14 DAY TRIAL // Famous Japanese games designer Keiji Inafune has shared his thoughts on the current state of the industry and revealed that, in order for a title to truly attract people, developers need to stop focusing on great graphics and try to emphasize the emotional aspect of the interactive experience.
Keiji Inafune influenced the strategy of Japanese publisher Capcom for quite some time and recently left the giant corporation to work with smaller developers on more over-the-top experiences. One such title is the upcoming Soul Sacrifice title for the PS Vita, which lets players sacrifice pieces of their body in order to launch devastating attacks.
According to the designer, games have focused on realism and impressive graphics for quite some time, which isn’t exactly the best strategy.
“I’ve watched the evolution of games and the games industry for the last 25 years; I’ve always had a front-row seat. In many modern action games, it’s about how realistic you can make the experience, how sensational the action is,” he told the PS blog.
Instead of this focus on graphics or visuals, developers need to start investing more in the emotional aspects of their interactive experiences, in order to truly affect the player and make the whole game stand out from other experiences.
“But the creators of the best games today have realized that they need to do something more than becoming more realistic, more sensational – it’s probably already hit the ceiling. They’re thinking about creating something new by including that emotional aspect. In thinking globally, in order to compete with the top game creators today, I’ve also had to think about including that emotional aspect. The games I work on will all include that as a big theme.”
While some are trying to deliver more meaningful experiences, like next year’s BioShock Infinite, there are still plenty of titles that still focus on visuals, like Crysis 3.
What do you prefer? Do you want to feel emotions or admire graphics in games?