Mizuguchi Interview - Call for Questions

T

tetsuoxb

Member
So I have finalized arrangements to interview Mizuguchi at the Lumines sponsored Mondo Grosso club event this coming weekend in Osaka.

I already have more questions that I can probably ask, but I wanted to open everything up and see if anyone on GAF has questions for him.

If it is an obvious question - Like will lumines come out in the US, was rez the best game ever, do you hate SEGA, etc.... dont bother posting. Im looking for original, thoughtful questions that will get a long thoughtful response from Mizuguchi.

No promises that your question will be asked, but I will indeed toss the best ones into the list of questions I take with me.
 
Who are his favorite music artists and what's his favorite songs/mixes/albums at the moment?

-Reason I ask is this guy is obviously a big electronic music fan and his games have had some excellent soundtracks (if you're into that), so it'll be cool to hear what music he's into.
 
Ask him if he's thought about making games with great music and all that crap he likes, only with more traditional graphics so they might actually have a chance to sell.

Only you should probably phrase it differently.
 
Although music has been a big part of your games, you've strayed away from creating something that is an out and out Bemani style game. Is this a deliberate move? Is the notion of making a Bemani game something you'd consider?
 
DCharlie said:
Although music has been a big part of your games, you've strayed away from creating something that is an out and out Bemani style game. Is this a deliberate move? Is the notion of making a Bemani game something you'd consider?
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Ill ask that...
 
Ill post when it is up... probably sometime next week.

EDIT: Should have mentioned it is going to be posted on Tokyopia.
 
tetsuoxb said:
If it is an obvious question - (...) was rez the best game ever (...) dont bother posting.
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How is that an obvious question? That's a rather wasteful question, if you ask me.

tetsuoxb said:
Ill ask that... now quit replying here and reply to my email!!!
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What?

Anyway, best of luck with the interview. Hope it goes well.
 
Wario64 said:
After Meteos, will he continue making games for portables or consoles
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He shouldn't waste a question on this one since it's already been stated that his new studio was designed to put out 3-4 lower priced portable games a year. So I think it's safe to say he'll be making more portable games after Meteos.
 
Just so everyone knows, this interview will be appearing on Tokyopia. It is an edit I made further up in the thread.

Second, Bebpo - The interviews where he has said 3-4 games a year doesnt really infer portable, although he has talked about them as being low budget easy to play collaborative games with people outside the industry.... which I agree lends itself to portable games. Maybe the better question is whether he plans to return to consoles - which had I already planned to ask.
 
tetsuoxb said:
Just so everyone knows, this interview will be appearing on Tokyopia. It is an edit I made further up in the thread.

Second, Bebpo - The interviews where he has said 3-4 games a year doesnt really infer portable, although he has talked about them as being low budget easy to play collaborative games with people outside the industry.... which I agree lends itself to portable games. Maybe the better question is whether he plans to return to consoles - which had I already planned to ask.
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Oh actually it DOES refer to portables. If you check Q Entertainment's site, you'll see that they're dedicated to DS and PSP gaming specifically. I agree the question is a waste of time as he's already said he's already planning something new for the PSP. What I'm more interested in knowing is if in retrospect he feels that Lumines Versus mode should have had a continue function because it's SO FUCKING RANDOMLY HARD! :D
 
duckroll said:
Oh actually it DOES refer to portables. If you check Q Entertainment's site, you'll see that they're dedicated to DS and PSP gaming specifically. I agree the question is a waste of time as he's already said he's already planning something new for the PSP. What I'm more interested in knowing is if in retrospect he feels that Lumines Versus mode should have had a continue function because it's SO FUCKING RANDOMLY HARD! :D
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The Q site, under what is Q, says Game Consoles, PC Broadband, and Mobile. So it isnt really clear.

I agree with you on the versus mode thing...id love for a continue... but I kinda see the point in that the earlier levels do make a good warm up for the last 5 or so guys.
 
Bebpo said:
it's already been stated that his new studio was designed to put out 3-4 lower priced portable games a year.
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That's the intent for the ((qb)) label, not Q itself.

Man, I could type ((qb)) all day.
 
Is he planning on making a sequel for Lumines?

Oh and will Lumines come out in NA? ;)
 
I'm just curious if it can transcend the mediocrity of those artists. I could see Rez being interesting if it was stripped down, and IIRC the Rockafeller Skank had an interesting staccato rhythm. Although I might be thinking of a Lionrock track instead.

edit, I was thinking of something else. Rockafeller Skank was that "Funk Soul Brother" track. I was thinking of the one with the exploding furniture video.
 
It was a good demonstration of the audio layering, that much is true.

They should have used Underneath The Radar, though.

edit: You know, I'm trying to remember how any of the licensed tracks from the prototype footage sounded and I can't - I thought that Cowgirl was on there, but it wasn't. All I can remember is working late one night and getting an email from a colleague reading "Remember how you always imagined games were going to look in the future before you got to the future and found that they all looked like shit?"
 
I want you to ask him the most important question of all:

"When will you make a worthy follow up to the original Sega Rally Championship?"

Obviously, it's not going to be a Sega Rally game, but just a racing game that is as good as the first SRC and keeps that perfect arcade flavour.
 
cmon guys! try harder! I know you can. Everything including the underworld/fatboyslim rez question is already on my list. :-)

The sega rally stuff is as well, since it is one of the first games in which he used lic. electronic music.
 
Here's one..

Ask whether or not he is interested in creating games that adapt to user-specified music, or whether he believes music selection is part of his artistic right to dictate.

You could phrase it somewhat better, but you get the idea. Specifically, you could ask about PSP.

If Lumines, for example, allowed custom music which the game pulled samples from and the sweeping line was controlled by a BPM analysis...you get the idea.
 
tetsuoxb said:
cmon guys! try harder! I know you can. Everything including the underworld/fatboyslim rez question is already on my list. :-)

The sega rally stuff is as well, since it is one of the first games in which he used lic. electronic music.
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My question was serious, despite the way I phrased it.

I want to know if he'd sacrifice some of his creative vision if it meant he could get some of his musical love across to a wider audience.
 
Ask him this:

If you had no limits on technology, budget, or time, and the greatest team of artists and programmers assembled on earth - describe what kind of game you would like to make?
 
Vibri said:
Ask him this:

If you had no limits on technology, budget, or time, and the greatest team of artists and programmers assembled on earth - describe what kind of game you would like to make?
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I already had that one on the list too! In fact, it was one of the first ones I wrote.

fugimax said:
Ask whether or not he is interested in creating games that adapt to user-specified music, or whether he believes music selection is part of his artistic right to dictate.

You could phrase it somewhat better, but you get the idea. Specifically, you could ask about PSP.

If Lumines, for example, allowed custom music which the game pulled samples from and the sweeping line was controlled by a BPM analysis...you get the idea.
Click to expand...

Ive been mulling over the same type of question and how to phrase it. You did a good job with phrasing it... so it will most likely be asked in a similar manner. The further question is if he had the chance to work with hardware that allows this easily (xbox, since it is unclear if PSP makes it easy enough with the unified bus architecture) would he pursue it.


Also, I dont know for sure if Mizuguchi is gay, and honestly I dont really care.... it is not a subject I would approach in an interview. However, I do think that the gay community in games is an important subject that I wish someone would find a way to discuss in a meaningful way. However, given the climate towards homosexuality in Japan, approaching Mizuguchi about this kind of thing would be at the very least incredibly embarassing to both of us. Homosocial logic (see Between Men by Eve Sedgwick- it is a buzzword in queer studies that has to do with how men compete with other men for women, and whether it is actually for the woman or for the esteem of the other man) has played an important part in games since the 8-bit era and I think an examination of the gay community within developers (who are so often stereotyped as big boob loving cromagnons with great computer skills) would be insightful and important. It is incredibly interesting to me how much homoeroticism coexists with heterosexual stereotypes inside games, and how much a primarily heterosexual audience (myself included) complicitly accepts and embraces these concepts while it is often rejected in other forms of media.
 
Q #1: What kind of music would he most want to integrate into his next project?
Q #2: How does he plan to use the DS and PSP's unique abillities to create games?

The last one seems a bit derivative, but I think that he would give it a thoughtful response.
 
tetsuoxb said:
I already had that one on the list too! In fact, it was one of the first ones I wrote.
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IMO that's not a very exciting question to ask, because it's so hypothetical and the answer likely is gonna be: I don't know or i haven't thought about it yet or it's a difficult question to answer or it's a secret. Well anyway that's just my opionion :)

What does he think about Revolution or the idea of alternative or unconventional control(ler)s in general, which would probably match some of his ideas pretty well.

What limits him (or his ideas) the most currently when it comes to hardware. Interface, graphics, processing power or sth. else?
 
1- How does he feels about the current state of the industry shunning niche titles over more popular, safe concepts? b) How does he feels about the sales of his niche titles in America
c) how many of his projects were cancelled because they were not marketable
 
You could also ask him how he selects the songs for his games. Are they just popular songs he puts in, or are there certain elements that he looks for in a song. Specificially, what aspects of music lend themselves to his games.

He seem to pick pretty much techno stuff, so I figure it's just a reflection of his tastes...but maybe it's deeper than that..
 
Q: How the heck to a beat my 70.000 high score?

:P

Seriously, ask him if he's gonna tone down the difficulty curve a little bit for the US/EU release.
 
tetsuoxb said:
So I have finalized arrangements to interview Mizuguchi at the Lumines sponsored Mondo Grosso club event this coming weekend in Osaka.

I already have more questions that I can probably ask, but I wanted to open everything up and see if anyone on GAF has questions for him.

If it is an obvious question - Like will lumines come out in the US, was rez the best game ever, do you hate SEGA, etc.... dont bother posting. Im looking for original, thoughtful questions that will get a long thoughtful response from Mizuguchi.

No promises that your question will be asked, but I will indeed toss the best ones into the list of questions I take with me.
Click to expand...

Hey, how did this turn out?


-rp
 
I'd want to know:

What he thinks of the industry,

Where he sees games going,

What console he likes

What he thinks of other games

What he has been playing and why

What he thinks the biggest changes in gaming have been

What he thinks of the Sega and the changes that have happened to it

What he thinks the differences between game companies around the world are

Whether he thinks Japanese gaming is stuck in a rut or not

What he thinks of the game industry in Japan

Why Rez didn't do all that well

Why he hasn't done another racer

Whether he misses the arcade scene

Why he thinks arcades died

etc.

This is all stuff I find the most interesting when reading an interview with any personality in the industry.
 
What were your inspirations when coming up with the designs to your games (Rez, Lumines and Meteos)?

Coming weekend right? Only a few days left... Hope he still catches this one... :)
 
Warm Machine said:
I'd want to know:

What he thinks of the industry,

....

etc.

This is all stuff I find the most interesting when reading an interview with any personality in the industry.
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He has answered all of those before...
 
Ask him why the japanese companies continue to produce games geared towards the japanese taste, if the games market itself is becoming more and more americanized? Is it a question of pride or business myopia?
 
bobafett said:
Ask him why the japanese companies continue to produce games to the japanese taste, if the games market itself is becoming more and more americanized? Is it a question of pride or business myopia?
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Good question, but poorly worded. I planned to ask a question similar to this....

A question of pride or business myopia translates roughly to are you an asshole or an idiot.
 
tetsuoxb said:
Good question, but poorly worded. I played to ask a question similar to this....

A question of pride or business myopia translates roughly to are you an asshole or an idiot.
Click to expand...

That's the point!
:D
 
I read once that when Miz set out to do Rez he didn't know yet he was about to create a shooter, he just wanted to find a way to bring the feelings he experiences at a rave party over to a videogame. In the end, as we all know, Rez (love) was designed as a simple trance-based on-rails shooter. I read that some time ago and I can't seem to track back the source, and I'd like to hear more about it, specifically about the choice of genre, the process of thought that lead him there. What other possibilities were considered, why the shooter thing was the final choice, etc. With some good thinking and rephrasing it may make for a helluva good question. Or maybe not. It's not suited for a quick battery of short questions, really. Anyway, if someone can tell me about it please do.

On the same vein, I'd like to hear about the genesis of Lumines. It's as music-intensive as Rez or SC5, but it's oh so tight. It's much more of a traditional game (well, it's a puzzler), regardless of its gorgeous looks or awesome music, okay. But basically I'd say it is a better game; brilliant, even, on several levels. Its pacing and learning curve are great (or what I've seen of them, I'm at 81k, I've had it for slightly over one day), and there are several layers of complexity that unfold as you progress. I think tetsuo himself has wrote something along those lines. So I'd like to know... hell, how on earth he managed to pull it off. On the first place, why a puzzler? Was it clear from the onset? A PSP is surely capable of much more. Then, is the concept entirely his own? Not only the game as a whole, but the gameplay itself. How did they come up with the squares thing (which is not a clone of any popular puzzler, as far as I know), and how did they manage to squeeze in so tight a gameplay?

Well, I'm afraid I'm not very clear. But it's a good thread, so thank you. Please publish whatever you finally get.

On a sidenote... This is a question to GAF: Is Lumines the first mainstream horizontal puzzler?
 
aerodynamik said:
I read once that when Miz set out to do Rez he didn't know yet he was about to create a shooter, he just wanted to find a way to bring the feelings he experiences at a rave party over to a videogame. In the end, as we all know, Rez (love) was designed as a simple trance-based on-rails shooter. I read that some time ago and I can't seem to track back the source, and I'd like to hear more about it, specifically about the choice of genre, the process of thought that lead him there. What other possibilities were considered, why the shooter thing was the final choice, etc. With some good thinking and rephrasing it may make for a helluva good question. Or maybe not. It's not suited for a quick battery of short questions, really. Anyway, if someone can tell me about it please do.

On the same vein, I'd like to hear about the genesis of Lumines. It's as music-intensive as Rez or SC5, but it's oh so tight. It's much more of a traditional game (well, it's a puzzler), regardless of its gorgeous looks or awesome music, okay. But basically I'd say it is a better game; brilliant, even, on several levels. Its pacing and learning curve are great (or what I've seen of them, I'm at 81k, I've had it for slightly over one day), and there are several layers of complexity that unfold as you progress. I think tetsuo himself has wrote something along those lines. So I'd like to know... hell, how on earth he managed to pull it off. On the first place, why a puzzler? Was it clear from the onset? A PSP is surely capable of much more. Then, is the concept entirely his own? Not only the game as a whole, but the gameplay itself. How did they come up with the squares thing (which is not a clone of any popular puzzler, as far as I know), and how did they manage to squeeze in so tight a gameplay?

Well, I'm afraid I'm not very clear. But it's a good thread, so thank you. Please publish whatever you finally get.

On a sidenote... This is a question to GAF: Is Lumines the first mainstream horizontal puzzler?
Click to expand...

One of the focuses of the interview for me will be the genesis of lumines. I dont want to get too far into Rez because he wants to promote Q. However, from my research so far, most of Lumines was actually made in a Karaoke box. Interesting huh? I want to get him to talk about this kinda of stuff in English. Hopefully Hattori will also come to the interview and we can get an even better perspective. From what I understand, Mizuguchi is a collaborator, so I am pretty sure he didnt come up with everything on his own.
 
Ask him if he would ever like to do work together with another developer, which one, and why? Or why not?

Seeing as he brought a trance vibrator to the market through REZ, ask him if he has any plans (/hopes/dreams) about releasing yet another peripheral or similar for use in his future games? What would it be? Also, connected to that question, how can you tie together visuals and sound even more in the future?
 
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