ENCONTRE UNA ENTREVISTA MUY, MUY INTERESANTE DONDE SE DICEN MUCHAS COSAS INCREIBLES QUE DEMUESTRAN LA SABIDURIA DE ESTE TIPO EN CUANTO A ESTA INDUSTRIA.

ALGUNAS DE LAS COSAS QUE MAS ME LLAMARON LA ATENCION LAS TRADUSCO:

- "CREO QUE EN EL FUTURO VEREMOS MUCHAS COLABORACIONES."

- "MI FILOSOFIA ES QUE LOS VIDEOJUEGOS NO SON LINEALES. UNA PELICULA PUEDE ESTAR EN UN JUEGO, PERO UN JUEGO NO PUEDE ESTAR EN UNA PELICULA."

- "EN JAPON HAY MAS CULTURA EN CUANTO A LOS VIDEOJUEGOS, YA QUE ESTAN HAYA DESDE ANTES DE QUE ESTUVIERAN EN OCCIDENTE."

- "ESCUCHAMOS A RYHUHEY KITAMURA (DIRECTOR DE CINE JAPONES) QUE NOS DICE QUE DESDE JOVEN LE HA ENCANTADO METAL GEAR. SI LE PREGUNTAMOS A SPIELBERG, POR EJEMPLO, NO CREO QUE LE GUSTEN LOS VIDEOJUEGOS."


- "HEMOS CONVERSADO CON KOJIMA SOBRE HACER OTRO JUEGO EN COLABORACION, PERO SI LO HACEMOS, SERIA UN PROJECTO COMPLETAMENTE ORIGINAL."

- "CREO QUE SONY HACE LO QUE QUIERE, PERO NO CREO QUE SU EMOTION ENGINE TRAJO ALGUNA "EMOCION" A SUS JUEGOS. CREO QUE LO ULTIMO QUE ESCUCHE FUE ESO DE TECNOLOGIA SELF-HEALING... TENGO UN TITULO DE CIENCIAS DE COMPUTADORES, Y ESO NO ME SUENA MUY REALISTA."

- "LLEGARA UN MOMENTO EN QUE LAS DIFERENCIAS TECNICAS ENTRE LAS CONSOLAS NO IMPORTARAN EN LO MAS MINIMO. TODAS SERAN MUY PARECIDAS. LO IMPORTANTE SERA EL SOFTWARE. CUANDO COMPRO UN LIBRO NO ME FIJO EN QUE TIPO DE PAPEL ESTA IMPRESO, ME FIJO EN EL AUTOR."

Y EL ULTIMO COMENTARIO QUE ME LLAMO LA ATENCION FUE UN POSIBLE PROYECTO A FUTURO:

- ME ENCANTARIA HACER UN ZELDA PARA ADULTOS.

MUY BUENA ENTREVISTA. TRATE DE TRADUCIR LO QUE CREO, FUE LO MAS INTERESANTE, PERO HAY MUCHAS COSAS MAS QUE VALEN LA PENA LEER. LAMENTABLEMENTE SOY MUY PERESOSO PARA TRADUCIRLA TODA, ASI QUE LES DEJO LA ENTREVISTA EN INGLES, PARA QUE LOS BILINGUES LA DISFRUTEN.

UN SALUDO.



Interview with Denis Dyack on MGS:TT - Category: Action (by 1up.com)
DENIS DYACK
THE INTERVIEW

The co-designer of MGS: The Twin Snakes talks about bad movie licenses, collaborating with Konami, and the game he'd like to remake next.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, due out from Nintendo on March 9, is the product of a seemingly improbable collaboration. It all worked out like a giant game of telephone, in fact. Hideo Kojima, director of the Metal Gear series, had a yen to see MGS on the GameCube but didn't have the resources to do it himself. So he phoned his good friend Shigeru Miyamoto for help, and Miyamoto then phoned his good friend Denis Dyack (leader of Silicon Knights and designer of Eternal Darkness) to get him in on the project. Kojima wasn't done, though -- he also called movie director Ryuhei Kitamura to give the cutscenes in MGS the sprucing-up they'll need once Dyack and crew were done sprucing up the graphics. The result: a game that's the main ticket for GameCube owners this spring. Knowing the right people gets you everywhere in this business.

In this 1UP/EGM interview, Dyack talks about what it was like to work with the pillars of the Japanese game industry, what he thinks of bad movie-to-game conversions, and how he sees Nintendo positioning itself in the future. Read closely enough, and you may even get a hint or two on his next project...

EGM: What was the biggest hurdle to Twin Snakes development?

Denis Dyack: Well, I think that any time you get three groups working together instead of the usual two, it's more challenging. We dedicated a tremendous amount of effort into this, and so did Nintendo and Konami. Was it more difficult than we expected, though? I don't know. We knew that it was going to be challenging, so we prepared for it. We knew that the effort would be significant, so we're happy with the results. It kind of played out as we thought it would... we had a certain schedule that was very aggressive, but generally we've been able to make that. What overrode the schedule, however, was quality. And there were a few times when we just wanted to make it better. We've always taken that approach, and you know Konami and Nintendo's high standards. I don't think anyone's going to be disappointed.

I think another big challenge is that it's not really any kind of port or anything. It's really a new experience, and the amount of change that required was more than we thought. But we're happy with it, and we wouldn't have done it otherwise.

EGM: Did you feel a lot of pressure from Nintendo and Konami to deliver the perfect game here? Was it like Gus Van Zant remaking Psycho, where the final project will be judged far more harshly than a normal game?

DD: Oh, yeah! You've got [Shigeru] Miyamoto, whose standards are very, very high. And you've got [Hideo] Kojima and Konami's standards, and our standards, which I think are pretty high. The one group who you can't count on is the fans: some of the hardcore MGS fans are just merciless, and they won't accept anything substandard. So we had tremendous pressure, and when I met with other people it was one of the first things we talked about. It was like, "Hey, so you're working with Miyamoto. How's your ulcer?" They're great to work with, even with the high pressure and great expectations. As we approach the final stretch of the project, we think people will be pleased.

EGM: How much do you think the new cinemas change MGS's feel? Did you have much interaction with director Ryuhei Kitamura, or were the cut-scenes directed and planned out separately from the main game?

DD: We had some interaction with him, certainly, but by and large he was the chief of that and took them in ways that we were blown away with. We had some involvement with the technical end of it, as some effects had to be done, etc. But in general, he was the director. He worked very closely with Kojima on motion capture -- that was a big factor as well.

I think that, in some ways, the lack of attitude amongst the Japanese creative community is a welcome change. Gaming's been around much longer there; they never had the big crash that we had here. Kitamura says things like "I grew up playing Metal Gear," and I just don't think that Steven Spielberg would say that. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe he's just really into games. But at the end of the day, I really think that this collaboration is very unique.

The interesting thing is that Kitamura really added to the cinematics. He really knew the gameplay. It's not something where someone from Hollywood came and said "Let's make a movie game;" that would ruin everything. This was real. The experience was there in the right way.

EGM: Rumors abound that you're so pleased with this Silicon Knights-Konami-Nintendo partnership that you're considering pursing another joint project. Is that true?

DD: Pursuing an original property together is something that we've discussed... I don't worry about Silicon Knights losing its identity as part of this collaboration. Imagine this -- it's totally hypothetical, of course, but what if the three groups came together and merged to be one... that would be a great thing for the industry, wouldn't it? I think that SK will always be known for its original projects, but as long as there's room for collaboration, we will pursue it. Konami and Nintendo are both masters; they're fantastic to work with. It's hard to turn down an opportunity like that.

EGM: It's not as if, say, Dave Perry asked you to make a game? Yeah, exactly. The latest Matrix game hasn't exactly been motivating.

DD: Well, that's an example of movies and gaming… ...not working. You know, it's too bad because... I'm not saying who's responsible for this, but it's titles like these that sell significant numbers of copies, and then people say "nobody's buying games anymore." I wonder why? My whole philosophy on that is that games are a nonlinear genre, while movies and music are linear, and you can put a movie inside of a videogame, but you can't put a game inside of a movie. So, inherently, games will always be harder to make. And while the budgets for movies are higher right now, that's not going to continue. Eventually, it will get to the point that because they're harder to make, [games] will cost more. I'd really like to see games get exposed to a broader demographic... I think that we won't see movies influencing games so much. We might even see a lot more movies based on games.

EGM: Generally, when I ask a really busy developer what games he played in the last year, he says "none, I have no time." Same with you?

DD: No! It's my responsibility to know what's out there, so I play a lot. Currently, I'm playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and I'm actually also doing FFXI. It's fun. I'm playing Homeworld 2 on the PC... oh, and Prince of Persia, I think that's cool. Beyond Good & Evil was neat. I think those two will hopefully find an audience. The world needs to be complimented by new franchises as well as older ones. It's a really terrible thing to see bad games do incredibly well, like in 2003. In the end of the day, the longevity will hopefully go to those who are creative. Creatively, Ubisoft had a great year.

EGM: Twin Snakes is launching at a fortuitous time; Christmas was great for the GameCube, and lots of gamers are just now starting to get games for it. Do you think that 2004 could be the year that GC reclaims second place?

DD: As far as I know, we already have. What's more important than that, I think, is that the GC player base is getting a game that nobody else is getting. There's never been a Metal Gear Solid on a Nintendo console. People who are hardcore MGS fans will gravitate towards it. I've gotten a little bit of hate mail from people who don't have a Cube, and I just say "Pick up a Cube, you won't regret it." There are a lot of great games on it. It really is a testament to the collaboration; I think we're going to see a lot more of this in the future.

As far as who claims second place, I really don't know how important it is. I know it's important to say who dominates, but I think that for Nintendo's held their own as a group, and as long as people are satisfied, then that's what's important. I'm confident that will be the case with Twin Snakes. At the end of the day, Nintendo clearly had a really strong end of the year. I was very surprised that Microsoft and Sony didn't drop their price... Nintendo really dominated. It's important, though, that we maintain our quality and our idea of what games should be. When these hardware wars become meaningless -- and they will; I don't know if anyone can even win these things -- people will look back at Nintendo and think quality games. We're big fans ourselves, and it's weird to be working on something that I'm so into.

EGM: What are your thoughts on the next generation of consoles? Do you think there will be a waiting game to see who has what software?

DD: I think that the next generation of consoles will be more competitive. The differences between the different platforms will become smaller and smaller. Nintendo has always de-emphasized technology, so the GameCube can do some things better than the Xbox can, but you've never heard our group saying we're better than the Xbox. We're focused on quality games, and other groups are talking about their technology and 'self-healing hardware', and I think that's all meaningless. I think it's going to come down to consumers reaching a perceptual threshold, where they're no longer able to tell the differences between the hardware systems. I think it's inevitable that there will be no perceivable difference between them, in fact. It's going to come down to who makes the best games and who tells the best stories. It's going to become 100% a software race.

I think Sony does what they want to do, but I don't think their Emotion Engine brought any emotion to their games. And I think the latest thing I heard about was this 'self-healing technology'... I have a masters in computer science, and that doesn't sound very realistic.


When I go to buy a book, I look for authors. I don't look for what kind of paper it was printed on. Collaboration is going to become essential. I remember when Spielberg and Lucas got together to make Raiders of the Lost Ark; I looked at that thing and said "that is the weirdest thing I've ever seen", but when I saw it, it was incredible. I used to be a Star Wars fan -- not the latest ones, but the early ones -- but I really got into Raiders. I think those kinds of collaborations are going to be the future of our industry.

If people are searching for how Nintendo is being really aggressive in the future, look to how we're reaching out for collaborations. Domination isn't going to happen overnight. Kojima says that he wants to do another collaboration, so after we finish our prospective projects, we're going to get together again and make something great. The industry is changing -- the merger of western and eastern developers is the future. The developers in North America just don't have the history that Japanese ones do, and I'll tell you, working with these guys... they know some really great stuff, and I'm blown away by their attention to detail. In some ways, American developers act like they're rock stars, and anything they touch must be cool. I don't know if they analyze what makes their games good or not, but a lot of them have one huge hit and never repeat it again. Then, five years later, they go out of business and people are, like, what happened? Meanwhile, in Japan, the developers have been able to continue franchises and innovate with them.

EGM: Since you've now cut your teeth remaking one of the greatest games ever made, what would be your dream remake candidate for the future? Super Mario Bros., maybe?

DD: Ooh... A dream remake? Honestly, I think this is it. I've done it. Certainly, a lot of franchises are out there that I'd like to do. I'd love to do a realistic, mature take on Zelda... Ahh, I shouldn't talk about this. There's a lot of stuff. We always want to do original stuff, but this has been so successful that I want to do it again.

Oye amigo excelente articulo, se ve que te gusta indgar, la verdad es que la entevista ,es un tipaso, sabe lo que hace y por lo que veo no esta monopolizado como otros, que solo se dedican a otras consolas!

15 Puntos!

GRACIAS AMIGO. BUENO, PUES SI, ESTE DENIS DYACK ES UNO DE LOS MEJORES DE LA INDUSTRIA. ES UN TIPO MUY SENCILLO QUE A VECES HASTA SE PASEA POR LOS FOROS DE IGN.COM Y PLANETGAMECUBE.COM PARA SALUDAR A SUS FANS! LO CUAL ES INCREIBLE, CONSIDERANDO QUE NUNCA EN MI VIDA HABIA VISTO A UN DISEÑADOR DE JUEGOS SACAR TIEMPO PARA HABLAR Y RESPONDER PREGUNTAS DIRECTAMENTE A LOS FANS EN UN FORO.

ES UN TIPO MUY INTELIGENTE, QUE LE ENCANTA LA LITERATURA. ESTAS INFLUENCIAS LAS APLICA A SUS JUEGOS, Y EL RESULTADO SON JUEGOS REALMENTE MUY INTELIGENTES Y BIEN HECHOS.

PUEDO DECIR QUE GRACIAS A DENIS DYACK Y SILICON KNIGHTS ES QUE TENGO TODAVIA FE EN NINTENDO.

PD: MAÑANA SALE A LA VENTA METAL GEAR SOLID: THE TWIN SNAKES!!!

Lo compraria ahora mismo pero ando en ruina xD me deben como 400 US y no me pagan, bueno en fin esperare y no dudare ni un minuto en comprarlo