Tetsuya Mizuguchi on Rez HD, Game Design, the Future

Gamasutra has an interesting (if spotty at points) article up with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man behind Rez and Lumines (Lumines Live! is one of those games I have to be careful about playing, since I find it oh—so—hard to put it down), talking about proper vibrator placement while playing Rez, the future of Dadaist games, and emotional depth in games:

I think most dramatic and thematic games exist, and it’s really hard. This is for an example: it’s really hard to cry if you play a game. You can cry when you watch movies. I have, and everyone has that kind of experience. This is an emotional movement, very strong. But we can’t cry when we play a game. This is a different catharsis. This is a physical reason. This is like a basic instinct. I think the game is designed as an experience. It’s designed as a catharsis experience.

You have some accomplishments all the time, but accomplishment is a very strong keyword. It’s a very strong factor of the game. I think in our 40 year history, we may [continually]redesign this, maybe. But in the last five years, you can get the resolution. This kind of resolution makes you have a very effective emotional possibility, with music, effects, hi-def movie effects. I think there can be growing, growing, and growing. There’s some games coming in that class.

Well worth a read through, though be prepared for more talk from the interviewer than usually shows up in interviews.

Expressing The Future: Tetsuya Mizuguchi [Gamasutra]