Joystiq has a great recap of a presentation Hideo Kojima (he of Metal Gear Solid fame) made at the University of Southern California last week. I like it for 3 reasons:
1.) Kojima says his philosophy towards creating games is that he must do everything, from script development to the game play, and says that this is "true game design." I've always considered the man one of the only auteurs of the video game industry, and it is great to see him acknolowedging the same here.
2.) The fact that he uses Lego pieces to design the different levels in his games
3.) His comments on the differences between game design in the East and the West:
"...in Japan, players are often placed in a room with one door at the beginning of a game, which opens up into a room with two doors, and so on. The game has to open up gradually, piece by piece. But in the West, gamers can be placed in a jungle early on, and they often value, said Kojima, that freedom, enjoying the exploration offered to them."
Read the whole article here.