Iconic Japanese game designer Swery – of Deadly Premonition fame – has been on sabbatical from the games industry since November last year. He’s been on extended sick leave, recovering from reactive hypoglycemia. IGN Japan caught up with him at the recent BitSummit in Kyoto, and what he’s been up to may surprise you.
“I am currently away from work on sick leave, and in my private time I am writing a novel,” he says. “The first reason is that I suddenly had time on my hands, but the next reason is that I was saddened by the death of my cat and I wanted to find a form to express my sadness. So I started writing a book that stars a cat. In a British countryside town, there is a murder case, and a mystery unfolds that is written from the perspective of the cat. It’s like a version of Deadly Premonition but set in Britain. In Deadly Premonition, a protagonist from the city comes to a rural town and experiences being a fish out of water. In my novel, with the British countryside town, the people within the town are all very close, but by making the protagonist something other than human, that creates a filter to keep the reader a step removed.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
“I am currently away from work on sick leave, and in my private time I am writing a novel,” he says. “The first reason is that I suddenly had time on my hands, but the next reason is that I was saddened by the death of my cat and I wanted to find a form to express my sadness. So I started writing a book that stars a cat. In a British countryside town, there is a murder case, and a mystery unfolds that is written from the perspective of the cat. It’s like a version of Deadly Premonition but set in Britain. In Deadly Premonition, a protagonist from the city comes to a rural town and experiences being a fish out of water. In my novel, with the British countryside town, the people within the town are all very close, but by making the protagonist something other than human, that creates a filter to keep the reader a step removed.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...