The celebratory special finale episode of Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games is now live on YouTube. During this video, Sakurai discusses the creation process of his YouTube channel over the past two years.
Needless to say, some interesting tidbits were unveiled throughout the broadcast. In particular, Sakurai revealed that he was tasked with the creation of a new game proposal befores the releases of the Kazuya Mishima DLC and Sora DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
“It was around July 2021. I was busy working on the DLC of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” declared Sakurai. “To be precise, I was putting together the video for ‘Mr. Sakurai Presents Kazuya.’ Sora was in development too, of course. While I was busy working on those tasks, I received a request to write a game proposal, which I finished at lightning speed.”
“While I was busy working on those tasks, I received a request to write a game proposal, which I finished at lightning speed.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Of course, this video was never intended to feature a reveal trailer or anything like that. As such, Sakurai was expectedly a little muff on the details of what was detailed within this mysterious game proposal.
Regardless, Sakurai ended up implying that the game was still in development at this point. Additionally, it might not be too much longer before it actually gets announced.
“I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later,” continued Sakurai.
“Then, in late October of 2021, Sora was released, and my work commitments were more or less wrapped up. There was, of course, that new game proposal I had written. I’d been given the OK to move forward, but it was going to take some time to assemble the right team. The target timeframe was April 2022.”
“There was, of course, that new game proposal I had written. I’d been given the OK to move forward, but it was going to take some time to assemble the right team. The target timeframe was April 2022.” — Masahiro Sakurai
This ended up being a unique situation for Sakurai as he was used to going directly from one job to the next. However, Sakurai actually had a few months of spare time before development on his next project would truly begin.
Sakurai apparently considered a few different options such as taking a trip or actually taking the time to “recharge.” Of course, Sakurai concluded that this was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for him, so he ultimately decided to plan out the creation of his new YouTube channel that was directed at teaching game development.
It may sound crazy, but Sakurai revealed during this special finale episode that he’s actually been overseeing the development of this secret game project and managing his YouTube channel since April 2022. Needless to say, the experience has left him with very little free time.
Still, Sakurai made sure to prepare as much as he could before the start of the mysterious game’s development. He indicates that it would be completely unrealistic to write the scripts and record himself while also overseeing a new game’s development process.
“As for why I wrote all the scripts at the start, it’s because I would never have been able to work on both the channel and a game at the same time.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“As for why I wrote all the scripts at the start, it’s because I would never have been able to work on both the channel and a game at the same time,” stated Sakurai. “If game development didn’t take so much time out of my day, or if either the game or channel were smaller in scale, it might’ve been possible — but that wasn’t the case.”
From this, Sakurai effectively told us that this was yet another massive game that he was working on. Of course, this isn’t too surprising considering that he’s been working on it since April 2022 and we’ve yet to receive an official announcement about it.
“If nothing else, I knew that for a director who produces games on the scale that I do, it would be a tall order to manage two projects at once,” continued Sakurai. “In order to increase my chances of success, I absolutely had to plan all the content in advance.”
When August 2022 rolled around, Sakurai’s YouTube channel was launched. Those that knew Sakurai was acting as a game director for a big game were surprised that Sakurai was also overseeing this channel.
“At the time, people were surprised to see an active game director starting up a channel of this scale. The game project I’ve mentioned had already started production, so as I’d prepare for, I had to work both ventures at once.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“At the time, people were surprised to see an active game director starting up a channel of this scale,” declared Sakurai. “The game project I’ve mentioned had already started production, so as I’d prepare for, I had to work both ventures at once.”
Needless to say, Sakurai lived a very busy schedule for the next two years. Essentially, Sakurai had to manage both his secret game project and YouTube channel at the same time.
“Now, I’d like to share with you what a typical day looks like for me,” stated Sakurai. “At around 8 a.m., I get out of bed, and immediately write a daily report to my game development’s team. At times, I’ll also catch up on checks that came in the night before. I eat breakfast, get ready for the day, then start working on my game project.”
Sakurai then continues to emphasize just how busy he usually is. Indeed, he even notes that he doesn’t even have time to take breaks.
“In any case, I don’t have time during the day to work on the YouTube channel, so I focus exclusively on my game project,” continued Sakurai. “If I can get everything done on time, I finish at 6:30 p.m. I try not to go too far over that since I have channel work to do as well, but I always finish my necessary tasks for the day before clocking out.”
From there, Sakurai notes that he’d effectively work on his YouTube channel starting at 8 p.m. If he had any spare time after working on his YouTube channel for the night, he’d either play games or exercise.
He’d do this until he retired to bed between 1 and 2 a.m. He also notes that he would typically get about six hours of sleep each night with this routine.
In total, 260 videos have aired on Sakurai’s channel. It’s mentioned in this latest video that it typically took about three months to create a video from start to finish. Even though these videos were intended to be bite-sized, they required a lot of effort.
Now, it’s worth noting that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s initial development period spanned from February 2016 and lasted until December 7, 2018, when the game launched. That’s not even including the post-launch development of DLC fighters. At this point, Sakurai’s new game project has been in development since around the same amount of time, but it hasn’t even been announced yet.
More than likely, Sakurai was tasked with creating a new game for the successor to the Nintendo Switch, similar to how he was tasked with creating a proposal for the new Super Smash Bros. entry for the Switch as post-launch development for Super Smash Bros. 4 (Corrin and Bayonetta specifically) was wrapping up.
Just earlier this year, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed that the Switch successor is slated to be announced within this fiscal year, which ends on April 1, 2025. As such, it seems likely that Sakurai’s new game project will be announced around then as well.
Whether or not this new title is a new entry in the Super Smash Bros. series or something else entirely (similar to how Sakurai was able to create Kid Icarus: Uprising between developing Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4) is something that we’ll have to find out when the game is finally revealed.