GO3 Conference: Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Tetsuya Mizuguchi led the audience through the development of his game development career, sharing the inspirations and experiences which provided the fuel for his game development vision and creativity.
Tetsuya started his career with the production of Sega Rally Championship, an arcade game I remember playing during the late nineties here in Australia. Sega Rally Championship was released in 1995, and it was around this same time that Tetsuya attended a rave dance party.
As the colored lasers, lights and fog played over the seething mass of dancers, Tetsuya was reminded of his education in media aesthetics, particularly his studies of synesthesia. He felt he had to communicate and share this new experience through an interactive computer game. The end result was the cult classic, Rez, which combined simple gameplay mechanics with psychedelics layered visuals and hypnotic, thumping techno music.
Tetsuya had a similar vision after seeing (and enjoying) the musical Stomp. Tetsuya wanted to communicate and share the percussive energy he felt, and the dancing experience, through a computer game. This was the inspiration for his cult classic, Space Channel 5.
As Tetsuya described these games, it became obvious that high production values, and the desire to entertain and amuse other human beings was the driving motive behind his creations. He spoke several times about ‘creating fun’ and even describe how he analyzed and broke down the Stomp musical, to determine which components of the experience created the enjoyment he felt. These games sit in stark contrast to his latest game, 99 Nights, a game about war between humans and goblins.
99 Nights takes the player on a thrilling, visceral ‘kill kill kill’ experience. Part way through the game, after the game player has finished their killing spree, Tetsuya turns on the player, making them consider their actions from the point of view of view of the Goblins. The cinematic sequence depicting this is quite emotive, and it became obvious that Tetsuya is now interested in drawing a darker, subdued, yet thought provoking experience from the player. His inspiration for this game? The world around us… today.