I recently read a fascinating article on Enhance, the Japanese developer behind Tetris Effect and Lumines: Arise. Their company vision is, simply put, a breath of fresh air:
“Experience is king, synesthesia is queen.”
Synesthesia—the involuntary experience generated by stimulating one sensory pathway—and the concept of Kondō (to move emotionally) are the core of their design process.
I have a huge weak spot for companies with this kind of vision. They are hard to execute, but they make so much sense to me.
We are currently living in the era of the product managerization of game design, where every creative decision is filtered through short-term metrics. These experience-first points of view come like a breath of fresh air, reminding us of the original purpose of our craft.
We are humans making entertainment. Focusing solely on automation and metric-driven tuning can make us forget the human spark that creates great things.
Intense design discussions, deep conceptualization, and messy prototyping—that’s what I strive for.
Enhance starts by making music and then breaking that music down into pieces to design the right stages (levels). It is an inverted process that prioritizes the sensory and emotional outcome. It’s so interesting; I wish I could be in that room to see it.