Japanese developers must look to the West, says Swery

Japanese game developers must look to international influences, the creator of Deadly Premonition has warned.

Hidetaka Suehiro – better known as Swery – says that he remains broadly positive about the Japanese games industry, despite it being an “imperfect” part of Japanese culture.

“It’s a very difficult question,” replied Swery, when asked how optimistic he felt about the current state of Japanese development. “It’s an imperfect part of Japan’s culture, but still a big part. Japanese movies are different from Hollywood movies, and that same analogy applies to Japanese games.

“Games will probably move forward in that same fashion, bringing something unique for Japan. It might be a smaller market share, but the games will still be interesting for Western people in the same way that Japanese movies are. There are Japanese people who are trying to make Hollywood movies, and often they try hard and fail.

“I’m good at making at games for the Western market, so I’ll continue to do that.”

But as the country’s own industry shrinks, it will be increasingly necessary for new developers to look to influences outside of Japan, Swery added.

“The size of the industry is getting smaller, but I’m still optimistic in the sense that there’s still room for Japanese games; I’m just pessimistic about the size getting smaller.

“For people who are young and coming into the games industry in Japan, it’s going to be important for them to not be totally focused on Japanese video games. They’re going to need to have influences from [Western] movies, stories and TV series.”

Swery’s most recent project, Deadly Premonition, was heavily influenced by Twin Peaks – David Lynch’s cult TV drama. In July, the game was made available via Games On Demand.

In the same interview Swery also told VideoGamer.com that Deadly Premonition’s Raincoat Killer could star in a spin-off game.