For my entire life, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of synesthesia, an extremely rare trait where someone’s brain routes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses. You might have heard it referenced as people who can taste textures when reading, or see colors when hearing music. When watching movies or playing games I’ve often gone back to the idea — trying to wrap my mind around how having synesthesia would integrally change the way you experience art. How different your entire relationship would be with film, music, games, or anything else.
The interactive nature of video games has always seemed the perfect vessel to explore that concept, and for decades, a designer named Tetsuya Mizuguchi has been at the forefront of doing just that. Mizuguchi is the creator of Rez: Infinite and founded the studio Enhance, which would go on to create Humanity and the award-winning Tetris Effect. But Mizuguchi is also the creator of the Lumines franchise, and has been involved in every single entry — with things now coming full circle at his studio Enhance.
