In a recent livestream commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Arcade Archives series by Hamster Corporation, Masahiro Sakurai, the creator behind Kirby and director of the Super Smash Bros series, he shared an interesting insight into his game development process.
Image via Nintendo
Why Smash Bros Director Skipped Dolby Surround for a Kirby Game
During the livestream, Sakurai recounted a tough call he made regarding Dolby Surround in one of his games. He explained that he opted out of including Dolby Surround due to the extra loading time it added for players (via VGC).
Sakurai's decision stemmed from his commitment to minimizing players' waiting time and thereby ensuring players could dive straight into the action.
He expressed concern over the disparity between the swift transition between arcade machines and the delayed start-up of Archive Arcade games and the frustration of navigating through layers of loading screens in modern games. He emphasized the need for a more fluid and instantaneous gaming experience.
Sakurai pondered why players cannot switch games instantly at Archive Arcade as they do at traditional arcades. Instead of instantly diving into a game after inserting a coin, players have to go through a series of steps: clicking an icon, waiting for the logo, reading the title, checking the instructions screen, enduring the loading time, and only then reaching the main screen to start playing.
Sakurai revealed that his commitment to optimizing player experience led him to forego including Dolby Surround in one of his games.
"I feel very sorry for making the user wait," Sakurai expressed (translation by Automaton). "If you take one second from each user, that means you'll be taking 10,000 seconds from 10,000 people. The more this repeats over the years, the more time you will cause players to lose."
This brings us to the question: What's considered an acceptable duration for a loading screen?
Users on the r/gamedev subreddit discussed this topic, sharing their opinions on how long loading screens should last in modern games. One user noted that frequent long loading screens, such as when loading a saved game, are undesirable. However, they mentioned that longer loading times might be acceptable for tasks like generating procedural worlds at the start of a new game.
Another user expressed frustration with long loading times, suggesting that a 2-minute wait to save is excessive, especially considering the risk of a corrupted save due to crashes.
Is There a New Kirby Game Coming?
Meanwhile, while there is no official word on a new Kirby game in 2024, fans can still enjoy recent Nintendo titles like "Kirby and the Forgotten Land," "Kirby's Dream Buffet" and "Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe."
