from the campers. Even Reggie Fils-Aime, who is now the president of Nintendo of America, has been a featured presenter! This year, the first chat has finished up and we have a full transcript for you.

Kent Miller is the Senior Online Producer for Nintendo of America. As someone who works on many of Nintendo’s websites, he is currently working on the sites for Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Elite Beat Agents, Yoshi’s Island 2 and Children of Mana. As expected, he talked about every one of those games. I’d say the most intriguing tidbit was when he revealed that a demo of Elite Beat Agents would be hitting DS Download Stations! As a camper, I was able to get a complete transcript of what was said in the chat. I’ll try and get the upcoming chat transcripts as well.

Remember that these are all questions asked by the campers at Camp Hyrule. Some may be pointless, but others reveal more about some interesting games. Also, since it’s a live chat, some typos have been made by the chatters!

NOA_ANDY: Chat with Nintendo.com producer NOA_Kent will begin in five minutes.
NOA_ANDY: Note that this is a moderated chat. Only special guests and NOAs can type freely. Please submit your question and wait for it to be reviewed.
NOA_ANDY: Hi everyone, and welcome to our very first show in the Amphitheater at Camp Hyrule 2006!
NOA_ANDY: I’m pleased to introduce Kent Miller, Senior Online Producer at Nintendo.com. Kent is currently working on websites for Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Elite Beat Agents, Yoshi’s Island 2 and Children of Mana. Welcome, Kent!
NOA_KENT: Hey everyone!
NOA_ANDY: Welcome back to Camp Hyrule Kent.
NOA_ANDY: Let’s get right to the questions.
DIGIPEN89: For those interested in getting a job in NOA’s online department what kind of degree should they get in college?
NOA_KENT: It’s great to be here. (saves Children of Mana progress)
NOA_KENT: degree? Depends. I have a liberal arts degree.
NOA_KENT: I think that’s the basic background. We have an engineering person too
NOA_KENT: but they don’t do any engineering
NOA_KENT: I’m not sure what our designers studied
NOA_KENT: I’d say a good well rounded education, English, math, art, business …
NOA_KENT: and of course a minor in video game playing ….
NOA_KENT: next quest?
NOA_ANDY: OK …
LINK17000: What’s your favorite site that you’ve made?
NOA_KENT: that’s a tough one.
NOA_KENT: I enjoyed Mario Dance Dance Rev, I guess
NOA_KENT: it was a different kind of game, plus I got to work with some fun guys
NOA_KENT: the Animal-Crossing WW site was a lot of fun too. It’s always great to work with avid gamers. Next question?
KAYIN: Is the Elite Beat Agents song list very good?
NOA_KENT: the song list is still up in the air, not quite finalized.
NOA_KENT: But the songs they’re considering are very good. I, myself, am a huge fan of Walkie Talkie Man
NOA_KENT: But the important thing is …
NOA_KENT: the whole gameplay experience of EBA, which is totally innovative. It’s not a conventional music game in any sense at all. If you focus just on the songs, you lose sight of just how cool and different this game is.
NOA_KENT: Next question?
THEFIRESTORM: What programs do you use to create the websites for Nintendo? (Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, etc.)
NOA_KENT: I’m not a techie guy at all.
NOA_KENT: Typically we hire outside agencies that excel in t hese programs. Flash, PhotoShop, etc.
NOA_KENT: Myself, I pretty much just use Word. And I map out sites with Visio, which is good for flowcharts.
NOA_KENT: and we do lots of email of course!
NOA_KENT: next question?
RHINE: How long does it take you, on average, to complete a website?
NOA_KENT: that is a good question. I’d say, two months, start to finish?
NOA_KENT: There are a lot of variables, but for example, next week I kick off the Children of Mana website. And that site will be up by Oct 30, when the game is in stores.
NOA_KENT: Plus I’ll probably have what we call a ‘teaser site,’ something to whet your interest while we are working on the full site.
NOA_KENT: next question?
BLACKYOSHI78: Will Yoshi’s Island 2 play like the SNES classic, or is it going in a totally different direction on the DS?
NOA_KENT: It builds on the SNES game, which is good — it’s my all-time fave platformer.
NOA_KENT: However, it makes very brilliant use of the DS. For example, bosses that take up two screens!
NOA_KENT: The art style is very much like the original, which is all to the good, in my book.
NOA_KENT: the big innovation is that you get to ‘use
NOA_KENT: whoops. le’t’s say work with Baby Mario, Baby Dk, Baby Peach, etc
NOA_KENT: they give you special powers.
NOA_KENT: next question?
MISTERINVIZ: Do you work closely with the game developers on the sites you create, or is it mostly just done within the marketing department?
NOA_KENT: depends on the game. For example, right now I am working on Mario vs DK 2: March of the Minis. The developres are right across the street!
NOA_KENT: So last week, I went over and got sounds from the composer/sound guy. I complimented him on his work — it’s one of the most original scores I’ve heard for a Mario game. Jazzy stuff, etc
NOA_KENT: but other games are developed in Japan, which poses language and distance challenges. I typically work with a group here, the Treehouse, that works directly with the developers.
NOA_KENT: next q?
ACE_OF_BLADES: What was the first website you made for a Nintendo game?
NOA_KENT: I can’t remember, honestly. maybe, Jet Force Gemini for the N64?
NOA_KENT: still one of my fave games. I hope it’s on the Virtual Console.
NOA_KENT: next q?
TORCH665: Hey Kent, first I’d like to say thanks for taking some time off to talk to us today. Second, my question is, describe a typical day at your job.
NOA_KENT: well, like today, first thing is I picked up a preproduction copy of Children of Mana. It’s important to play a game thoroughly so I know it in and out.
NOA_KENT: then, I got some designs from the agency working on the Mario vs DK 2 website. And I will look at them and work with my design director to provide feedback to the agency.
NOA_KENT: and, since I am just starting Elite Beat Agents and Yoshi’s websites, I am talking with the design leads on those games.
NOA_KENT: The design leads helps give direction to the agency on how the site should look, what fonts to use, etc.
NOA_KENT: a lot of details in this job. something as seemingly little as a font selection can make a big difference in a site.
NOA_KENT: plus, I ready about the industry and other games online. Gives me a feeling for trends, etc.
NOA_KENT: next q?
KINOPIO: What can we expect from the Elite Beat Agents website? I really loved Ouendan, and I can’t wait to see what happens with this version of the game. Do you know when we could see a teaser site for the title?
NOA_KENT: I would really really love to get a teaser up next month. You are right, Kinopio, this game will be very cool. I really want to get the word out early because it is so different.
NOA_KENT: BTW you should check your DS Downnload stations. I believe a demo will be in there, possibly in a month.
NOA_KENT: but, back to EBA, it has great characters, great energy, a great storyline. Communicating that will be a challenge though because it’s such an unusual game. But challenges like that are what makes this job fun.
NOA_KENT: plus, it really helps that I really luv the game!
NOA_KENT: next q?
KAKASHI_THE_COPY_NINJA: What was the hardest website for a Nintendo game that you had to design?
NOA_KENT: I’d have to say DK Jungle Beat. In which you controlled DK useing the bongos
NOA_KENT: the problem was the site didn’t capture the energy of the game, so we had to practically redo it the week before the game launched.
NOA_KENT: I did Donkey Konga 2 with an agency in Los Angeles. Working with an agency that far away is tough. I just prefer working with local agencies, because then they can come in and talk, and it builds great rapport, which is very important in this line of work.
NOA_KENT: next q?
SIRVENOM: Is a college degree really required for a job at NOA? What if instead the subject was good at what he did without college?
NOA_KENT: I couldn’t say absolutely, because you could work in the Call Center without a degree, I think. Plus of course there are many non-video related jobs here. Every business has security, right?
NOA_KENT: but on our end, I would say a degree def. helps.
NOA_KENT: my degree was in philosphy! Which obviously doesn’t come into play too much, although it helps me look at things differently, which is a big help in a creative job like this. Also, it helped with my writing.
NOA_KENT: next q?
GMNINTENDO: I was wondering what does it take to design a gaming website, for instance such as a DS game where you would use the stylus to control it, do you have to be as innovative with the website to match whole feel of the game itself?
NOA_KENT: yes, GMNintendo, we ask that same question of ourselves a lot.
NOA_KENT: If you look at the WarioWare: Touched! website, you’ll see one clever solution we came up with.
NOA_KENT: in which your cursor becomes a stylus
NOA_KENT: but communicating that ‘touch’ feel on the web is very difficult and always a challenge for us
NOA_KENT: next q?
BUSTER83: Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2. Online map-sharing. Any integration with that into the website? Any chance of a featured-map, or something like that?
NOA_KENT: for technical reasons it wouldn’t be on mariovsdk.com (which is now a teaser site for the game, BTW)
NOA_KENT: but the game will def. be highlighted on Nintendowifi.com
NOA_KENT: We are still working on good ways to promote this feature. You can only share maps with people on your Friends list, so we have to take that into consideration
NOA_KENT: next q?
CHAINCHOMPMASTA30: About Yoshi’s Island 2. Will the game utilize the Touch Screen as in touch control or will it just be used to show the game on two screens?
NOA_KENT: Only a few levels are done and playable (at least on my version)
NOA_KENT: but so far, it’s mostly a D-pad game
NOA_KENT: I need to play it more before I give you a definiitive answer, but I think it will be mostly D-pad, not so much touch control
NOA_KENT: next q?
NOA_ANDY: We have time for one more question …
METROIDHUNTER777: Whats your favorite part about your job
NOA_KENT: cool
NOA_KENT: well, I really like the people I work with. We have a very good relationship
NOA_KENT: everyone here is very hard working and very creative and, perhaps most importantly, has a great sense of humor!
NOA_KENT: It helps to be able to laugh at yourself when you’re talking about video games/
NOA_ANDY: Kent, thanks a lot for stopping by Camp Hyrule 2006. Before you return to NOA, be sure to stop by the decompression chamber. And watch out for the Space Viruses.
NOA_KENT: thanks, the Viruses ate me up when I played earlier, maybe now I will have more luck!
NOA_KENT: thanks everyone!
NOA_ANDY: Adios, everyone, and thanks for participating!