Want to Create a Game and Have Nintendo Publish It? Good Luck.

Nintendo is the biggest video game company in Japan, though not the largest in the world (they once were). It’s Nintendo’s proprietary hardware and their exclusivity that makes them stand out from everyone else. There have been a number of developers trying to pitch games to Nintendo for their platforms. While they have been successful in some degree, others have not.

The Nintendo Developer Portal is the only program available, even to indie developers, for getting their games onto their platforms. What adds to the challenge is requiring a contract in order to publish games. Is it possible to pitch to Nintendo? What do their executives have to say on this?

For starters, Nintendo has rarely published games made by independent developers, especially if it’s a game based on a huge Nintendo property such as Super Mario or The Legend of Zelda. If you try publishing the traditional way without going through them, you will just get stomped by their legal team. You have to do it legitimately, and have to know their limits.

These games must always be Nintendo exclusives, and Nintendo would almost always own the rights to your product, even though you created it. Whenever Nintendo contacts a third-party to work on a project, they will be required to sign an acknowledgement that the project would be a work made for hire, meaning Nintendo, and not you, becomes the legal author.

How do the gears for an indie-developed Nintendo game crank? Game development is generally broken down into six phases:

1. Development of your game typically begins with the pitching phase. In this phase, you or your team brainstorm and propose ideas and concepts for a new game. Nintendo conducts market research and has their producers review the project proposal. The project proposal includes information such as a game’s core elements, key differentiators and strengths of the game, development scale, target market and sales, and external IP holders and licensors.
2. If Nintendo approves the project proposal, your project enters the prototyping phase. During this phase, you must produce a playable prototype of the game to assess the core fun and competitiveness elements to assess the possibility of success. There is a high chance your project will fail at this phase.
3. If Nintendo approves the kickoff of the project, your project enters the pre-production phase. During this phase, you or your team identifies the direction of the game, set quantitative targets and development plans, and plans distribution and servicing. Afterward, the completed playable version of your project undergoes testing. The prototyping and pre-production phases usually take six months to one year.
4. If your project passes the tests and Nintendo approves the project, it enters the production or development phase, which generally takes one or more years. In this phase, you or your team must integrate the various elements and modifications based on feedback from milestone reviews. You and Nintendo must conduct three playtests in order to ensure the game can be a high-quality product that can be enjoyed by millions of players. This includes the in-house alpha tests, focus group tests, and beta tests.
5. If your project passes the in-house alpha test and Nintendo approves the project, it enters the post-production phase, where external tests are conducted to correct errors and evaluate gaming conditions to increase the performance of your project. Additionally, Nintendo drafts marketing plans, business projection reports, and content update reports.
6. Upon Nintendo’s approval, your game is launched to the public.

During the first half of the development cycle, both you and Nintendo must invest enormous amounts of time and resources, as well as the creative talent of designers, programmers, artists, and composers. It is rare to find a person with all that talent.

What adds to the challenge for success is the degree of creativity of your project. Your idea and vision for your project must be unique, and Nintendo will not publish prototypes that are mere copies of an existing project. When it comes time to pitch your project to Nintendo, where do you go? While it may be worthwhile to actually visit Nintendo of America (if you live in North America), you won’t always be guaranteed an appointment. What I’m talking about is visiting a Nintendo booth at a convention. They will become a great way to talk with Nintendo executives and show them your pitch. If you’re lucky enough, either Doug Bowser or Shigeru Miyamoto may be there!