Develop: what inspires Mizuguchi

Tetsuya Mizuguchi has one of those game portfolios that bleeds creativity. Speaking at Develop, the game designer looked back on his career and discussed what inspired each game.

• Ninety-Nine Nights was inspired by the television coverage of the Iraq war and all the opposing viewpoints that were given, as well as Kurosawa's film Rashomon.
• Lumines was inspired by its platform, the PSP. Mizuguchi wanted to make a game that embodied the handheld.
• Meteos was inspired by the prevalence of multitasking in society -- multi-screened 24-hour news networks, the TV show 24, and likely the multi-screened DS console for which it was developed.
• Rez and Space Channel 5 were "influenced by dance culture, the idea of invasive media, the musical Stomp, jazz, surreal art and MTV music videos of the 1980s," according to the write-up provided by Next Generation

Mizuguchi is the perfect example of a developer who thinks "outside the box" and really adds positively to the argument of games as art. In his words, "The deeper you look at people, the more they are the game. A game should fulfill a deep human need or want. Then it can be successful all over the world."