A memorable game for Kazu Ayabe of Millennium Kitchen: "Silent Debuggers"

Game Creator: Kazu Ayabe of Millennium Kitchen

Memorable Games

It's mostly silent, but there are electronic sounds when enemies approach. It's a great immersion!

I like games that don't have continuous music, games that let you experience silence. All you can hear is ambient sounds, and music only plays at crucial moments. "Silent Debuggers," a PC Engine game released by Data East in 1991, is a game in which you have to wipe out aliens who have invaded a space station, but you explore the ship alone, surrounded by silence.

The tension of hearing the electronic ping-pong sounds as an enemy approaches is irresistible. You're so immersed in the game world that you don't even realize that the room you're in in the real world has gone dark as the sun sets. This intense sense of immersion may be something that only a game that allows you to experience silence can provide.

That's why in "My Summer Vacation" (hereafter "BokuNatsu"), music has been kept to a minimum from the start. As is common in open-world games these days, background music plays only when necessary, to align with the player's emotions.

Both "BokuNatsu" and "Natsumon! 20th Century Summer Vacation" (hereafter "Natsumon!") are "residence life simulators" that allow you to enjoy a stay in an extraordinary place. Music has a huge influence on comfort and how you perceive the world. That's why we don't leave it playing all the time, but rather use it carefully. Polishing the sound brings out the brilliance of the world.

The same goes for the visuals. Since the players are modern people, a more sophisticated design gives the world a more lustrous feel than a symbolic rural look. That's why we asked illustrator Mineko Ueda to work on "BokuNatsu." Ms. Ueda has drawn illustrations for magazines such as "Olive."

At first glance, the adults appear pop and tall, but that's because of the way they stand and dress, and in fact they have a more Japanese body type. They can wear fashionable clothes and wouldn't look out of place holding a microphone at karaoke. In other words, they're fashionable, yet they're also part of everyday life. That's why I was so confident when I asked Ueda to play them. The same goes for Hyogo Nosuke from "Natsumon!" His portrayal of the fields and mountains is largely due to his formative experiences growing up in the countryside of Hokkaido.

Also, I love music, and when I was making the first Bokura no Natsu, there were a lot of outdoor techno and trance parties, so I would go to the mountains and campsites in the Kanto and Chubu regions every weekend. The experiences I had back then may have been reflected in the game.

Ayabe 's masterpiece