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Would you say that Grasshopper is a freer working environment for you than Konami was?
AY: Very much so, in terms of creativity and the sort of teamwork we have. It's very freestyle in that way. In Suda's mind, creativity comes first, then teamwork; after that is maintaining a playful environment. He's a very freewheeling guy.
A playful office environment, you mean?
AY: Right. For example, there's a studio-wide party every month, an opportunity for the designers and programmers to come together. Sometimes there are movie meet-ups; that sort of thing.
Is it to help with teambuilding, or to get everyone's thoughts out in the open?
AY: Right. Video games started out largely as one-man efforts in the very beginning, but now you have great big teams working on every one.
That's why it's all the more important that the members of a studio have good teamwork with each other; that they're on the same page with each other. Every team member is important in an environment like this.
It seems to me like Konami has fallen a great deal from its height, and I wonder if it's a problem with the structure of their company. What do you think?
AY: Well, I think you might be overthinking it a little bit when you talk about structure.
Well, not just Konami, but the whole of the Japanese industry.
AY: Certainly, I think there isn't as much motivation seen with the younger creators out there at the moment. There's little motivation, and there's little thought put into what they're making. It's become less of a creative process, and I don't think that's a good thing. Many publishers are like that; not just Konami.
Why do you think that situation happened?
AY: I think one part of it is that we -- our generation of creators -- we didn't do a good job educating the next generation of people in the business. We didn't teach them what they needed to know, how to go about it. So that's one aspect of it -- it's our fault a bit.
The sort of education you couldn't get in school.
AY: Right. How to make games, and how to build the teamwork you need to make that happen. There wasn't enough thought put into that.
A lot of Japanese games seem to lack inspiration. They just seem like products.
AY: Right, right. I'm starting to think that there isn't much of a future for Japanese creators. (laughs)
But there must be young people with talent right now who're interested in games. Does the future lie more with small developers like Grasshopper, Valhalla, and Platinum? That might be the next generation.
AY: I certainly think so, yes. But if our generation -- mine and Suda's generation -- doesn't work on that issue, then I worry that there won't be a next generation to work with at all. That's why we need to nurture new creative talent. You can feel it with the foreign staff in the industry -- they just have a more powerful personal presence than the newer generation of Japanese creators. They're very interesting, very inspirational, and very creative.
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Halo Reach, Call of Duty, Rock Band, Guitar Hero; they're all like products. It's an industry wide problem, not just a Japanese one.
But, naturally, I could be wrong. We'll have to ask Yamaoka what he thinks.
Either way, excellent interview. I look forward to exploring the game when it goes live.
Some eastern games still knock it out of the park though. The original Team Silent was brilliant.
As far as the next generation of designers and coders, I would probably be one of them. This makes me want to seek out jobs at some of these smaller more creative studios (particularly in Japan) and do fun new things with them.
You are totally right about the east making the video game scene stay afloat with arcades, but now over here in the west, who goes to arcades?
I went to the arcade all the time when I was a kid, because I didnt have a console, but now everyone can get a console, and now almost everyone has at least one console in there house, Wii especially.
But sorry, the east definitely dominates still in the video game scene. Almost every game that comes out of the east that is awesome, is freakin awesome, and almost no west developer could touch it. But I will admit, the west is getting better, and I do think its only a matter of time before both scenes just get soo good, we have awesome games just getting pumped out.
Even though Japan has games as a part of it's culture (which can arguably be said about the west, just not to such an extreme) it doesn't translate to great games.
This whole reply (even my other one above) is all based on western perception though. From what I've heard, gamers in the east hate open-world games while gamers in the west beg for them. There's a cultural difference between the two and while games sell across oceans, gamer's tastes differ and so the games produced by each will vastly differ.
3D Dot Game Heroes, Silicon Studio
Little King's Story, Cing & Town Factory
Professor Layton , Level 5
Yakuza 3, Amusement Vision
BlazBlue, Arc System Works
Honestly I could go on, and if you notice none of them were made by the big Japanese Companies that you mentioned. Japan's doing just fine, gamers are just not looking hard enough.
In the Past Jp titles were willing to take more risks. They weren't huge blockbusters but they managed to be amazing. I remember when MGS was a failure in jp.
Part of the reason for the lack of motivation is the strict hierarchy. Western studios are willing to accept pitches from even the nice lady at the front desk (as long as it doesn't cost too much) or if a lead designer wanted to do something different he(it's not that easy i know,but at least it's possible) could. At a jp entity you would probably have to leave and setup your own studio. You can't even voice out an opinion without disrespecting your "superiors".
It's not motivation they lack (otherwise they wouldn't put up with the crunch time), it's a sense of entitlement to the product. It's become a job not a pursuit of passion. Why else would you explain them doing amazing work in their spare time.
It's kind of funny most of the western games we play now are all evolutions of the japanese games we used to play and love, most jp games now are looking like the western titles we used to avoid like my high school principal.
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