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Mizuguchi Mayhem: Sega Designer Seeks to Expand Definition of Gaming
by Steven Kent for Gamers Today
A few years back, Sega of Japan spun off nine autonomous game studios. With only one game to its credit, United Game Artists (UGA) seems to be Sega's least productive spin off. It's also the one to watch.
Led by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, UGA draws its strength and weakness from its inexperience. Mizuguchi's pedigree may include creating Sega Rally, but most of the members of his team are new to the business. This means that while UGA games have fresh ideas and innovative graphics, they also take a long time to make.
"I'm still in the stage in which I am raising my creators... In five years, maybe we'll be able to work on five or more titles at the same time. For now, one wrong title can mess up everything, so we only work on a small amount of titles," says Mizuguchi.
"I gathered a lot of young people who were inexperienced in the game industry two years ago." Mizuguchi continues, "That's how this team started."
Space Channel 5, UGA's first game, built off the Parappa the Rapper phenomenon of musical games by adding a more interactive storyline and more vivid graphics. It also had comic, charismatic characters and one of the most stylish atmospheres ever seen in a game.
But Mizuguchi's next project, currently referred to as "the sound project," is his most innovative game to date. In the sound project, players steer a futuristic spacecraft flying along scrolling paths. Made in the tradition of Panzer Dragoon, the sound project's battle interface allows players to group and destroy enemies.
But UGA has brought new elements to this rather familiar genre. First, the sound project features a smoldering industrial techno soundtrack. UGA has set this pounding soundtrack against a futuristic world that merges Star Wars architecture with Borg construction.
But the most amazing feature of this new game is its sounds. UGA has attached different percussions to the destruction of every enemy ship -- some sound like gongs, others like symbols. Blasting your way through these waves of enemies creates a sound symphony that sounds a bit like Chinese Opera.
Mizuguchi has been kind enough to allow Gamers Today to witness the evolution of this amazing new game since its inception. When he first showed the game, more than one year ago, it looked like a modernized version of Space Harrier with rather nondescript enemies attacking from the horizon of a huge desert.
At this early stage, the only thing Mizuguchi seemed set on was assigning sounds to each enemy and using the Panzer Dragoon weapons interface.
Eight months ago, Mizuguchi opened the doors of his Shibuya offices a second time. By this time, the sound project had advanced a long way. The environment had begun to take on an industrial feel and the enemies had developed an angular geometric look.
At this point the game felt very similar to Panzer Dragoon, though it had a completely different look to it. The percussion sounds had not changed much and have not changed since, but UGA had created some very sophisticated boss enemies.
The game Mizuguchi showed Gamers Today last month, however, exceeded all expectations. Tapping into Dreamcast's penchant for fast frame rates and smooth graphics, this nearly final version of the game used sounds and visions to create a thoroughly addictive experience.
"People are always searching for new forms of entertainment and they're starting to lose interest in games," observes Mizuguchi. "There's not enough interesting games right now."
Working at a slow pace with his highly innovative team, Mizuguchi is one of the few designers who seems poised to change that problem.
