Suda 51 Keynote

[Dante]

Today was the closing day for the 2007 Game Developers Conference, but that didn't stop Suda 51 from showing up and rocking the house before the festivities came to screeching halt. The Japanese game designer best known for the dark, brooding, cult hit, Killer 7, gave a speech entitled 'Punk's Not Dead,' wherein he espoused his game design philosophy and at the same time encouraged the assembled game developers to forge their own paths in the industry.

 

Suda 51 started his talk with a six-minute long trailer detailing the history of games developed at Suda 51's studio, Grasshopper Manufacture. The trailer showed off a number of games that saw Japan-only releases including The Silver Case; Flower, Sun, & Rain; and Gunmachine. All of these titles seemed to match Killer 7 in both their offbeat visual styles, and their dark subject matter.

 

After the trailer ended, Suda 51 proceeded to discuss the perspective from which Grasshopper approaches game development. According to Suda, Grasshopper adheres to three main slogans when developing games: Call & Response, Crash & Build, and Let's Punk. While he did not go into great detail on the first two, the latter was the focus of the entire speech. Suda 51 defined "punk" as going beyond the current framework established by the large companies. Currently, Suda thinks that most games are copycats, and that an internal shift needs to occur if this is to change.

 

Suda 51 seems to have some genuine worries about the future of the games industry in Japan. The director asserted that right now American and European-developed games are vastly superior to their Japanese counterparts. At the same time, the games market in Japan is steadily shrinking, and this presents a challenge to Japanese game developers. Going into the future, Grasshopper hopes to make completely original games that target the global market, in an effort to change these trends.

 

From here, Suda went on to discuss the development of Killer 7, and the challenge that the game presented to Grasshopper as a studio. If you have played Killer 7, you will know that the unique visual style is not the only original aspect to the game: it also controls unlike any other game on the market. Suda explained that although he and [Resident Evil Creator] Shinji Mikami realized that free-roaming controls would be more popular in America, they still opted to forgo this route in favor of the very non-traditional control setup employed in Killer 7.

 

Suda 51 stressed the important role that Mikami and other producers play in a game's development. Without a producer to protect and shield a game's director, many games would not be able to be realized in the intended form. Rather than listening to the myriad publishers that Grasshopper works with, Suda 51 relies on producers and their inputs. He expressed the notion that the purpose of making a game is to reflect the beliefs of the game's producers.

 

At this point, Suda turned to the role of game directors in forcing the industry forward. He separated directors into two different categories: "business-oriented" and "artist-type." According to Suda 51, all game directors need to be business oriented, because without profits future games cannot be made. However, he made it quite clear that at the same time, directors must be able to revert to being "artist-type," in order to come up with unique ideas, and thereby push the industry forward. While commercial games are a necessary evil, game developers must continue to make punk-style games.

 

Suda 51 started wrapping up his lengthy talk by asserting his primary mantra: No Games = No Life. "Games culture in Japan is dying," he said. "We need to cultivate a new games culture." The game developer admitted that to him "Miyamoto is like a god." The Mario creator has been the primary inspiration for Suda 51 throughout his career, but Suda laments the fact that there are few young Japanese game designers. He asserted that he and other older designers "need to continue this inspiration into the next-generation."

 

Suda 51 then announced a Grasshopper-centric gaming event taking place on April 14th, called "Hopper's." The event will feature dialogues between special guests Hideo Kojima and Shinji Mikami, as well as music by Killer 7's composer Masafumi Takada. The promo art was a cool recreation of an EC comics cover with Solid Snake fighting a zombie. Suda 51's parting word was the announcement of DS ports of both The Silver Case, and The Silver Case Word 25, a mobile phone offshoot of the former title. Both of these games will be text-heavy graphic-adventure games, and Suda 51 had no idea whether they would make it out in the US because of this.

 

Finally, Suda 51 ended by stating that Grasshopper was currently working on three titles for the Nintendo Wii, one of which is the previously announced No More Heroes, published by Marvelous Interactive. The amiable game designer then dimmed the lights and proceeded to show off a stunning trailer for the upcoming assassination-fest.

[Anakenobi]

It's great that they are speaking out more about the crisis in Japan. More and more game developers from Japan are focusing more on Western gamers. Trying to compete with the likes of EA, Rockstar and Ubisoft.

 

It seems that Nintendo was able to stir things up with the DS and the Brain Age games. Other companies should try a similar approach.

[david.dakota]

Suda 51 is crazy. But loveable. Like a lovable crazy dog.

[Domstercool]

Yeah, they also did the camera game called Michigan on the PS2! That was messed up too.

 

3 games on Wii? Wooooo!!

[flameboy]

Awesome, so exciting! good to see them addressing some of the issues to do with games in general, and that they recognize these things...

 

Great to hear 3 games are coming to the Wii, show us the other two now!

[ZeldaFreak]

I thought it was one on the wii and two games hes working on for the ds, thats what they have on http://gameindustry.biz

[Mr. Bananagrabber]

I worship at Suda 51's altar and kill goats for him.

His word is law as far as i'm concerned. Every time he speaks I masturbate whilst listening.

P.S. Awesome, some new games.

[4q2]

Suda has a talent that is a refreshing change to the games industry..

I would like to hear his definition of Call & Response & Crash & Build though.

[Konfucius]

Currently, Suda thinks that most games are copycats, and that an internal shift needs to occur if this is to change.

 

very true.

Today I had a talk with a friend about the Suda 51 "cult".

He actually managed to become an iconic figure for strange games with a lot of meaning and interesting gameplay. And he deserves that. But it's interesting to see that he's explicitely credited in trailers and such as almost some kind of "seal of quality". Almost like Miyamoto is.