KIKIZO GAMES INTERVIEWS TOMONOBU ITAGAKI

Kikizo Games had a chance to sit down with Tecmo’s Tomonobu Itagaki and talk about DOAX2, Ninja Gaiden 2 and how he gets his ideas for game development. Always an interesting interview subject, Itagaki takes the interview pretty much all over the place and reveals one of his secrets of game design over a set of questions.

His secret? He comes up with better ideas while he’s drunk;

“Haha! It’s hard to say, because I am drinking pretty much full-time. Of course, there are ups and downs, waves, of how I drink in terms of the amount, but it’s a long period of time. In the last ten years – not that you asked this question – I think I had better ideas when I was drinking whisky. When I am drinking shochu, that’s a conservative drink, so the ideas are not that great. Beer is just like water to me, so it just helps me and everyone else loosen up a little bit, it doesn’t really contribute to coming up with ideas.” -Tomonobu Itagaki

So there ya have it kids – if you want to be a legendary game designer, you’d better start working on your drinking skills now. (Please note that that’s a JOKE – do not go out and develop a drinking problem on my say so)

He did however find time to touch on the subject of the Playstation 3, Wii and Ninja Gaiden 2. On Gaiden 2, Itagaki noted that the game is now in the preparation stage, and given his tendency to only want to concentrate on one title at a time, it would indicate it may be his next project following DOAX2. On the subject of upcoming game consoles Itagaki was a little more restrained. He admitted to being intrigued by both systems, and expressed a desire to make games for the Wii, but reiterated his point that his focus is entirely on DOAX2 at the moment. He did however mention that there are other development teams looking at both consoles over at Tecmo, including one that is already working on a Wii golf title.

Check out the full interview at this link and be sure to take enough notes so you can explain to your boss why it’s good that you’re still drunk at 9am.