Ben-DutkaNobody has been harder on Japanese game development than some of the leading Japanese designers. Even Hideo Kojima went after his compatriots by saying they "lacked motivation and passion."
But his most recent comment supports the Japanese style. Via Twitter and noted at GamerNode , Kojima spoke a bit about the differences between Japanese and Western level design. Essentially, he thinks the primary difference centers on artistry vs. technology:
"The differences between the creators in Japan and the West in this industry… Japanese creators try to express the game's environment through beautiful artwork, but western developers use technology to draw out the environment. The Japanese make the models and textures carefully to create a world. The West use shaders, lighting, shadows, effects, and programming to create their world."
It isn't necessarily an attack and really, it's quite interesting. It's not something one thinks about often but if you sit back and consider, this seems to be a reasonable explanation. It's also clear that Kojima, being an artist himself, places artistry above technological prowess in the world of video games…something not enough designers do, in our eyes. Then again, if we don't have the aforementioned prowess, we lose the luster of some of that artistry. Perhaps a Catch .22…?
It's a complicated issue, to be sure.
You can use both, i don't see any harm in it as long as you are dedicated to bring the best of both art and technology and bring them together.
I'd like it if Japanese developers raised the bar and woke up the Western developers to try harder.
Kojima is a smart man, but I disagree somewhat with him. You should never defend yourself at the expense of someone else. There are some very talented developers around the world that do a fine job on par with any Japanese developers.
Here lately the west has been putting the hurts on the Japanese industry. They need to start producing and save the talk. Kojima can only speak for himself and he does live up to his words. Too bad other Japanese developers aren't listening to him.
Haven't u heard of the Ryu Ga Gotoku(Like a Dragon) Series or Yakuza series they are awesome developers.If you see Yakuza 1,2,3,4 and kenzan! they are games with art and technology of the ps3 combined.Toshihiro nagoshi has made fantastic games.
I can't agree, though I'm by no means an expert on Yakuza. The Yakuza 3 demo felt very dated to me.
kojima is like don cherry, if he talks you STUF and listen
to my knowledge he's only game dev to cross culture on mainstream successfully, w/ metal gear of course,
him and the whole blizzard entertainment i guess, but even for the them the original team were disolved into flagship studio
hes definitely right about the art thing, asian games certainly have more of emphasis on art than western games which makes them unique and, well, better!
but that does not mean asian developers dont use tech, i mean look at MGS4 still looks freaking amazing, or rising with its really cool accurate slicing system.
cant wait till rising comes out, that and move support were a match made in gaming heaven!!!!!!
*shrugs* Kojima can say whatever he pleases at this point in his career
"lacked motivation and passion."
Certainly developers must have these qualities or they will not be doing it long. I will not argue against his opinion but I will state my own. All games strike a balance between art and technology. Some favor one over another but one without the other would make for a horrible game experience. Even in video games humble beginnings creativity was king when technology was lacking. That is not a fact that has been forgotten.
Developers have become much more dependent on technology today in general because they have it. It is not fair in my opinion to make a generalized statement about Japan or "the west". In this industry of entertainment and artistic expression the only statement that should be made is: I can't wait to see whats next!