Pac-Man's Toru Iwatani

The former Tecmo man explains his philosophy on how games should be made

Feature by Phil Elliott Contributor

Published on June 30, 2010

GamesIndustry.biz There's been a lot of discussion about the Japanese videogames industry and the problems facing it, with some people suggesting that games made there need to be more culturally relevant to the rest of the world. Do you think your philosophy of the developer-player relationship could help with that?

Toru Iwatani

What you will have, for example, is that you get your feedback globally - you get so many different replies, so much variety. Country A would ask for something to be changed, but you'd change it and Country B would get upset. What you should do is choose neither option A, nor B - but make up option C and then see how the story ends. In a philosophical sense, that's the gameplay.

The problem with us Japanese is that we basically don't like what I just described - it's not in our culture. Playing a game is to have fun - so the people that make the games should have more fun themselves. If you can't think like that, you can't break through the barriers that are stopping you.

GamesIndustry.biz Looking at a game like Pac-Man, that was trans-cultural because of its simplicity.

Toru Iwatani

But that was in a period when there weren't many games at all.

GamesIndustry.biz Simple technology enforced a global appeal, though - but over time as visuals and design have improved exponentially, games have tended to become more regional in appeal. But now the need to sell as many units as possible means there's a trend towards global appeal again.

Toru Iwatani

I agree with you totally - we need to have a global approach. In Japan, what the game developers should do... it's okay if they want to make some games for the local market, but they should also have titles that appeal to the global market, more variety.

Okay, you need the turnover, you need to make the sequels - bigger, stronger, faster. Then the local thing, then the global thing - and in-between is space for the newer concepts, the really creative ideas. If you have about five of these new ideas, then the base is strong enough to make it a good long term plan.

GamesIndustry.biz Can Japan regain its cultural leadership of the games industry again?

Toru Iwatani

Rather than the question of whether it's possible or not, we have to focus on it. What we try to do with our Japanese philosophy is to facilitate the players - give them the tools to be able to enjoy the game. That's something we inherited - service in our culture is a very important thing.

So I think we should incorporate that in games anyway - it's important to service and empower players.

The thing is, what we do sometimes - whether it's good or not, I don't know and it's not for me to decide - is a bit like Japanese toilets. They have so many buttons on them, about 20 different buttons just to act like a bidet.

But that dedication to servicing people - that's what we should show, what we should work towards providing games.

Toru Iwatani is professor at the Faculty of Arts, Tokyo Polytechnic University. Interview by Phil Elliott.