-- = Interviewer

M: = Shinji Mikami

Biohazard World of Shinji Mikami

-- Mr. Mikami, What kind of games had you made in Capcom before Resident Evil?
M:I had made 4 or 5 games, right after I started work in Capcom, I made a game for GameBoy. Black and white Gameboy. That was a quiz-adventure game called "HATENA's adventure". That was ma first work. My boss told me to "Make it in ONE MONTH" but it took about 3 months to finish it.

-- But it still not enough time.
M: Different time from today, That was "What is 1MB?" Like that.
I finished the game itself in 2 months but that game was "The very first of Capcom's connectable game" so it took about 1 month to check everything. It was like Capcom was torturing me, we almost canceled the development.

-- What was the 2nd game you created?
M: 2nd was called "Roger Rabbit" this game came from the Disney movie, side scroll action adventure kind of game and for black and white Gameboy too. This game only sold overseas and inside Capcom, I didn't get much respect, because the game didn't sale in Japan. My boss said "OK, Next, You make game not sale in Japan."
I had to create everything by myself, I mean from the start to the end, EVERYTHING. It took 5 months to finish, and some of the staff moved to another project in the middle of development, so character staff had to do background job, and I had to help it. This one was hard too.

-- When you finished it, did you get any credit for the job inside Capcom?
M: Maybe, a little bit.
And next was Formula 1 Race game, I really love racing so I was excited to make it, but it cancelled about 8 months later. That was my mistake. Because I wanted QUALITY!! And Gave a lot of pressure to programmers and the rest of staff, when the staff said "We can't do it anymore." I said "If you can't do this, I'll Cancel the whole project!!!!" and it really got cencelled.

-- In that time, technology is not enough for you?
M: Maybe�c actually, I was a beginner. I didn't learned enough about game creation. And after that, I had pay for that mistake. Next job was port from arcade game and I had only 3 months, because I had to finish in 3 months in order for the company to get its money back.

-- After you paid for your mistake?
M: Disney again. Goofy the dog game. That took 10 months I think, action adventure game and little similar to "Zelda". At that time, people had already made games 8MB or 12MB on Super Nintendo, But that game was only 4MB.

-- By the way, At that time, did you have a roll model? I mean someone you admired in the field?
M: Mr. Fujiwara

-- He is your master?
M: Yeah�c He is scaly master for me. Maybe evil master.
I still can't compete with him. I'll put myself at his feet. He has some kind of different atmosphere than other people. He is not big or macho and he doesn't raise his voice either but he is really scaly.
His way is not "Yes or No" only "YES". I learned a lot from him, one big thing I learned from him is "Create freedom inside restriction."

-- When did you start considering "Realism inside game?" after you started game job?
M: No, I think I accidentally got that idea. Because realism in Disney is really small part.
After Goofy was Aladdin, Disney again. After all, I made 3 Disney games and finally RE. I think I appreciate Disney, because my frustration gathered to create Resident Evil.

-- When did the RE idea comes from?
M: Mr. Fujiwara called me one day and told me to make a horror game. And he wanted to use game system from the game "Sweet Home" He also told me "Create something worth seeing" and we were so excited. When he said "something worth seeing", I thought finally, the moment came!
In RE, even though the game system is the same as "Sweet Home" there are few similarities, but I got a lot of ideas from Sweet Home. Sweet Home didn't sale well but I still think that game was the masterpiece.

-- The story of RE was already build up from the beginning?
M: No, the story came after the game. No script, only a flow-chart and notes.
I wanted to make a haunted house, game concept was you can enjoy the fear in your house. A haunted house doesn't need a script or story. My thoughts on the game RE were not like another game with a story, and I tried to explain to the Management of Capcom, but every time I was called on to go to a meeting, My boss said "When are you going to finish the story and script!!!" If it had been Mr. Fujiwara, He never would have said like that.

-- It is hard to explain something to people who never understand.
M: Every time when they asked me "The story", I kept telling them "A haunted house doesn't need story." For me, story is only "Better than nothing." But I need to make an opening and ending, so I made that part, after that I put just little piece story and cut-scene, I wanted to make the story depended on how player beat the game. So, really different from RE2.
Should have create all backgrounds first and then make the game, but I didn't have that much time. I thought it is already hard enough to create a game so players feel "The FEAR", it is almost impossible to add story or dramatic situations.

-- How did you create the RE way to open the door and get into new area?
M: Came from "Sweet Home". Actually, first we made game aimed to make the player scared to open the door without door opening cut-scene. But data of the room is so heavy and when Playstation is loading, it makes the screen black, and I was thinking about what I should do and remember the Sweet Home way. I realized that opening the door cut-scene will also build the player's tension. If I didn't know about Sweet Home, I would never have came up with that idea. I'm glad Sweet Home was already there.

-- Some people said it is too scaly to play RE, but I think there is a lot of female RE fans.
M: Capcom marketing said about 15%, usually, female fan is 5 to 10%, so I think more than average.

-- Why did you use the zombie? Not ghost?
M: When I planned to make RE, I was going to use ghosts, but if some other company makes a horror game, they will use ghost too, and I didn't want to be one of them. Also I remembered the movie "Exorcist" I watched when I was in elementary school, I only remember it left me with a bad taste. If we are making the movie that is ok, but a game has to offer tension and release.
Player feels zombie getting close and taste "The FEAR", and panicking like "I don't have enough ammo!!" and finally kill, relief - continue the game�c. Kind of game flow was in my mind.
Only the zombie walks up to you creating a feeling of fear. Players know the zombie is going to bite them and the human instinct is to run away from creepy things.

-- That was the basic idea.
M: Yes, and after that, we had to make game system on top of that. We couldn't create game like only fight zombie all the time, but on the other hand, we couldn't create a game where the player is just walking, nothing happens. So, I put mystery and puzzle into the game and player can feel the fear inside of the game play.
-- Was there any trouble to create the game system?
M: We had a hard time to figure out how for the players to start the route. Some people wanted to start from the 1st floor but maybe another people starts from the 2nd floor. So we had to make the character say "Let's start from the 1st floor�c�c"

-- That was RE opening.
M: Yes, Player heard gun sound and get a little tension and "Let's start�c�c." It felt like a cheap way but I couldn't come up with any other ideas.
In RE, I didn't put so much "surprise" essence, I learn from "Psycho" about it, you don't have to make the whole game out of shocking scene, just put some important symbolic scene and inside player's mind to expand the fear.

-- Not full of the fear, you have to shape up the idea. I think this idea is special, so people love RE.
M: I realized when I create RE, "Creativity is part of reducing." I think people who understand this idea, also understand the real meaning of creativity. Always the ideas inside your head are big, and we have to put the huge idea into one game, which has a limited amount of capacity. So, we have to pick the important points of the idea and present it to the users.
In our job, we only make games that we like, the point is how many people have the same taste like I have. I think these days, a lot of young game creators start with the idea of "I can't do this." Or "The users not going to like this idea." If you start like that, you can't make unconventional things.

-- Your young staffs understand your way?
M: I always tell them create a game not to be popular, just get few die-hard fans that feel like "We live for this game." So have to make the game to not hide the week points, make people in Love is blind way.
-- Who named the game "Biohazard"?

M: One of the background staff.
-- And you thought "That is it!"?
M: No, we had 100 or 200 ideas for the game title, and I wanted to name it "Psycho" kind of short title. But it matched the story, so we decided to name the game "Biohazard".

-- You don't want to talk about it but can I ask you about RE opening movie?
M: Well�c We shoot that in at the Tama River side in Japan, In the beginning of the movie, Jill makes her face look like she is scared. But that was not. The actress for Jill was only a high school girl at that time and she had to run around out side in the middle of the night and got mosquito bites so she made that face "I wanna go home". She was just immature kid.
That cheap shot was totally my mistake. I didn't have enough time and money, also I picked these actors only by looks. Now I think I should pick by performance but �c.. too late now.

-- Could you tell us your comments as a total producer about RE2 to RE CV?
M: First, the level of the fear is just getting torn down. I think the level of the fear has to be increase because players get use to the games, RE had fresh fear but 3 is getting rusty.
I think when we made RE2, the company wanted to sale 2million copies, so we had to make popular way and also Hideki Kamiya the director of the game didn't like horror, (It is hard to make thing that you don't like) these 2 points made RE goes to different way from first idea.
Those fans that love RE made RE2 to be million sales game but some of the fans were disappointed in the way RE2 is. So, we made RE1.9 to get back to the basic RE idea but that game changed its name to RE3, 3months before release. I still don't want to call the game RE3.
Game is made up of the users and creators communications. So I want to leave the part of the ideas that the users be able to feel "This is RE, this is what we want." I want to keep the fans that really understand what RE is. If we lost the real fans and create the game, it is just "Making money". We are entertainers but not business men, creators. I don't want to forget that. I think real RE2 is RE CV, it still have the feelings from RE.

-- Could you tell us about RE4?
M: I'm thinking about a "Full model-change" in RE4.