Curated playlist
Japanese video game designers
- Hideo KojimaKonami reportedly barred Hideo Kojima from The Game Awards 2015, where his Metal Gear Solid V won two prizes.
- Junko KawanoJunko Kawano took over the Suikoden series a month before Suikoden III came out.
- Masahiro ItoMasahiro Ito designed both the world and the monsters of the first Silent Hill.
- Akira NishitaniAfter leaving Capcom, Akira Nishitani's studio Arika still made Street Fighter EX games for it.
- Yoshinori KitaseYoshinori Kitase set Final Fantasy X in Southeast Asia to widen what "fantasy" could mean.
- Hiroyuki ItoHiroyuki Ito began at Square in 1987 as a debugger hunting bugs in Final Fantasy.
- Daisuke WatanabeDaisuke Watanabe wrote the Zanarkand Ruins dialog in Final Fantasy X almost entirely in one night.
- Takashi NishiyamaThe Hadouken in Street Fighter took its energy blast from an anime spaceship's cannon. Takashi Nishiyama borrowed it.
- Keiichiro ToyamaKeiichiro Toyama went from Silent Hill horror to Gravity Rush, where the heroine changes which way is down.
- Shigeru MiyamotoDonkey Kong began as a way to use up unsold arcade machines.
- Hironobu SakaguchiHironobu Sakaguchi named his film's heroine after his mother, who died in a house fire.
- Yoshitaka MurayamaYoshitaka Murayama pitched Suikoden using a Chinese novel his boss might know.
- Naoki YoshidaIn December 2010, Naoki Yoshida took over the troubled Final Fantasy XIV as director and first-time producer.
- Ryukishi07Ryukishi07 dreamed of making video games but could not get hired by any game company.
- Satoru IwataSatoru Iwata walked onto the stage at E3 in 2005 and lifted the Wii above his head, so the audience could see for themselves how small and light it was. It was a fitting gesture for the man who ran Nintendo as its fourth president while…
- Tetsuya NomuraTetsuya Nomura started at Square as a debugger, not a designer. A hand-drawn plan book later got him noticed.