Toru Iwatani talks Pac-Man Championship Edition
So it took some goading but now you love Pac-Man Championship Edition. It’s got just enough newness without crapping all over the original concept or making it a half-assed action/platformer. But how long was it in development? How did the ideas come about? That ‘Euro Xbox guy’, AceyBongos, had a chance to e-mail Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani recently and he offered up a few insights into the new game.
How exciting was it for you to bring the original version of Pac-Man to Xbox Live Arcade last year?
Twenty-seven years ago one could only compete with players from their local arcade. So you can imagine I was really excited just thinking about people from all over the world being able to compete against each other. Pac-Man has managed to thrive beyond its natural time frame, and to see it resurrected on a network where players all over the world can enjoy it makes me a very happy man.
Did you always have plans and ideas for Pac-Man Championship, or were you inspired after the original version hit Live and was so successful?
Whenever I got together with the Xbox Live Arcade development team we always ended up talking about how much we wanted to create a new Pac-Man for the HD era. Panoramic HD screens have a lot of space for Pac-Man to move and the new hardware provides a lot of sound and visual possibilities. And then, last summer (2006) Microsoft offered to organize a worldwide Pac-Man tournament. We thought it was the perfect chance, so we didn’t hesitate and went ahead with this idea.
Could you give us an overview of the new additions and let us know which is your personal favourite?
This new Pac-Man has three new elements.
Firstly, we have established a “Time Limit”. With the original Pac-Man, you could play for as long as possible if you managed to avoid contact with the ghosts. But with the premise of a World Championship, a time limit has been introduced which we believe will help to help to create tense and exciting battles between players.
Secondly, we have revised the way the game progresses and now we have “Non-Stop Action”. The original Pac-Man required players to eat all the Pac-Dots on the screen in order to complete the stage and move on to the next one. This new Pac-Man makes use of the panoramic screen and divides the labyrinth into two halves (left and right). This allows players to enjoy the Pac-Man without any interruptions as the tension from the time limit builds up.
Finally, we have “Speed”. Game speed has been increased and this makes high scores possible. We need excitement in a World Championship, and I’m sure players will be able to feel the excitement of this increased speed.
Then, out of nowhere, he turns on gaming itself when asked if Pac-Man can still teach game developers a thing or two. I was worried as soon as I saw the “games are not movies” line but he makes a pretty good point.
To put it simply, “games are not movies”. The emotions and catharsis one gets from movies can only come from that source. The film maker weaves the magic for two hours or so. But the game maker has to come up with a fun, enjoyable interactive “experience” which runs on hardware. I fear all these improvements in graphic power are turning many games into movie-like experiences which are missing on the essential nature of what a game is.
Check out the full interview for more.
