Chris Kohler conducted a fascinating interview with Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi, in which Koizumi revealed the reason for the increase in storyline complexity through Mario (and Zelda) games: himself. He takes a different approach to storytelling in his games from the Miyamoto method, which he describes as providing "a goal" for action and not a narrative. "There's not necessarily a buildup and a resolution of a deeper kind, like you'd find in a novel. It's just a situation that motivates the players." Koizumi's interest in narrative, as contrasted with Miyamoto's sensibilities, has caused him to have to integrate story in unusual, yet organic ways, like the storybook-style presentation of Super Mario Galaxy.He got his start writing game narrative in a rather roundabout way: by writing instruction manuals. In the era of his first game (Link's Awakening), game developers didn't necessarily feel the need to motivate everything, leading explanations up to the people writing the manual. With no existing story in place, "...I ended up making an entire story to go along with the game. The dream, the island, that was all mine."
We won't quote too much of it, because you should really go read the whole thing. Game developers are rarely this candid, and nobody ever talks this much about working day-to-day with Shigeru Miyamoto.
