Tetsuya Mizuguchi

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (水口 哲也, Mizuguchi Tetsuya, born May 22, 1965 in Otaru, Hokkaidō, Japan) is a video game designer and co-founder (along with ex-Sega developers) of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega as a producer in their Sega AM3 'arcade machines' team, developing games like Sega Rally and Sega Touring Car Championship, before moving on to become the head of Sega's United Game Artists division, the team responsible for the Rez and Space Channel 5. Mizuguchi is known for creating video games that incorporate a notable emphasis on interactive sound design, evidenced by Rez, Lumines, and Child of Eden.

Career

Mizuguchi worked for Japanese game publisher, Sega, from 1990 to 2003 and began his career – not on a game – but by first designing an interactive 'ride' titled Megalopolis, combining then-embryonic 3D polygonal graphics and CGI (Computer-generated imagery) with the physical experience of Sega's hydraulic 'AS-1' motion simulator. With his team having gained enough experience with 3D graphics technology, he then went on to develop the acclaimed racing simulator, Sega Rally, which was influential in the racing space, inspiring future racing game franchises like Colin McRae Rally (another rally simulator) and the rally segments of the Gran Turismo (series). He continued in the racing genre with Sega Rally Championship 2 and Sega Touring Car Championship, before moving onto early rhythm-based music games like Space Channel 5 (and Space Channel 5: Part 2), and Rez. Space Channel 5 and Rez (especially Rez) are referenced in modern gaming media as essential and influential to the development of the modern wave of music-rhythm games, with Harmonix Music Systems co-founder, Alex Rigopulos citing Mizuguchi as an influence in Harmonix's history. Mizuguchi's final position at Sega was Chief Creative Officer of Sega's United Game Artists game division.

Tetsuya

Tetsuya (てつや, テツヤ) is a common masculine Japanese given name.

Possible writings

Tetsuya can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:

The name can also be written in hiragana or katakana.

People

Child of Eden

Child of Eden is a rhythm action game created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, best known for Rez, developed by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The game announcement opened Ubisoft's pre-E3 2010 press conference and was one of the first titles shown with support for Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral. The game serves as a prequel to Mizuguchi's earlier game Rez and sees players shoot at various targets which produce melodic sounds upon destruction. It was developed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and is compatible with Microsoft's Kinect, PlayStation Move and standard controllers for both consoles. In April 2011, Mizuguchi announced that he had developed a unique corset peripheral for the game, which featured four controllers, all of which vibrated to the game's music. The new device is currently only available in Q Entertainment studios, and is unlikely to see a retail release.

As was the case with Rez, Child of Eden is presented as an experiment on synesthesia, integrating sound, vision and touch in one seamless experience. The game features music from Genki Rockets.