2017 TGDF Notes: Making the Future Present Through Rez Infinite

Speaker | Enhance Games | Tetsuya Mizuguchi

Tetsuya Mizuguchi is known for Sega Rally Championship, Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines, Children of Eden, and Rez Infinite. His work explores how media can expand imagination and human perception, across games, music, music videos, and live performance. Through Enhance Games, he has continued to explore VR, AR, MR, and synesthetic entertainment experiences.

─ Excerpted from TGDF official

These are personal notes and may not fully represent the original speaker’s intent.

Other articles in this series

• 2017 TGDF Notes: Creating 3D Japanese Animation Quality in a Small Indie Studio
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Game AI and Level Difficulty
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Finding a Path in a Crowded Market
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Making the Future Present Through Rez Infinite
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Lanota Development Experience
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Postmortem on What Went Right and Wrong
• 2017 TGDF Notes: The Art Direction of Detention
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Visual Design Notes from Qubot
• 2017 TGDF Notes: Survival Rules for Game Software Engineers

2001: Rez launched on console

2016: Rez Infinite launched on PS4 and PS VR

After 15 years, PS VR pushed the experience into a stronger form.

What the game communicates

The player acts as a hacker eliminating viruses inside geometric space. Every action creates music, making the experience feel closer to a playable music performance.

Synesthesia

• The game is not only visual and auditory; it tries to connect multiple senses into one experience.
• Painter Wassily Kandinsky used sensory association in his work, converting touch and sound into color and geometric form.

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition 8

2001: Rez

• Three and a half years of concept work
• Humans do not reject music
• Players respond to and resonate with music
• Due to technical limitations, it could only become a 2D game at the time
• A vibration add-on was created to improve the player experience

2016: Rez Infinite

• VR turned the experience from 2D into 3D immersion
• Synesthesia Suit Synesthesia Suit
  • Vibrates different body areas according to the music rhythm to create a tactile layer
  • 26 vibrators

• Much of the game’s revenue was invested back into synesthesia equipment development.
• Mizuguchi wanted to make it badly enough that he borrowed 50 million yen at the early stage.
• After looking for funding, the project eventually persuaded investors. Including marketing, the total cost reached 250 million yen.

Closing notes

• Always write down strange ideas. They may become possible later.
• Keep asking whether the game is fun and what makes it distinct. If you can keep asking that for 20 years, you might eventually know something.

Attribution

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