It’s fantastic how well the N64-controller suited Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And the triggers on the 360-controller works really well for shooting in FPS and for stepping on the gas driving games.
It’s by no means a coincidence and you can always look at a controller and see how it’s meant to be used.
But what if that wasn’t the case?
To be able to properly answer the question if a good designer can design any type of game, I’d like to have a look at the two important parts to that question:
“What is a ‘good designer’” and “what is ‘any type of game’”.
Concerning the former, I think EA’s Gordon Walton hit the nail on the head with his GDC 2009 talk, where he stated a good designer should bring the following to a team (short version):
Arcade
Arshak Ardeshir
Gustav Ziolkowski
Severin Brettmeister
Andre Beccu
