PixelJunk Eden stood out among the games of 2008 for its beguiling combination of artistic endeavor and game mechanic. Its fundamentally simple concept of swinging a cute little character around a space on strands of wire came alive through the interplay with the forms, colors, and sounds of its psychedelic gardens. Kyoto-based DJ/sound producer/artist/graphic designer Baiyon led the creative effort in putting together this multimedia artwork. Whenever I play the game it works some sort of magic that leaves me feeling relaxed. Taken as I've been by that spell, when Q-Games president and executive producer asked if I'd like to come down to Kyoto and talk with him and Baiyon about their experiences in making the game I didn't hesitate for moment. The conversation below happened when we all sat down together in a conference room at their offices a few days after TGS.

1UP: How did you guys wind up getting connected?



Dylan Cuthbert: At a party, there's a party near here at some friends...it's all interconnected, so, friends of ours who work at a company near here who did the web page for StarFox Command for Nintendo; they work at this company called Eniac. They also do a lot of other stuff. They do a lot of Nintendo's webpages.



Baiyon: Maybe Mother 3 too.



DC: It was a party, and King of Games was there as well, it's like an old network. I went to this party and met Baiyon there. But that wasn't the first time I'd heard of him. The first time I'd heard of him was through my wife whose friend said that there's a friend of hers who wanted to try getting into game design and he's an artist/musician type. So we'd actually looked at his stuff beforehand. And then we went to this party and met.

1UP: What about game design attracted you [Baiyon]?



B: Something that doesn't translate to movies or music is that the player is the center, the focus point, the main character in the experience.


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