Resident evil creator highlights move to emotional aspect in game development

Mega Man and Resident Evil creator, Keiji Inafune, believes that developers are now focusing more on emotion in their games, as opposed to aiming for sensationalism and realism as they have in the past, which Inafune says has now hit a ceiling.

This ceiling on the previous design philosophy has turned developers towards the emotional aspects of their games, which Inafune now believes is key to modern game design.

“I’ve watched the evolution of games and the games industry for the last 25 years; I’ve always had a front-row seat,” said Inafune. “In many modern action games, it’s about how realistic you can make the experience, how sensational the action is,” he said.

“But the creators of the best games today have realized that they need to do something more than becoming more realistic, more sensational – it’s probably already hit the ceiling,” he continued, acknowledging the lack of recent major advances in graphics.

“[Developers] thinking about creating something new by including that emotional aspect. In thinking globally, in order to compete with the top game creators today, I’ve also had to think about including that emotional aspect. The games I work on will all include that as a big theme.”

Inafune tries to inject this philosophy into his latest game, Soul Sacrifice, a Vita exclusive where players face down enormous demons by sacrificing parts of their body – the bigger the sacrifice, the stronger the effect. The game carries with it a strong morality system as players are asked to make difficult decisions.