– Veteran game developer Yu Suzuki, speaking to an interviewer about game design.
Yu Suzuki’s career in the game industry is a prominent one, encompassing years of work at Sega (and later his own company Ys Net) on everything from Super Hang-Onto Virtua Fighter to Shenmue.
Devs probably associate him most strongly with that last game, since he’s currently leading development of the Kickstarted Shenmue III. But why did he get into the industry in the first place, and how did he wind up starting at Sega in the early ’80s?
“I hope this doesn’t disappoint anyone wanting to join the game industry, but the real reason I decided to join Sega is because they had two days off per week,” Suzuki says in a Japanese-language interview (with English subtitles) published on YouTube today.
“I wanted to work hard at my job, so far as that went. But in order to fulfill my own interests and desires, I wanted to ensure a clear two days off per week.”
The full video (embedded above) is well worth watching, as Suzuki winds up speaking about everything from how he approaches game design to the sorts of games he used to play as a kid (hint: one was called “Drop the Dumplings” and involved dirt.)