I always have a problem playing text-heavy games. I'm a slow reader. I don't speak English well. As a kid in China, trying to play these games, I just wanted the text to go away.
Look at the genres women like: a romantic comedy game doesn't exist. Few examples of a documentary game exist. What is the equivalent of a real drama game? They don't exist. Emotion with that complexity for a more mature, older audience are necessary to make medium-like video games healthy so it can be highly respected like the film industry.
I would rather see a game where you play to feel happier and to make other people like you and to make the people you care about happy.
I really like 'ICO' and 'Shadow of the Colossus.'
I feel like that nature has this great power.
I always thought if I was born 2000 years earlier, I would be a monk, probably carving a monastery or some giant pantheon buildings.
If you can imagine the delight of visiting a theme park where lasting memories are made, we envision 'Sky' will sometimes feel like that.
The struggle we went through in the last year of 'Journey' was pretty insane, and I think that is also why, when I was working on the struggle level, I was able to channel my own struggle into the game.
I think that our language, culture, age, fortune, property, and our fame is all a facade. In the end, we're all the same.
A strong story can move me to tears, and it doesn't matter whether it's a science-fiction or fantasy world. It's about what happens to a person, the choices they make. That's what's interesting.
Thatgamecompany was founded with the philosophy that games are a form of entertainment, and entertainment is the food for emotion.
For 'Journey' to create a sense of smallness and a sense of awe will encourage the players to be together and exchange emotions. When you put the two players together online and put them in a difficult environment, they will create a bond.
I would say 'Flower' had a story. It is told through the environment.
Nothing truly bad happens. There's always good and bad in any changes.
It's stressful when you run a company.
I'm a perfectionist.
If a game is meant to be played by everybody, it deserves to be on multiple platforms so everybody can play it.
If we can make great games for PS3 players... how many PS3 players are out there? If we can make great games for everybody, that's a much bigger service. There's no reason I shouldn't do that.
In the free-to-play industry, the most money-making games are often coming from making people fighting against each other and really hating each other and wanting to revenge, so they spend more money to dominate.
When we approach games, we're always emotional-focused, so if a free-to-play business model works against the emotion, we won't use it. If it actually works well with the emotion, or if we can come up with a new way to do monetization that's different and that's unique for the game, I would go for that.
