Rez, Space Channel 5 creator Mizuguchi returns to game development

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May 9, 2014

After stepping away from game development and leaving the company he founded, Rez and Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi now says he plans to return to the game development industry.

Mizuguchi, who has been lecturing at Keio University in Tokyo, told Edge he's not content with that one role. "I need both. I need to share my experiences and ideas with the younger generation. This is one mission," he explained. "But I also need to keep creating. So I'm doing both now. I'm preparing my own creation."

Currently, Mizuguchi is "helping with some social games in Japan" that he can't yet talk about. In addition to those projects, he's preparing to make a game of his own, "maybe this year or next year."

The game won't be produced by a typical studio. "I will make a new kind of creative environment. I'm not that bothered about starting a new company," he said. "Instead, I'll connect with people and put together a group who are essential to the project, and then for the next project I'll start again. Everyone will be freelance. It will be similar to how you make a film or how you make music, with a group of independent people with specific knowhow working together."

He talked about having interest in mobile and free-to-play games, but stopped short of committing to either. He also shied away from providing any hard details about what his new game would be like, instead referencing a talk he gave at the recent BitSummit conference where he discussed synaesthesia.

"This is a big thing for me," he said. "I started that kind of concept in games with Rez, and this is a long journey, across Rez and Lumines and Child of Eden, and maybe Space Channel 5 too. That part of my DNA will never die, so this is kind of a life's work for me. So I'm thinking about what is next, and what's the future experience."

Mizuguchi cofounded Q Entertainment (most recently responsible for Child of Eden and Vita launch title Lumines: Electronic Symphony, among other games) in 2003 and would work there for the next decade. In 2012, it was reported that he had moved away from game production, assuming a role as "more of a spokesperson," according to the studio's Nobuhiko Shimizu. A year later, he left the company, a fact which was only made public back in March.