b'C E L E B R I T Y S P O T L I G H T I N T E R V I E W Yu SuzukiVideo Game VisionaryA first headed Segas AM2 team for 18 years. He is responsible for some s a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, Yu Suzukiis revered in the video gaming world as one of its first true auteurs, having of Segas biggest arcade hits, including three-dimensional sprite-scaling games that used taikan motion simulator arcade cabinets, and created groundbreaking game experiences like Hang-On in 1985 through Space Harrier, Out Run, and After Burner. By pioneering polygonal 3D games such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, he popularized 3D graphics as a video game feature. As a hardware engineer, he led the development of arcade system boards and the SEGA Dreamcast console in thelate 1990s, as well as its corresponding NAOMI arcade hardware. Suzuki created the revolutionary Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue 2 (2001) gamesfor Segas Dreamcast. 15 years later and no longer working with Sega, Suzuki decided to createShenmue III independently for his fans and raised more than $6.3 million through the highest-funded video game Kickstarter project in history. Suzukibecame the sixth person to be inducted into theAcademy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, and IGN listed him at #9 in their list ofThe Top 100 Game Creators of All Time.What was it that attracted you to com- When you design your games, did puter programming when you wereyou have a specific overall concept younger, and specifically, video gamein mind, or is there an initial idea as a programming?starting point and then you see where When I was little, I enjoyed building that goes? different things with Lego. Then in gradeMost of the time I start out with anschool it was plastic models, but I overall concept. This concept is informed combined the parts to make whatever Iby things like market research, narrowing wanted. In university I got a PC and learneddown the game genre, and givingof programming. To me, programming wasconsideration as to how well the noveltylike Lego-something to play around withof the core mechanics will hold up.and have fun by combining things to makeAbove, Game art by Hudson Pitalo. (Pictured topall sorts of other things. : Sega DREAMCAST console, Shenmue, to bottom)Dynamite Dux, Virtua Fighter, and Out RunWhat were you looking to first achieve with creating yourYou are often way ahead of everyone when predicting video incredibly popular & innovative video game Shenmue, andgame evolution. What will video gaming look like in the then with Shenmue III? coming decades? In Shenmues case, it was about giving players a high level of playMore advanced AI will be applied to battles, character control choice freedom in an open world-something that not yet beenand sub-character thought processes which may likely produce achieved in games of that time. If you wanted to progress theoutcomes in the game world that the creators themselves were story line, you could do that, or if you wanted to hang around, younot expecting. Sensor technologies will also advance so things like could just hang around. It was that kind of game. For Shenmue III,brainwave detection could reduce the need for cumbersome input I had only one thing in mind: to create the next installment fansdevices. On the output side, games will continue to evolve based have waited so long for. on cutting-edge technologies, and I think that well see everything from 3D sound to retinal projection.14 visionsSpring 2022 Sumitomo Corporation of Americas'