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Kyoto, Japan-based multimedia artist Tomohisa "Baiyon" Kuramitsu is best known for providing visual design and music for the popular Q-Games developed PSN download game PixelJunk Eden. Richard Lemarchand, meanwhile, was most recently the co-lead designer of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2.

Together, the two creators are holding a session at GDC, next Thursday, March 11, 2010, entitled "Micro or Massive: It's Fricking Tough to Achieve a Vision."

The official description of the talk describes it as "a lively discussion on the inherent similarities of artistic endeavor, even on two projects as different in style and scope as Uncharted and PixelJunk Eden. This is a talk about artistry as much as it is about the speakers' specific games, and should prove to be a vital cross-cultural look into the nature of creativity and process in games."

In concert with that session, the creators have reached out to GameSetWatch to solicit questions from our readership. What do you want to hear from these two wildly different creative minds -- different cultures, different games, and different disciplines?

Even better, Baiyon has asked that questions be anything from stupid to serious -- whatever you want to know, just ask.

All we need you to do is to leave a response in the comments thread of this news story; Baiyon and Lemarchand will read the questions and select which will be answered during their GDC session.

What will get the gears of these two creators turning? Now's your chance to find out...

20 Heroes is a puzzle platformer with a unique twist, where players are assigned twenty characters to control separately, in a group, or all at the same time. Puzzles in every area are designed around this theme, and the creativity of the designer really shows after the fifth stage or so.

You can press the down arrow key to activate a character, who will then follow your orders until they succumb to a trap or a fatal injury caused by an enemy. The space key is used to select a menu option, and you can move heroes around the map or make them jump by using the cursor keys. Pressing G allows players to restart the game. Some enemies can be stomped on, while others can only be defeated in numbers or by using a certain strategy.

Note that the game isn't really designed to be played by audiences outside of Japan, as the quiz section in stage twelve is delivered in Japanese and near impossible to beat unless you are fluent in the language. (quiz cheat sheet) Continue reading

I can't count the number of times I've been disappointed by a sequel that make the same mistakes as the game that came before it in the series with no effort to improve. Or worse, a sequel that's actually less fun than its predecessor. I'm very happy to report that Danger Next Door: Miss Teri Tale doesn't fall into that trap. Episode three of the Miss Teri Tale series, which up to this point has been lackluster, is bursting with newfound style and creativity.

When we catch up with Teri at the beginning of the game, she's now the mayor of Peeking Town and has made Monty deputy mayor. Unfortunately, however, Monty is found dead at a party thrown by Mike, the town's newest resident, and Teri offers to help solve the crime.

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Grasshopper Manufacture head Goichi "Suda51" Suda enjoys a reputation for creativity that sets him somewhat apart from other designers -- his games are never mammoth blockbusters, and yet titles like Killer7 and No More Heroes have earned acclaim and an enduring seat in gaming culture for their wild unconventionality and distinctive tone.

Here, GDMag EIC Brandon Sheffield catches up with the always-intriguing Suda to discuss both his current projects and his approach to theme in games like No More Heroes -- including a discussion of the lesser-known Michigan -- the fate of that EA/Mikami project, his fashion sense and what he wanted to be as a kid.

Some basic questions first. What's going on with the EA/Mikami game now?

Goichi Suda: It's under development. He's the one working on it.

I also heard a rumor that the original No More Heroes was planned for the Xbox 360 -- is that true?

GS: Yeah, it was a game that I had in mind for the 360 when I first wrote the project document.

Will that ever happen?

GS: Well, as it is now it's fully a Wii title, so the idea of remaking it for another controller... It's just really suited for the platform, as it is now.

So is that a no?

GS: It's not something I'm thinking about, no.

It seems like it'd be a good idea.

GS: Mmmm...I dunno. (laughs)

One thing I thought was funny about No More Heroes is that the main character's motivation is that you're trying to sleep with a girl.

GS: It sure is.

In a lot of games, you rescue a princess, but this is much more direct. Why did you decide to do that?

GS: Well, when you think about the Travis character, he's an extremely up front, in-your-face guy. He acts totally off of his instincts. That's what makes him so susceptible to Sylvia's advances, you could say, so that's why it becomes his goal. He can't say no.

When developing the game, what made you decide to go so direct like this? I think it's a good thing, by the way.

GS: Why he became that sort of character, you mean? Mmm... well, as the title No More Heroes could suggest, I wanted a hero unlike anything seen before -- someone who's more like you and me, someone who sees the world more casually. I wanted to make a hero that could really be an extension of ourselves. That's how he wound up so cool like that.

I ask because there aren't a lot of games that make direct sexual references like that. I wonder why not -- it seems like a very natural human thing to do, but games don't touch upon it much.

GS: That's a good point, and I don't know why either. Maybe it's because there are so many crazy guys in Grasshopper. (laughs) Of course, part of the charm of the game is all the characters that show up in it. Travis isn't the best hero you could think of, but the thing about him is that he thinks he's the best hero in the world.

My impression is maybe that a lot of companies are afraid of addressing any kind of actual sexuality.

GS: Certainly, yeah.

Is that something that's important to you, or did it just happen to come along?

GS: It just sort of came along, I suppose. It's not like we're that good at it ourselves. (laughs) Grasshopper is all about making violent, hard-boiled games; that's our first priority. Maybe that's why.

Do you have many game design ideas that you've thrown away or not been able to implement?

GS: There are aspects that I've had to take out of games in progress, sure. That's especially the case for if you're working on something licensed, because if the licensor demands something, then there's not much you can do. I wouldn't say I've ever completely thrown away any of my own original ideas, though.

I'd like to talk a bit about Michigan. I've heard it's not your favorite game, but...

GS: Did I say that? I didn't really say that, I don't think.

So is it a favorite of yours, then?

GS: Well, everything I've made I like to some extent, and that's especially true for the output of Grasshopper itself. In fact, I'd like to make Michigan again, or something like it. There's a Spanish horror film called REC [Ed note: it was remade in the US as Quarantine], and when I watched it, I realized it was pretty much Michigan, right there. I still have a lot of ideas along those lines, and I'd love to work with Spike sometime to make a new Michigan or a remake.

It seems like the original would be a natural for the Wii, since it was released on the PS2 originally. Maybe you could make a downloadable sequel for the 360 or something.

GS: Yeah. (laughs) I'll be discussing things with [publisher] Spike.

I actually proposed to a US publisher the idea of just releasing the PS2 version in the U.S.

GS: Oh!

But Sony said it couldn't happen.

GS: Oh, why not? Too violent?

The European guys allowed it to be published, but the U.S. guys said there wasn't enough gameplay. Personally I think the game presents very interesting moral choices. You can watch the newscaster die and it doesn't really matter because you just get another one, or you can save her, or you can just film her panties or something like that. It's really...

GS: Definitely. I think Michigan had a really innovative sort of game concept.

It seemed to me like it was a kind of commentary on voyeurism, like a commentary on the way that we view people on the screen as not really people, necessarily. Like, they don't really exist because they're removed from us. It's just an avatar character, not a real human, and the game was an examination of that concept.

GS: Well, I didn't think that deeply into it. (laughs) It's really an investigative-reporter kind of game.

Honestly, I think that that's kind of what art is about, when you just create something and other people put their own meaning into it. I can see that as a critique of voyeurism, while to you, it's just something you made.

GS: Art? Mmm...

When you created that, did you have any kind of goal in mind, or was it just "I want to create a game with choices" or something?

GS: Certainly, your individual morals play a thematic role in the game. Being able to make these choices that directly affect the future was one of the things we were aiming for, and I thought it turned out to be pretty innovative.

I thought it was particularly interesting that if the reporter dies, you just get another one right away, as though the previous one's existence was not really important.

GS: Certainly.

I noticed that you always dress well. You used to wear D&G; now you've switched to Hysteric Glamour. Do you think it's important as a designer or company head to be an icon or to have a fashion sense?

GS: There's a personal drive to look nice, sure, but I think it's not as important as presenting a positive image to the kids and the young people that look up to those in the game industry, that want to be the game creators of the future. We're in the business of creating dreams, sort of.

Did you want to become this sort of icon when you were younger?

GS: Not at all. (laughs) I wanted to become a sushi chef or an astronaut.

Game designer is close to that.

GS: It sure is.

[In an editorial originally published in Game Developer magazine magazine's October 2009 issue, editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield considers whether the "evil" part of "necessary evil" really applies to game publishers, specifically discussing U.S.-based publishing processes.]

Publishers. Are they a necessary evil? Developers seem to portray them that way at times, and even the "necessary" part goes away in the indie and online spheres, where a developer can self-release. But evil? I'm not sure.

It's often been said that publishers are only out to make a buck, and the larger they get, the more that can be true. Take, for instance, this quote from an interview I did with Sierra stalwart Mark Hood about his time at Vivendi in the early 2000s:

"It basically became sitting down on a panel with eight people, probably three of whom were from the game industry, and the other five were either from a cosmetics company or hair color or water and power company, and they would be approving our games. It was like the same questions would come up every time. 'Well, how is this like Diablo? Tell me how this is like Diablo.' 'Well, it's not like Diablo. It's not at all like Diablo. It's completely different.' 'Oh, well, no. You need to give us a game like Diablo.'"

The situation has hopefully changed since the Activision merger, but in that scenario, the game is seen in terms of numbers. How much will this make us? The larger a company, the more likely it is that your executives will think this way, whether they came from another game company, or a restaurant chain.

Bury Me With My Money

Someone has to think about the money, and I'm sure you don't want it to be you, who would rather just get on making a good game. The trouble comes when the money and the creativity appear to be at odds. I'm optimistic, and feel there are ways that the money issues and creativity can fall in line to create something excellent that also makes its money. Somebody greenlit Halo, and Call of Duty, and Resident Evil 4's three restarts.

Developers and publishers often have a curious relationship. The best analogy I can think of is that of parent and child. The publisher or parent thinks it knows best, because it's been there before (shipped more games), and because "it's my money, so you'll live by my rules."

The developer or child is rebellious, and thinks it has all the answers. In many ways, it does know more than the parent, and is closer to what's innovative, but maybe hasn't figured out how to hone that energy yet. I could take this analogy further, with talk of advice, feedback loops, and misunderstandings, but ultimately, publishers have the money and the marketing, while developers have the creative spirit and know-how.

Because I Said So

What makes a good publisher then? It seems to vary based on your market. In the case of the iPhone, I've heard developers say that having a publisher is largely useful for marketing. Some might say they take a good game and promote it. Others might say they take a game that would've sold anyway, and exploit it. It all depends on how your deal went, I suppose.

For MMOs, a publisher is most likely to be the one serving your game, taking care of customer service to some extent, and performing marketing. In general, a third-party publisher isn't going to do much to your game aside from localize it.

It gets more complicated in the console arena, of course, and that's where the back-and-forth parental relationship can come into play. Ultimately, a publisher is only as good as its employees. Some of external producers at the publisher can actually really help focus your work. In a recent Game Developer postmortem, Sucker Punch mentions that marketing helped the studio trim the fat.

Publishers sometimes do know where the money is, and money allows you to make more games. What's unfortunate is when they can't see past GTA and Guitar Hero to see an actual new idea, forgetting that GTA and Guitar Hero were, at one time, new ideas, or at least clever new amalgams of old ones.

I do think publishers can definitely help make a game better. On top of marketing and feedback, publishers often also offer external QA, take care of any legal issues that may come up, and pay the bills. But that's only if they're willing to take a little risk, and actually trust the developers they're working with. Incidentally, since both companies should really be doing some proper due diligence on each other, trusting each other shouldn't be part of the "risk" bit.

IP Freely

As a developer, your job becomes knowing how to give publishers what they want (more guns!), while also making the game you want (time travel!). As publishers, the risk assessment work should mostly be done at the top end. After that, there needs to be a lot of monitoring -- after all they should get the game they pay for -- but also a lot of trust.

If you're trying to make a risky game with new ideas, it's best to wrap the concepts in the familiar. Making new IP is always going to be a battle. But if you stay strong, and both parties really listen to each other, it can be a battle that winds up getting you a better-playing and better-selling game.

Last Legion Games has announced their new iPhone/iPod Touch app, Polyghost. Polyghost allows users to place cute little creatures into their favorite pictures on the iPhone/iPod Touch. The app comes with a program that will help users get started. Once the user has selected the creature they want to put in their pictures, it is off [...] Continue reading

The links section up there only lets me provide four links (my bad), so here's the Amiga demo, should you actually want it.

It may not surprise you to know that I look at a lot of indie games, and that a great may I spend only a few minutes with, because life is too short. Those are the ones that don't normally get reviewed here. Going into BOH, I expected it to be like that. Way retro graphics, manual with lots of widgets in it, ugly website, 3D overhead shooter, a genre done to death many years ago, and Amiga support, forsooth! Should be a quick no.

And then I found myself on the fifth level.

This is a gamestyle that's been done to death, and a great many retro-style games are developed because they're within the developer's capabilities, not because the developer actually wants to work in this metier. That doesn't seem to be the case here; Bevilacqua clearly loves his material, and the result is a tense game, the sort of edge-of-the-seat experience that shooters strive for, albeit in a quite retro mode. And a fair bit of variety introduced over time; not so much in the weapons department, which is what's expected of 2D shooters, but more in terms of powerups, obstacle types, different kinds of gates, and the like.

This kind of thing is clearly a minority taste; and yet, BOH is equally clearly executed with fondness, a passion for the subgenre, and a degree of creativity, and is therefore excellent of its kind.