[thesimpsons1022]

but what makes the game more fun? from what i've seen, most people agree that Nintendo games are some of the most fun consistently and yet they use this process. Meanwhile there have been many disasters like no mans sky that have been built iteratively.

[setr]

No man's sky would have been a bad game by either development practice; it's failure primarily stems from a misunderstanding of game design

The game was fundamentally shallow

[ThomPete]

While I agree on that I think the point of the parent was that No Man's Sky would never have been created if it was designer first.

[cobalt]

well a lot of people may realize they don't really have a design, but will think that they can build one up as they work

[Tiktaalik]

Nintendo is an iterative developer. They prototype everything and they don't start on any final art or narrative development until the gameplay fundamentals are solid.

For example the Iwata Asks interview with the Splatoon team mentions that the early prototypes for the title were just experiments where boxes were running around in a box world shooting colours at one another. Once that was fun and the controls felt good they figured out everything else about what the game was going to be.

[mysterydip]

I would say it's a mix of the two. "Find the fun first" is the advice being sent around now in indiedev circles. Prototype your core game loop ("whiteboxing" it as mentioned below) and mess with it until you have something fun and replayable. After you have that, now start into a more designed approach for levels and menus and GUI, etc.

[Volt]

Make no mistake though—Nintendo doesn't use that process exclusively. They also experiment, prototype, and refine.

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/splatoon/0/0