It took a while, but I finally got some info on that Rez event that took place in Japan last summer. I remember hearing about it, and went nuts trying to find as much information as possible. All I knew was that it was supposed to be a small gathering, invite only I speculated, which was to “celebrate” something. I figured that it might be a sequel to Rez or Miziguchi’s next project.
Unfortunately, the major gaming media at the time seemed pretty disinterested in the event, and therefore there was no coverage, let alone follow-up whatsoever. And since last year I didn’t have nearly the degree of connections as I do know, I really had no one to ask about it. And a year later, I pretty much forgot it even took place, until someone brought it up in a thread which I started at the Gaming Age Forums about those old work in progress vids I posted recently.
Basically, the club event was set up to celebrate the PS2 budget version of the game and United Gaming Artists had on-hand three playable version of several work in progress/pre-release levels. I think I’ll simply quote GAFer Jonnyram who has all the info…
” There were three playable versions. One version had Underworld’s “Rez” as the soundtrack and another one had Fatboy Slim’s “Rockafeller Skank”. Honestly, I didn’t feel “Rockafeller Skank” suited the feel of the game, although the cuts and sequencing were flawless. The “Rez” stage was also a really nice piece of work, with the music being more suited to the game than any of the final pieces, perhaps. “Rockafeller Skank” was due to be in the final game but was pulled just a couple of weeks before release, so that version of the game was basically the final version. The “Rez” stage was also pretty close to the final version. The third version was basically the first stage on crack. It was much harder with more missiles, and more insane mid-stage sequences. I got the impression that the game was toned down for final release, with the PS2 release dragging the DC version down with it. All these playable demos were on DC, FYI.”
… All I can say is… wow. Jesus Christ, I wish I could have been there. But at least I finally know what happened (though I’d be able to die happy with at least some footage from the event). And the GAF thread is further proof that the game did indeed find it’s audience, despite less than stellar sales.
Needless to say, I’m a huge admirer of Miziguchi’s work (not only is Rez one of the top, all-time favorite games, but most will agree that Sega Rally is one of the best arcade racers ever) and try to find as much info on the guy as possible. I know that ever since he walked away from Sega after UGA was merged with Sonic Team, he’s been keeping a rather low profile, though he has been seen time to time at academic related game events, like the Game Developer’s Conference, or to help promote Tomato’s WordImageSoundPlay. I know that he has a blog, but it’s in Japanese, so I don’t know what he’s talking about, though I do know when he first started it, all he spoke of was how much he loved the show 24.
While looking for the URL to his blog, I came across another person’s blog, one who attended the recent GDC in which Miziguchi discussed his various works. His whole account is pretty damn good, but here’s what he had to say about Miziguchi…
“Miziguchi’s presentation, while he spoke in extremely good English, was typically Japanese. It wasn’t a discussion of the subject matter [which was What Lies Ahead in the Ever-evolving Interactive Entertainment Industry?]; more of a hour long portfolio presentation. It would have been a disaster if Miziguchi hadn’t of made some of the most amazing pieces of software to date.
The overview of his career was interesting and gave some insight into how he came up with the idea for Rez. His initial project was a movie ride for Sega where the audience sits in a tilting vehicle. (Think Star Tours.) This initial project, made in 1992, was shockingly similar to Rez with its trance music and the feel of flying through a sci-fi environment. For 1992 technology, it was surprisingly fun to experience even when sitting in a GDC conference room.
He talked about Space Channel 5 a bit and showed an early (and truly awful) clip of the first version of the game. The initial prototype movie involved the name “Space Channel 5″, a scantily clad blonde(!) chick with a space helmet, shooting aliens, and the main theme “Mexican Flier”. It doesn’t seem like they had any idea of what the game would be about, but they went ahead with it anyway.
The game design initially came from the musical “Stomped” where the performers would clap and expect the audience to respond with the same clapping pattern. The performers would do one pattern and the audience would respond, and then the performers would do a more complex pattern. This would continue until the performers would do an outrageously complicated rhythm and then the audience would laugh as a response.
To develop the game, the design team and artists would have a weekly session where they would try to move around in a funny manner and figure out amusing things to do with the animation. They showed a videotape of these sessions and they were indeed bizarre. The lead artist would think of an idea that the other artists would have to mimic; in the case that was shown, waddle around pointing quickly and having a surprised look on their face. Then all the artists would move in a big group and attempt to mimic this action. Miziguchi said that they lost two female designers due to these sessions – they were too embarrassed to perform these silly actions in front of other people.
He then continued to talk about the Space Channel 5 cell phone that had Ulala as the “personal assistant.” I thought this was a niche device in Japan, but Miziguchi stated that it sold over 8 million copies. One of the wackiest elements of the phone was that Ulala would talk to you after you completed a call and ask you how much you enjoyed it. I assume you’d type in a number ranking and the phone would track which callers you enjoyed talking to the most. Funny stuff.
When he talked about Rez, he said his goal was to “see how far a game could go to make you feel good.” The two major inspirations for Rez were the audio/visual connection in raves. He also said that he got a lot of inspiration from a videoclip he saw of a street corner of an unnamed African city where a group of people were creating music using clapping, humming, and rhythm provided by elements of commercial waste. (Bottles, tin cans, serrated pieces of plastic.) The music was mesmerizing and he said he wanted to capture the groove of making that music for game players.
When he talked about where he wanted games to go, he talked about applying to the very essence of humans; those natural, subconcious basic instincts that are known by every person regardless of culture. I find this very interesting because it is a completely different approach than Masahiro Sakurai’s risk and reward talk and all the work that I’ve done at Big Huge Games. I think that’s a big reason why I’m attracted to his work is that it appeals at a much more primal, immediate level than a typical videogame.
As for future titles, he sounds quite unemployed. He says that there are “ongoing talks” with unnamed parties about making games and mentioned that he’s really interested in the PSP and Nintendo DS. Specifically he was very interested if the PSP would ship with headphones and was eager to work on a Rez-type game with a system that could completely consume the user’s senses.”
… Once again, I really wish I could have been there, especially to check out that motion simulation ride he designed. And knowing that Star Tours might possibly have been a big influence on his work is on par with hearing Michel Gondry state multiple times that Back To The Future did indeed play a major role in the creative process just make me feel good inside.
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BTW, as I type this sentence, it’s almost six in the morning. I normally don’t wake up this early, but once again last night, I laid down to take a nap around 9 and “accidentally” slept till 4. So I’ve been playing games and surfing the web ever since.
While online, I usually have the tv on in the background, and this morning, Matrix Reloaded is playing on Cinemax. Almost everyone who knows me is well aware of my absolute hated for the entire Matrix franchise, starting with the first film, which people still regard as being “good”. It’s to the point where going into the fine details regarding how utter garbage it is has gotten extremely tiresome (and almost like a circus act for certain colleague of mine), so I won’t (otherwise I’ll be writing till 5 in the afternoon), but with part 2 playing, I do have to say that there is noting, and I mean nothing more ridiculous than seeing Keanu Reeves or Laurence Fishburne in a martial arts pose.
With all the bitching and moaning I did regarding the film as it’s release approached, I have to admit that I’m glad that it turned out to be as bad as it did, otherwise, I would have looked pretty stupid (even though I thought the first one was shit, there was always that chance, no matter infinitesimal it might have been, that the second one could have actually been good). And I have to give Matrix fans, who I had previously labeled as idiots some credit for actually recognizing the second (and later, the third) film for the piece of shit that it is.
Despite the fact that the fight scene with all those Agent Smiths is sorta cool, everything else is total nonsense. First off, you have the shitty story: I watched that scene with the Architect explaining how everything works on DVD about four times in a row, and with the subtitles turned on, and I still don’t understand it. Plus I love the narcissistic need from the directors to explain everything; I’ll give them credit for coming up with a novel reason why d?j? vu happens from the first flick, but the explanation for why vampires exist simply makes me want to punch a wall. But then there’s the acting. Forget about Keanu (though he was great in the Bill and Ted flicks), Carrie-Ann Moss, who was awesome in Memento and I find incredibly pleasing to the eye, is actually embarrassing to watch in this movie, and she’s wearing tight leather practically the whole time! Then there’s that shitty rave scene. Plus, I know this is old, but I have to ask again… orgasm cake? What the fuck? I can go on, and on, and on, and on, and…
But what pisses me off the most is how the directors managed to get people to believe they were some sort of geniuses (oh yeah…. I’m sure they had all three movies laid out in their minds… uh-uh). But maybe they still are; up until now I’ve had absolute zero interest in checking out the last Matrix flick, but now that has changed. There’s a deluxe Matrix DVD box-set coming out soon which will feature all the movies with yada, yada, yada. But according to a report on IGN…
“ There will be two audio commentaries for each film: one from philosophers Ken Wilber and Cornel West, who analyze the meanings behind the films, and one from three film as-yet unnamed film critics who hated all three films. This should be good. Andy Wachowski said “They just sit there and rip the s*** out of us for six hours.”
… Holy shit. I may actually have to scope this out.
But lastly, and I know I’ve said it countless times, but it still bares repeating: TRON WAS THE REAL MATRIX
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Finally, I just received word from my web-host that due to heavy traffic (I can’t believe people actually come here!), I’m close to exceeding my allotted bandwidth, which means this site might disappear for a bit, so please hang in there.
