According to
Lumines and
Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, games are about more than just their gameplay or design -- rather, they can leverage their audio and visual elements to breathe new life into other forms of media.
In the latest
Gamasutra feature interview, Mizuguchi discusses the recently-released
Lumines: Electronic Symphony for the PlayStation Vita, outlining how it and other similar titles can allow players to experience music in a whole new way.
"If you watch a music video five times in a day, and 10 times you listen to music -- the same music in one day -- that's getting boring. But the game is a really good art form, a really good medium. And if you feel the music interactively, and if you play the game and it feels fun, and you get the music, you not only use but
feel the music," he said.
He further explained that
Lumines, unlike other music-based games, does not rely on timing or rhythm-based gameplay, but rather uses music as a reward for its puzzle-based gameplay. "I think that this approach, I think it's very unique, and it's a new way to enjoy music," he said.
By blending gameplay, audio, and visuals in such a manner, Mizuguchi hopes to create a sense of synesthesia, or a blending of the senses. He notes that as technology advances, games will only become more adept at creating these types of experiences.
"Ten years ago, we could just start to make synesthesia like
Rez, but now we can make much more. We can put much more high resolution and get high synesthesia. I can make some much more rich storylines in
Child of Eden," he said.
The full interview, which delves into
Lunimes' music selection, narrative-based gameplay, and much more, is
now live on Gamasutra.
