GoldenEye creator aims to invent a genre

Martin Hollis, the designer and director of the classic GoldeneEye 007 game for N64, is taking a break from game development to try to invent a new videogame genre.

Hollis, who is CEO of Bonsai Barber developer Zoonami, told Eurogamer in an interview from the GameCity festival in Nottingham that it may be a year or even longer before he comes up with his new idea.

"I'm recharging my batteries," he said.

"I'm keeping my eyes open for new feelings, new kinds of game. I hope I'm not being too ambitious, but it's my aspiration to produce something that is genuinely new.

"I've been making games for so long that I'm no longer interested in the pure and simple goal, which should be respected, of just making a good game.

"I'm more interested doing that and trying to push the field. Increasingly I feel the games that get made are typically from a fairly narrow set of possibilities, and I feel there's an incredible range of possible games that could be made.

"Most people aren't really exploring that, and that's what really excites me. The Wild West – no one's even there yet. The real blue ocean of game design is what excites me most."

Hollis's Zoonami has made a handful of games since its inception in 2000. The Cambridge developer has DS and PSP game Zendoku, PlayStation 3 and PSP title Go! Puzzle and one button music game Funkydilla under its belt.

But 2009 WiiWare game Bonsai Barber, development of which Hollis describes as "very difficult", is its most recent release.

Now, Hollis is "thinking of new genres" and wants a 10-year plan "where it's something where I feel I can really push for a long time on a big challenge in a new direction".

As a result, "It may be a year before I've got a project to talk about, or it may be longer. I don't know."

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