Nintendo Veteran Reveals Harsh Working Conditions, What It Was Like Working With Miyamoto

Nintendo has been around for a long time and has been an intricate part of many childhoods. Because of that, some of us when dreaming of working in the gaming industry often times looked towards the Big N as the end all, be all job to have. Apparently, that's not the case - at least according to Nintendo veteran Giles Goddard.

Goddard recently sat down with Eurogamer to talk about what it was like living the 90s dream. Goddard was one of the teenagers from London to relocate to the Kyroto headquarters for the company to work on huge hits for the company such as Star Fox and The Legend of Zelda. By the time these teens joined up with the company, Nintendo had already established themselves as a well-known brand, one that was in almost every home. Seemed like a dream to work there, until they actually worked there.

"It's such a clinical, rigid way of working," described Goddard. "It amazes me they get so much creativity out of that place, with Zelda and Mario. You go there and it's white, it's clinical cubicles and bells ringing for lunch and for going home. How they get any creativity out of that place is beyond me, but they do it." He also mentioned that the incredibly long hours in what felt like a factory made the workday almost unbearable at times.

"You work your arse off and go home at 11pm at night, then go home and sleep a few hours. And we refused to do that. At the end of Star Fox, when we were working really stupid hours, we thought we were being taken advantage of. We didn't see the bigger picture, that we're 19-year-old kids working with Miyamoto."

Like all places, it wasn't all bad and he seemed to really be fond of the phrase 'dicking,' "You couldn't dick around in the way you work, you could dick around with the things you did, making demos. You couldn't dick around with your timecard, being late and not working overtime. You can dick around with the things you're actually doing, and they encouraged that playfulness."

He also mentioned that working with the likes of Miyamoto, Eguchi, and Watanabe was "great" and that working with such talented people was incredible despite an "old school" culture.

You can read more about the Goddard's interview and what he liked and didn't like about working with the Big N right here!