Toru Iwatani
If people in the modern gaming industry hope to be successful thirty years from now, they may want to look to the past before looking to the future. In other words, they could take a lesson.
According Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man, gaming could be in danger of losing its audience if current trends aren’t curtailed. In an interview by Game Developer Magazine, Iwatani states fears that “we’ll lose our audience” if things don’t change. He feels that the key is making games that are memorable, as opposed to profitable. He is focused on the long run instead of turning a quick buck.
Of course, who better to look to for advice on longevity than the creator of Pac-Man? Pac-Man was released in May of 1980 by Midway, first for the coin operated arcades, and then for everything else. It is one of only three games featured in the Smithsonian as a piece of cultural history. Iwatani probably knows something about making memorable games.
Iwatani fears that today’s games, from social networking games and MMOPGs to the latest home video gaming console releases, are simply…simple. They are easy to design, easy to program, easy to pump out by the dozen, easy to market and easy to forget.
Read more about his theories on the past and the future in this in-depth Gamasutra article.
Pac-Man creator's sage advice,Tags: Pac-Man
