Resident Evil creator has new game ideas not limited to horror

Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami has new ideas for games across genres.

Shinji Mikami will always go down as a legendary name in video game development. He helped hone and shape what horror in a video game could be when he directed Resident Evil in 1996. He then went on to reinvent the genre again with the more action-orientated Resident Evil 4.

The creator, who founded ZeniMax's Tango Gameworks in 2010, has taken a backseat in recent years though. The last game he directed was The Evil Within in 2014. This is by design though as the studio is built to promote and encourage new talent to take on games. This is what we have seen with the studio's next game, Ghostwire: Tokyo, where he is acting as a hands-off executive producer.

However, Mikami isn't out of ideas yet.

Speaking to Variety in an extensive interview, Mikami is said to have expressed having no shortage of ideas and they expand much broader than just horror games. In the article puzzle games and RPGs are cited as genres he might like to explore.

However, Mikami, who is now 55 has hinted he would likely have to be somewhat selective with what he chose to take on next. He said, "I am getting old, and so it would be more of a matter of how much energy I have.”

Mikami did hint that he may have one more big game in him, but that if he did take it on and he could control it, it would likely be his last. He said: "My thinking is that if I had a chance to make a game from the beginning to end that’s completely my vision, then definitely, that would be my big last project as a director. It would probably be more fitting as that ‘last game I direct’ kind of thing."

Here's hoping Mikami does one day get the chance to go out directing that one final passion project. Seeing him get one last bite of the apple would be a fitting way to see out his excellent directing career.