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This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Touch Music (ID: chuappgame), Author: Tuomi Money

From racing games to music games,"new technology" and "creativity" run through Mizuguchi Tetsuya's career.

In February 2023, Sony's new generation VR product PlayStation VR2 (PS VR2) was officially released. Compared with the previous generation, PS VR2 has greatly upgraded its hardware, complementing PS5 with good performance and high global sales volume. Sony is confident in PS VR2, saying in its promotional copy that "its ultra-realistic visual effects and unique sensory experience enable players to invest in a whole new game world."

In the lineup, we can find an "old game" from 20 years ago-Rez Infinite. Rez Unlimited is a VR remake of Rez, a "music track shooter" released on Sega DreamCast and Sony PS2 in 2001. Interestingly, Rez Infinity, a VR remake, has already made a "heavy debut" in PS VR's launch lineup seven years ago. This year, it appeared again in the PS VR2's first game camp.

VR equipment and hardware update fast, many VR studios are more willing to develop new games, rather than update old works to adapt to new technology is Sony in VR content Qiandonkey skills, can only pull old games to make up the number?

This is not the case. Rez Infinity has been the first game for PS VR twice because it has an experience that transcends the times, and even after seven years of release, it still brings unprecedented sensory impact to players today. And this unique sensory experience, beyond the era of design concepts, all come from the producer Tetsuya Suguchi's continuous exploration of the game sensory experience design.

Tetsuya Suguchi and Rez Infinity, a somewhat maverick producer in the Japanese game industry, have been paying attention to new technologies that can bring new experiences, including VR, since entering the industry. Not only Rez, but his games often refresh players in terms of sensory experience. Therefore, in today's increasingly popular new technologies such as VR, let's go back to the origin of Shuikou Tetsuya's career, sort out his 30 years of experience, and get a glimpse of the sensory game world he created for players.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi was born in Hokkaido, Japan in 1965. As a young man, he studied literature at Nihon University School of Arts, specializing in media aesthetics. At that time, this was a pioneering creative direction that combined cutting-edge technology with art, emphasized sensory and physical stimulation. This allowed Mizuguchi Tetsuya to understand technology trends and new technologies, which provided great support for his future game production career and set him on a different path from many game producers.

After graduating from college, Tetsuya Mizuki saw Sega R-360 in arcade hall. It was a large-scale arcade game launched by Sega in 1990 that could rotate 360 degrees from front to back. The ultra-large movements made players feel the flight posture and gravity in the game.

Large devices like the R-360 still attract a lot of attention today. Sega had a more international vision than other Japanese game manufacturers at that time, and pursued new technologies to bring interesting new experiences to players. This characteristic of Sega, coupled with the tremendous shock brought by the R-360, made Mizuguchi Tetsuya decide to enter Sega without considering entering Nintendo or Namco Palace at all.

Soon after, Tsuneki, who had no gaming experience and did not know much about the gaming industry, went directly to the front desk of Sega Company and asked how to enter Sega's work, which was a bit reckless. The response from the Sega receptionist was also very simple: "Please contact HR for an interview first. "

Through acquaintance introduction, shuikou zhe also obtained interview opportunity, interviewer is responsible for all sega development work suzuki long division. In the face of this somewhat aggressive executive, the young Mr. Shuizui also expressed his thoughts bluntly. He wanted to make unprecedented games in Sega and make players feel like they were in the future. He then introduced Suzuki to the cutting-edge technologies he knew at the time, including the "virtual environment display system" developed by NASA Ames Laboratory, an early VR.

In the 1990s, Mr. Mizuguchi was confident that 3D graphics and virtual reality would one day become part of the gaming industry, even though 3D graphics was new to the Japanese gaming industry at the time. To get into Sega, Mizuguchi Tetsuya told Suzuki: When 3D graphics and virtual reality become mainstream, you have to need people like me.

Early VR equipment, now looks like a prop in a retro sci-fi movie, Suzuki Yu, who participated in the interview, took a fancy to Mizuguchi Tetsuya and recruited him. Therefore, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who was interested in games and looked forward to VR and 3D graphics technology, joined Sega.

Not long after he joined the job, Tetsuya Shuigou heard that the United States was going to hold the first virtual reality international conference, so he begged Suzuki Hisashi to allow him to take time off to attend the conference, even willing to pay for it at his own expense. Suzuki agreed to the young man's request for leave as soon as he joined the job, but did not provide him with travel expenses. When he arrived at the scene, Tetsuya found that the conference was not a demonstration full of new technologies as he had expected, but an academic exchange conference with only 20 people. The equipment for the live experience dragged a large number of lines and the picture flickered. This disappointed him.

After Mr. Mizuguchi joined, he spent half his time researching areas of interest, such as virtual reality and 3D graphics, and the other half as an assistant, traveling overseas with Mr. Suzuki. About a year later, Tetsuki Shuguchi also had his own laboratory, named "Emotion Design Laboratory." The lab's main focus is on conducting user interviews or working internally with game designers in workshops to analyze the similarities and differences between games and movies in terms of emotional impact on audiences. Suzuki Yuki, Minoru Nagoshi, and other seniors sometimes participate in Mizuguchi Tetsuya's workshops.

Soon after, Tetsuya Mizuguchi also welcomed his first project after joining Sega-Megalopolis: Tokyo City Battle, a sci-fi style short film prepared for Sega's large-scale amusement ride AS-1. The AS-1, which looks like a spaceship, can swing synchronously with the video played in the cabin through the mechanical power unit below, allowing the eight passengers to immerse themselves in the scene created by the short film visually, audibly and sensually.

Similar large-scale entertainment equipment has also appeared in China's shopping malls, experience often expensive at that time 3D technology is budding, but there are still conservative people unwilling to accept new technology, so that Shuikou Zhe also asked in the company who wants to join his team to do 3D products, few people responded.

In order to reduce production costs, Mizuguchi Tetsuya applied to buy a graphics terminal worth 100 million yen to make CG. At the turn of the century, CG technology was far less mature and cheap than it is today, and outsourcing was more expensive than making it yourself. With the equipment in place, Tetsuya began looking for 3DCG technicians who were still in the minority at the time. Thanks to his continuous attention and research on the industry, he quickly invited Michael Arias, Kenren Sasaki and others to join the project. These two are 3DCG masters, Michael Arias later entered the film industry, is the "Matrix Animation Edition" chief producer, but also Matsumoto Ocean's "Evil Children" adapted into a 3D animated film. Kenhito Sasaki is the technical support for the famous game series "Ridge Racing" in terms of visual and 3D.

《Megalopolis: Tokyo City Battle ", in the era of 2D games, 3DCG technology is still an unknown road with both challenges and potential. After the successful delivery of Megalopolis: Tokyo City Battle, Tetsuya Mizuki's confidence in 3D games has soared. At the same time, 3D graphics technology is also developing rapidly. Scenes that 2D games cannot represent are possible in 3D. Therefore, Tetsuya Mizuguchi decided to use the emerging 3D polygon mapping technology to create a rally racing game with real scenes such as desert and unpaved roads-something that 2D games had never done before.

With racing game entry "music game person" shuikou zhe also excitedly to high-level proposal, the result was a rebuff. Executives believe that rally racing games have never been successful, and are even somewhat superstitious that such games are bound to fail. In fact, this can not blame Sega executives, because at that time the Japanese game industry generally did not like rally racing games, one of the important reasons is that rally racing is not as exaggerated as formula racing or GT racing, and people drive the car model is similar, afraid of players feel bored.

Tetsuya Shuigou, who had made up his mind, begged bitterly to make such a game even if he gave up his salary or resigned if the game failed. Finally, the high-level approval of his proposal, the future success of the "Sega rally" finally project started.

In April 1994, Tetsuya Mizuki borrowed a workspace from AM3 Development Department and formed a small team of more than 10 people with Sasaki Kento, all of whom were novices in their 20s, with neither game design experience nor racing experience. At this time, Mizuguchi Tetsuya once again made a request that surprised the top management: he hoped to visit Yosemite and Death Valley.

What happened next even looked familiar_Suzuki once again rejected Mr. Suguchi and said that "only those who have made successful works can travel," and Mr. Suguchi once again pleaded that he could go at his own expense as long as the company approved the holiday. In the end, under the soft and hard bubble of Tetsuya Suguchi (also can be said to be "persistent"), Suzuki Hisashi and other managers were persuaded not only to agree to him to go, but also to pay him travel expenses.

Whether it's Death Valley or Yosemite, there are magnificent scenery suitable for driving tours. Over the next 10 months, Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team went to North America for field trips, shooting and collecting a large number of materials for future game graphics. In order to make the game have a stronger sense of reality, Shuizui Tetsu also wanted to reproduce the real rally car in the game, so he found Toyota hoping to obtain a vehicle license. Toyota initially refused, but under soft and hard bubbles, it promised to agree as long as another licensee of Shuikou, Fiat Lancia, agreed. Mr. Mizuguchi immediately flew to Italy to visit Fiat ("soft and hard" seemed to him to have become a native skill), eventually obtaining authorization, and Toyota kept its promise.

In 1994, Toyota won both the driver and the manufacturer championship at the WRC, using Toyota ST205 Celica instead of the ST185 that won the year. In addition to vehicle licensing, Shuizui Tetsu also invited the famous Japanese rally racer Fujimoto Yoshiro as a consultant on racing and driving experience, and drove a real car with the team to experience the fun of drifting on non-paved roads (he therefore bought insurance). These experiential surveys eventually turned into the "reality" experienced by Sega Rally players.

Sega Rally, with its exquisite 3D graphics, intuitive operating experience and two-player mode, became the pinnacle of this type of game at that time. With these efforts, Sega Rally was a great success in both arcade and home versions, and Shuizuchi Tetsuya also gained some recognition and more display space within Sega. Sega also operates in Europe, North America and other places, and positive feedback from players around the world has made Mizuguchi Tetsuya realize that video games, like movies, can affect more people across regions. This influence excited Tetsuya Mizuguchi and prompted him to firm up his path as a game producer.

After the success of Sega Rally, Mizuguchi Tetsuya made several racing games. However, those works have not had the same breakthrough innovation as "Sega Rally." In Shuikou Tetsuya's view, the follow-up racing games are no longer creative work, but engineering polishing, so he resolutely gave up making racing games. At this time, Sega has begun to prepare DreamCast console, so Shuizuguchi Tetsu also left the racing game and part of the production team to his old partner Sasaki Kenren, and once again formed his own small team to start developing more universal leisure games for DC.

The second idea that jumped into Mizuguchi's mind was music.

In 1998, Sega game designers Takashi Yoshinaga and Takashi Yuda were working on a Demo for a music game project that was the prototype for Space Channel 5. The AM9 Development Department, where Mizuguchi Tetsuya was located, was also looking for the next project. The two sides hit it off and continued to develop together.

At the same time, Shuizui Tetsu also hopes to "cut" with the past and devote himself to creative game development. To this end, he took on the task of Sega executives to "develop casual games for DC suitable for the general public" on condition that he was allowed to set up a new office in Shibuya. Later, AM9 Development moved from Haneda to Shibuya, actively embracing the current trend and constantly recruiting suitable talents from both inside and outside.

Moving to Shibuya means being in the center of the trend, helping to create more creative works, but also allowing Shuikou Tetsuya to temporarily stay away from the stereotypes and rules of big companies. When he was young, Shuikou Tetsuya once indulged in MV (Music Video), because MV brought visual symbols to music, which made the audience change from simple listening to visual and auditory experience. Many music became popular all over the world because of MV. His understanding and thinking about music appeal was tried and explored on Space Channel 5.

During the development of Space Channel 5, Mr. Mizuguchi and his team watched Michael Jackson videos and musicals, from STOMP to Broadway, wherever they could afford tickets. Musicals combine music and narrative to create feelings that immerse and spiral the audience. This is exactly what Space Channel 5 is trying to do.

As a music rhythm game, Space Channel 5's song selection style is bold and alternative, the theme song "Mexican Flyer" lays a cheerful, enthusiastic tone, with retro futuristic art theme and rhythmic charming dance, making Space Channel 5 very infectious in audio-visual experience. Storytelling, exaggerated and funny space pirates and lovable reporter between the battle between the Ula La, in the background of music, but also let players enjoy it.

Space Channel 5's graphic style is very similar to a long MV, and the gameplay is different from other music rhythm games. In 1999, Space Channel 5 was released on DC platform. Although the sales volume was not ideal, the unique style left a deep impression on players. Space Channel 5 and the protagonist Ulala also became representative classic works and images of Sega in the future. It is worth mentioning that because women account for the vast majority of players who buy Space Channel 5, for Sega and DC, Shuikou Zhe has also completed the high-level task of "wanting to expand the player community."

After the release of Space Channel 5, Sega did a lot of outdoor publicity and advertising at Shibuya Station. The development of Space Channel 5 allowed Tetsuya and his team to accumulate a lot of experience in technology and game design, and had a group of like-minded colleagues, many of whom came from Sega Digital Production Department, who were talented in music and art. The AM9 development team was also reorganized into United Game Artists (UGA), a new division focused on making creative games.

During the development of Space Channel 5, Mizuguchi Tetsuya began planning another music-related game, Rez, which would follow Mizuguchi's career for more than 20 years.

(To be continued)

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