On Friday, i went to Goichi Suda's talk on game development, which he called "Punk is not Dead."
I'm a big fan of both killer7 and punk in general, so it seemed like this should be a very appealing talk. Some minor quibbles aside, it was a very informative talk.
For starters, Suda51 talked about creating what he called "punk games" in a corporate environment. As Noah pointed out, this is a misuse of the word "punk" to mean 'alternative to the mainstream', and makes little sense when used to talk about mass-marketed products. I think that Suda51 actually meant it in terms of "DIY" and merely appropriated the word punk because it seems edgy and hip. It was interesting to hear him talk about his design philosophy, especially since he mentioned that he was very interested in examining current trends, and then doing the exact oppposite. There were a lot of free-roaming FPSes when killer7 was being made, so he placed it on rails.
Suda51 also mentioned that he was able to get killer7 published by Capcom because the Resident Evil guy (whose name escapes me at the moment) took a personal interest in the project, and acted as an advocate for him at Capcom. Obviously, having a higher-up take an interest in your product gives you a lot more creative latitude in developing a game. On the downside, Nintendo's fab five games lost a lot of their punch when they went multi-platform, but thems the breaks.
Overall, the most important feeling i took away from the talk was the parallels between music and videogames. In the 80s, music took a turn for the worst, with insipid corporate pop and rap taking cues from the blossoming punk scene of the late 70s and early 80s. The upside is, this lead to a renaissance of great music in the early 90s (and no, i'm not talking about grunge). I think we can expect to see an explosion of independent and more mature games (this would be the grunge movement), alongside a nearly invisible movement on creative and daring games that explore more complex human emotions(this would be the 90s emocore like SDR and Orchid). So long games 10 years from now avoid the Limp Bizkit trend, i think the industry will be in a good shape. Otherwise, we will get a bunch of short, angry dudes wearing red NY hats.
please don't beat me up fred durst, even though i was taller than you when we met in 1998.
Comments (2)
Sounds like a really interesting talk. Suda51 is a pretty interesting character.
Also, the "Resident Evil guy" you are referring to is probably Shinji Mikami. At one point I think he referred to Suda51 as "insane."
Posted by RJ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://interactive.usc.edu/members/mrossmassler/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 11, 2007 2:04 PM
Posted on March 11, 2007 14:04
Your connection between the music industry and the games industry is very interesting. Its a very evocative comparison... I think there's a lot to learn from discussing it. Our differing opinions on the value of pop aside, there's one place I disagree with you.
Maybe its a minor point, but I don't think that games are yet at the evolutionary point that music was in the eighties. A lot of the eighties music was an attempted return to structure and the semblance of normalcy after a decade and a half of extreme social turmoil. I don't think the games industry is in the same level of response. I think people are still excited by the expansive possibilities of games, and given the finance behind interesting products, the industry is still struggling to find the proper response.
This may have been said before... but it seems to me to be working its way through the late 50s/early 60's... namely, most game makers are producing bubble gum, looking for those hit game trends then mercilessly and cheaply emulating them until people are sick of it. Meanwhile, like the early 60's, an undercurrent of game makers are working towards greater experimentation and a new experience.
I guess a lot of it comes down to how you see the history of music... but I think a true reactive grunge-as-games movement is still a ways off. We're all still too in love with the medium.
I'm also not sure its fair to say that rap took its cues from the punk scene, Bad Brains aside... but if you want to drop some knowledge on me, please do.
Posted by Jamie Antonisse![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://interactive.usc.edu/members/mrossmassler/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 12, 2007 5:25 PM
Posted on March 12, 2007 17:25