Interviews// SPOnG Interview: Tetsuya Mizuguchi

SPOnG: Since leaving Sega and setting up Q Entertainment three years ago, are you happier running your own company?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: I love Sega still, but I changed a lot. I was in Sega for thirteen years. I changed and Sega changed a lot to. I started my career from Sega, I made Sega Rally and I learned how to make and produce games and I challenged with a new area, with Rez and with Space Channel 5 and in my mind a new passion was coming… I wanted to make entertainment using music and not only game consoles… I want to watch the whole media and the whole market. So I needed the new freedom.

When I was in Sega and I would have a new idea and I would try to make a presentation to the board members they would just say, ‘No, we don’t need that’ and that was that, over. But now I can talk with any people I like, any countries, any market, any media…So that’s very healthy… very healthy.

SPOnG: At your talk at the Develop Conference in Brighton last year, your keynote speech was entitled ‘inspiration-led creativity’ where you talked about game design being like ‘a sponge’ – what did you mean by this?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: I’m always watching the media – ‘the game as media’ – where ‘the game’ is a kind of metaphor and a symbol… the media always exists on an extension line of human being’s senses. So you have a TV and a phone, for example, which you use with your eyes and ears. Media is an extension of basic human wants and desires, which constantly pushes technology. A game also should be designed according to human wants and basic instincts.

‘The game’ is pretty unique and very different from the TV or music or movies and so on, because it’s always changing, having new visual, sound and connectivity technology to make use of. That’s what I meant by ‘the sponge’ – sucking in everything from around us.

SPOnG: You also mentioned that developers should always remember the original spark of inspiration which gave them the original idea for a game. You mentioned that dance culture and Kandinsky and so on were the inspiration behind Rez, with Lumines it was the idea of using the PSP as a ‘visual walkman’ …

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: An interactive walkman, yes…

SPOnG: What was the initial spark for Every Extend Extra?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: So, in this project, I’m really executive producer, which means I watch the project from the back seat and young talent …’the new generation’ are making the game. I don’t talk too much and say ‘you should do this or that’ instead I watch a lot and try to say ‘yes, you can do that, you can do this’.

SPOnG: The guy who originally made the free PC download of Every Extend – which is how the game started out – is on the team. What was his role?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: The game’s director found Every Extend and asked me if he could remake the game for PSP using ‘Q-flavour’ – so he contacted the original Every Extend guy who was a pretty young student, who was happy for us to develop his idea and game.

SPOnG: What is this ‘Q-flavour’? What did Q add?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: We have a very young, very fresh team. The game is very simple. The most important thing we have added is bringing together the sound effects with the music – which were separate in the original PC game. So in Every Extend Extra sound effects can make music. Like Rez

SPOnG: The game is clearly going to appeal to fans of shoot-em-ups, but do you think it will have a wider appeal, as with Lumines which appealed to lots of non-gamers… my wife, for example who is obsessed with the game…

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: I think so and I hope so, yes. It’s very simple so anybody can play it.