I’m Yamashita from the Entertainment Analysis and Development Division (EAD). I worked as the director for the Mii Contest Channel.

The Mii Contest Channel was born from a project where we wanted to make a Channel that utilises Miis. We had many ideas, but had trouble finding a way to bring them together. With a useful hint from (Shigeru) Miyamoto-san on constructing a Channel based on contests, however, we were able to round up our ideas and move into the development stage.

Until that time, the project had been regulated to a small number of staff. Also, although EAD had worked on projects utilising a network – projects like Animal Crossing: Wild World and Mario Kart DS – we hadn’t had any experience working on projects that required collecting or processing data on a server.

At that point, we turned to the Network Development Department to build the required server system. But, when I told Koyama-san what we were looking for, a troubled expression came over his face. I asked him if what I was asking was possible, but all he could muster was “Yes, but...” (laughs)

I suppose we hadn’t considered all the ramifications! (laughs) The Everybody Votes Channel was already up and running at that time, so with that success under our belt and with network experts on our side, I thought we would be alright. Because the Mii Contest Channel would have two areas, the Posting Plaza and the Contest Plaza, I thought we could get by with twice the labour required for the Everybody Votes Channel. Sounds simple, right?

While Koyama-san and his team were working hard on the core parts of the project, we just kept coming up with more and more ideas...asking them to make it possible for Wii Friends to sponsor user Contests or for users to ask more talented Mii Artisans to make Miis for them...

I couldn’t relax if I wasn’t coming up with new ideas. We had tried some play-testing with about 30 people, but with few participants and few Miis, the Posting Plaza lacked excitement.

I was really worried about how many users we could expect once the service began in November.

This is something you just can’t achieve with normal games, and the people at EAD were ecstatic. Though I’m sure Koyama-san and his team were biting their nails! (laughs)

Originally, we decided to count the project a success if one to two percent of the users that downloaded the Mii Contest Channel became a Mii Artisan and created and posted their own Miis.

Before the project began, we were worried about what we would do if we couldn’t fill all the spots in the Top 50. We thought we wouldn’t be able to fill 100 spots. (laughs)

She turned out to be a very popular Mii. (laughs) I thought she wouldn’t last long online, but she managed to stay in the Top 50 for a while after the service went live.

Although the Posting Plaza was originally made for users to find and import Miis they like, there were some concerns that if the Plaza was overrun with truly exceptional Miis, users would become mere Mii watchers and be too intimidated to post their own. It appears, however, that users are testing their ability to create original Miis after being inspired by the work of others. It also helps that designing Miis is so easy and that it takes as little as five minutes.

Once we went live, however, we discovered that many users wanted to refresh entries on a scale of hours rather than days. So, considering also the sheer number of Miis being posted, I asked Koyama-san to change the system to refresh every several hours shortly after we went live.

Changing a program after release is something that never happens when making a regular game. I remember Koyama-san telling me after the service went live that the real work was just beginning.

We incorporated several options to readily locate interesting Miis. Today’s Top Miis provides access to Miis that are currently popular, while Top 50 calls up the fifty most popular Miis to date. The Pot Luck option appears to call up Miis at random, but it actually mixes randomly chosen Miis with recently-posted Miis. During the early stages of development, we had separated these functions into two distinct options called “Rare Finds” and “Upcoming Miis”. We decided, however, to combine them into one option and keep the number of buttons to a manageable number.

I was also glad that we enabled users to display their national flag on their Mii Artisan profile. Making it possible for users to find out who was making the outlandish creations they see in the Channel might bring them into contact with people from countries about which they know very little...making them feel even more connected with people around the world.

Actually, we wanted users to be able to use nicknames when posting Miis rather than initials. They could use it for fun things like making a one-word commentary on their creation. Enabling users to write whatever they wanted, however, could lead to various problems like people using names of friends they have in real life, or revealing other personal information. That’s why we decided to use initials instead. If it weren’t for the change from nicknames to initals, though, we would never have thought to add the Call Friends option.

This makes it convenient, for example, to move Miis around and compare them in the Call Friends option. If users want to learn more about picking up Miis, they can find information by selecting the Help button.

We originally planned to use Nintendo staff members as the only judges, but we thought users might feel more included and find it more entertaining if they were allowed to judge each others’ entries.

Despite the fact that the Mii Contest Channel has just started, I’m thankful for the multitude of truly unique Miis and I am truly impressed by the creativity of our users. By placing the cursor over a Mii and pressing the A Button, you can rotate a Mii and view it from all angles...which can lead to some interesting discoveries. (laughs)

That’s why all of us are so excited to work on more games that utilise Miis.

I’d like to work on a game like that too! (laughs)