Introduction
Ikumi Nakamura’s parent didn’t privation her to enactment for Capcom. As she tells it, aboriginal successful life, Nakamura saw a diagnostic connected the making of Resident Evil. In it, the game’s creators stitchery astatine a barroom to portion and speech astir the development. Nakamura’s caput was made up. She wanted to beryllium a crippled developer. She wanted to enactment with the radical she saw connected screen. Nakamura’s ma was little impressed.
“I saw it, and I told my Mom, ‘Oh my God, I privation to enactment with them,’” Nakamura tells Game Informer via translator. “And my Mom’s like, ‘No, don’t enactment with them. They’re conscionable drunk, aged men. Don’t bash that!’”
Nakamura didn’t instrumentality her mother’s informing to heart.
Nakamura’s archetypal occupation successful the manufacture was astatine Capcom; she was an creator for its interior team, Clover Studios. That occupation meant a batch to her, personally. Aside from being a fan, Capcom’s games were thing Nakamura bonded implicit with her father, which offered a idiosyncratic transportation to the work.
During and since, Nakamura’s had a manus successful processing respective cult-favorite video games, including Ōkami, Bayonetta, and The Evil Within series, moving for Platinum Games and Tango Gameworks aft Capcom. But for the bulk of her career, she was comparatively chartless within, and surely outside, the crippled industry. That is until E3 2019, erstwhile her presumption for Ghostwire: Tokyo thrust her into video crippled stardom – acknowledgment successful nary tiny portion to her outgoing and offbeat personality. Nakamura has since go a societal media favorite, befriending salient crippled developers specified arsenic Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog.
Nakamura is, much oregon less, an overnight sensation, and since leaving Tango and Ghostwire successful September 2019, radical person wondered what her recently founded workplace is developing. Despite that, overmuch of her communicative remains chartless – wherever she came from, her vocation astatine Capcom and Platinum, and her experiences astatine Tango. To remedy this, we reached retired to Nakamura, and talked to her for hours – successful 1 of her archetypal large American interviews post-Tango – astir everything from her emotion of fearfulness to her once-daily nightmares portion moving connected Ghostwire, to what she plans to bash next.
Capcom
Capcom
Growing up, Nakamura’s begetter kept 1 concealed from her mother: He was bonding with their girl implicit a shared emotion of fearfulness movies and video games.
Nakamura’s begetter raised her the aforesaid mode helium would’ve raised a boy, and the 2 were some daredevils successful their ain ways. Where her begetter rode motorcycles, Nakamura climbed connected the extortion of her family’s location and jumped disconnected their staircases. Which, to beryllium fair, is simply a unsafe enactment for a small kid, arsenic evidenced by 1 of Nakamura’s puerility injuries.
“One day, I fell from the stairs and mislaid the little portion of my face,” Nakamura says, laughing, explaining she deed the crushed look first. “The tegument and the little articulator got dragged. It was astir similar I mislaid my little lip. My Mom saw it and she passed retired from the shock, truthful nary 1 could assistance maine retired astatine that time.”
Horror media made the biggest interaction connected Nakamura arsenic a child. Nakamura and her begetter hid this from her mom, who didn’t approve, and they spent a batch of clip watching scary movies and playing fearfulness and gothic-inspired games together.
It can’t beryllium overstated however profound an power fearfulness had connected Nakamura; it’s thing she perpetually brings up erstwhile talking astir her aboriginal life. Growing up, she says she watched fearfulness movies each day, specified arsenic American classics similar Return of the Living Dead. She besides loved staples of Japan’s fearfulness roar from the mid-to-late ’90s and 2000s, specified arsenic Pulse (Kairo in Japan), directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
At the aforesaid time, arsenic she puts it, Japan was successful a “golden age” of video crippled development, and Capcom was conscionable 1 of galore companies spearheading that charge. Nakamura spent a batch of clip playing games successful the Resident Evil and Devil May Cry bid – which, coincidentally, person been directed successful the past by Shinji Mikami and Hideki Kamiya, who Nakamura would walk astir of her vocation moving alongside.
Nakamura went to creation schoolhouse successful Tokyo and aboriginal the Amusement Media Academy to survey crippled design. However, lone a mates years into her education, her beingness was turned connected its head. While retired connected his motorcycle, her begetter was successful an mishap and passed distant suddenly, sending her beingness into “total chaos.” She spent a batch of her aboriginal beingness acting reckless, but Nakamura says her father’s decease changed her, leaving her focused connected protecting her family.
“After his death, I wholly changed,” she says.
But 1 happening didn’t change: Nakamura’s imagination of moving astatine Capcom. If anything, her father’s decease reinforced her tendency to articulation the institution aft her schooling. He loved Capcom’s games, and during his ceremonial Nakamura made definite helium was inactive capable to play Resident Evil.
“In his coffin, I enactment a transcript of the Resident Evil strategy publication and a PlayStation controller,” she says. “[So] that helium could play the crippled successful different dimension. But I forgot that Japan is simply a cremation culture, truthful his bones and the controller got stuck together. I looked astatine it [as] helium ne'er gave up the game, adjacent erstwhile helium was a bone! I was impressed.”
Nakamura had to use twice, but she joined Capcom successful 2004, coming connected committee its interior Clover Studio. Initially acceptable up to make Viewtiful Joe 2, Clover was a semi-autonomous workplace wrong Capcom’s Osaka, Japan headquarters, tasked with processing caller intelligence properties. In enactment with Nakamura’s influences, Mikami and Kamiya worked arsenic directors for the workplace – the erstwhile overseeing 2006’s God Hand and the second helping marque Viewtiful Joe 2 and Ōkami, released successful 2004 and 2006, respectively.
Nakamura’s archetypal task was Ōkami. She joined Clover arsenic a 3D situation creator – a job, she says, she was “incompetent” at. Despite her deficiency of experience, and the information that immoderate radical wrong the institution weren’t treating her well, Nakamura applied herself and tried to larn arsenic overmuch arsenic imaginable connected the project.
“I was new, I didn’t cognize truly however to work, and was perpetually told that I would beryllium fired,” she says. “I was pushed around, overloaded with tasks and challenges. And truthful I went astir to antithetic sections, to inquire astir ‘how to enactment better’ and what I tin assistance with, helping with thing I could, making animations oregon tiny stages, oregon objects.”
At the time, Nakamura describes Capcom arsenic an “old-school” developer, afloat of behaviour that wouldn’t alert successful a modern workplace. For example, it wasn’t uncommon to spot developers sleeping nether their desks to prevention themselves a commute – thing presented to the nationalist connected tv successful some Japan and the United States. When she was a kid, Nakamura says that erstwhile she saw that footage it seemed similar a imagination job. Now that she’s older, not truthful much. “[I felt like], ‘Oh my God, that’s what I wanna do,’” she recalls. “But past looking back, like, no, that is wholly wrong.”
It besides wasn’t uncommon for Capcom absorption to fto their tempers get the champion of them, lashing retired and yelling astatine employees oregon hitting desks and kicking trash cans. “They would conscionable benignant of deed everything astir them,” Nakamura says, adding that it showed her the benignant of institution civilization she doesn’t privation to make successful the future, for which she’s thankful.
“Overall, it wasn’t effective,” she says. “People bash get frustrated, that happens, but showing that physically oregon verbally, that creates fearfulness successful the enactment environment.”
“Now I cognize what not to do,” Nakamura says.
Ōkami
The narration betwixt Capcom and Clover was an acrimonious one, with changeless clashes betwixt absorption and Kamiya implicit Ōkami’s direction. According to Nakamura, her content was that Capcom saw Clover arsenic “just the radical of weirdos” and a “totally abstracted entity.” As an example, she points to the Wii larboard of Ōkami, developed by Ready At Dawn, which didn’t include the names of the archetypal developers oregon the Clover logo successful the credits.
In 2008, Capcom issued a connection astir the missing credits, saying the removal was owed to a pre-rendered cutscene containing the Clover logo, which the steadfast did not person the ineligible close to usage successful a crippled the workplace wasn’t straight progressive in. “We besides didn’t person the root to the recognition movie itself, truthful we couldn’t conscionable usage it and region the Clover logo,” Capcom said.
“I’m definite thing happened – politics,” Nakamura says. “But it’s not a chill happening to bash for the developers who really spent hours and effort to make the game.”
Despite the issues, Nakamura isn’t wholly negatively astir her clip with Capcom. In fact, since Ōkami’s improvement wrapped, she’s been open astir her tendency to marque sequels that present connected the archetypal imaginativeness of the archetypal game. As she puts it, the crippled Capcom released was “probably one-third” of what Kamiya initially had successful mind. And present that Nakamura has worked for different developers – specifically ones partnered with publishers based successful the States – she admits to wondering whether oregon not she should’ve stayed astatine Capcom.
“What would’ve happened?” Nakamura muses. “Because, retired of each the companies I worked with, Capcom is simply a institution that allowed artists to input their creator consciousness successful the crippled the most.”
When we constituent retired we expected the other answer, that Capcom was the astir restrictive, Nakamura adds, “Maybe that’s what Japanese radical who stayed successful Japan [and] didn’t woody with different companies overseas, they mightiness accidental that.”
Of course, Nakamura didn’t stay. When galore radical near Capcom and Clover to recovered their ain studio, Nakamura went with them, starting her travel astatine Platinum Games.
Platinum Games
Platinum Games
In retrospect, Nakamura says it’s astir apt for the champion that her archetypal task arsenic manager didn’t get made.
Early into her clip astatine Platinum, Nakamura submitted a connection for a Nintendo DS crippled that caught the oculus of Mikami, who came implicit to Platinum arsenic a declaration manager and outer committee member. The project, arsenic Nakamura tells it, was to beryllium respective tiny “eerie” games touching connected “taboo subjects.” The task was greenlit, and contempt her deficiency of experience, Nakamura got to pb her ain team. It didn't spell well, and the game's taxable substance ended up being a constituent of contention.
“I adjacent went to Nintendo to springiness a presentation, and they told maine if Platinum Games released this done the DS, not that it volition beryllium the extremity of Platinum Games, but Platinum Games volition person a really, truly atrocious reputation,” Nakamura says.
Bayonetta conception creation by Ikumi Nakamura
About 1 twelvemonth into development, Nakamura’s task was canceled and she was moved to the squad making the archetypal Bayonetta, a stylish enactment crippled in-line with manager Kamiya’s earlier enactment connected Devil May Cry. She was a conception creator – adjacent if it was a partially self-appointed title. “I wanted to postgraduate from being an biology artist, truthful I took the liberty of calling myself a conception creator and started drafting designs,” Nakamura says. “I deliberation I acted powerfully [and felt] that I should bash what I wanted to bash adjacent if it was successful an organization.”
At the time, Nakamura was playing a batch of games developed by American studios – particularly Uncharted, Gears of War, and Dead Space. This influenced her attack to crippled design, specifically erstwhile it came to Bayonetta’s idiosyncratic interface. Based connected the game’s pistillate focus, she besides brought successful influences from celebrated women passim history, fashioning Bayonetta’s accessories aft women specified arsenic Cleopatra. To accentuate the over-the-top aspects, Nakamura suggested making buildings gigantic and the enactment outlandish – each aspects that made Bayonetta basal retired erstwhile it was released successful 2009.
At the aforesaid time, Nakamura began reasoning astir however to make games that appealed to a planetary audience, not conscionable a Japanese one. Her anticipation was to amusement players successful different countries however chill Asian cities and civilization were – though her circumstantial imaginativeness wouldn’t beryllium heavy applied until aboriginal games.
Following Bayonetta, Nakamura served arsenic creation manager connected Platinum’s now-canceled Scalebound. While Microsoft signed connected to publish, it inactive ne'er saw the airy of day. Nakamura says her clip with its troubled improvement near her with lasting lessons for aboriginal projects.
“What I inactive deliberation astir is, ‘Was I [successful] successful creating what the manager wanted to do?’” she reflects. “The conception wasn’t fixed; it didn’t person a beardown vision. What the steadfast wanted, what the director, Kamiya-san, wanted, and what the squad wanted were each benignant of not looking astatine the aforesaid direction. So, it didn’t person the unity. It was my occupation to make the unity, and I don’t deliberation I was capable to supply that. So that’s thing I felt similar I couldn’t bash backmost then. What I learned is the manager has to person a precise clear, beardown imaginativeness from the beginning.”
By the clip Scalebound was canceled, Nakamura had already moved connected from Platinum. When Mikami founded his ain studio, Tango Gameworks, successful 2010, Nakamura was portion of the radical that joined him, allowing her to determination backmost to her location city, Tokyo. It was not lone the occupation she’s held the longest frankincense acold successful crippled development, but the 1 that thrust her into the spotlight.
Tango Gameworks
Tango Gameworks
Joining Tango gave Nakamura a accidental to bash thing she’d wanted to bash her full life: marque a endurance fearfulness game. And it would beryllium 1 directed by Shinji Mikami, the manager of the archetypal Resident Evil, nary less. But it’s complicated.
The Evil Within was Tango’s archetypal authoritative merchandise and Mikami’s instrumentality to endurance horror. However, the developer had antecedently experimented with an open-world science-fiction endurance crippled called Noah. As elaborate successful a 2014 Polygon interrogation with Mikami, aboriginal successful the company’s history, Tango deed fiscal issues. Noah was canceled and Tango was successful trouble. Until aboriginal successful 2010, erstwhile steadfast Bethesda purchased the company.
“Compared to the representation of a emblematic Western crippled publisher, Bethesda is astir apt much similar a emblematic Japanese publisher,” Mikami said astatine the time. “They don’t unit originative radical to bash stuff. They springiness that originative state to developers.”
Nakamura tells the communicative a spot differently. “[Mikami] truly wanted to make caller types of games, not [keep] doing the aforesaid things he’s done,” she says. “But radical successful the satellite wanted him to make – expected him to make endurance horror.”
The Evil Within's "Keeper" enemy, designed by Ikumi Nakamura
Nakamura recovered herself connected a task she had dreamed of making with the caveat that, successful her mind, the manager didn’t privation to marque it. Rope successful Western steadfast authorities – thing Nakamura up to that constituent wasn’t acquainted with – and it became a analyzable project. The Evil Within, released successful 2014, was the past task Mikami directed, and the developer has since stepped into a shaper relation to let younger developers to nonstop games. Nakamura was 1 of those developers.
After immoderate clip connected The Evil Within 2, released successful 2017, Nakamura began starring improvement connected what would go Ghostwire: Tokyo. Her absorption was to instrumentality a clump of elements from her emotion of the occult, supernatural, and municipality legends, and harvester them into a modern mounting – which successful this case, arsenic the sanction implies, is Tokyo.
“Remember erstwhile we were talking astir Bayonetta, that I wanted radical from each implicit the satellite to deliberation astir however chill Asian municipality cities are?” she asks. “So, I wanted to bring that back. I was like, ‘Finally, I tin marque a video crippled that tin explicit my imaginativeness that way.’”
As of this writing, Ghostwire remains unreleased, but Nakamura filled america successful connected immoderate archetypal ideas. Set successful 2020, radical passim the satellite person started to disappear, leaving those near down to presume it mightiness beryllium a microorganism taking radical out. To combat this, radical statesman wearing masks. However, successful 2021, amid the COVID-19 crisis, Nakamura says she’s gladsome that iteration of the communicative isn’t being released. However, she inactive speaks proudly of the wide setting, atmosphere, and supernatural direction.
Nakamura had the accidental to contiguous Ghostwire to the satellite for the archetypal clip astatine E3 2019, wherever she got connected signifier during Bethesda’s property league to denote the game. Understandably, the thought of getting connected signifier successful beforehand of thousands of radical (not to notation galore much watching live) was nerve-wracking. As Nakamura tells it, the galore rehearsals implicit 3 days didn’t help. Nakamura isn’t a autochthonal English speaker, and she says she had occupation with her lines, truthful she practiced them implicit and implicit portion pacing astir backstage.
However, astatine the past second, Nakamura says the show’s shaper told her to hide her pre-rehearsed lines and to spell retired connected signifier and beryllium herself.
Nakamura’s presumption became 1 of the standout moments of that E3. While debuting Ghostwire, her passionateness for the task endeared radical to her, and her usage of wit to explicate the game’s atmospheric satellite was a invited alteration of gait compared to the galore self-serious presentations usually filling E3. Overnight, Nakamura became a sensation, a meme, and successful her ain way, a celebrity.
Ikumi Nakamura
Ikumi Nakamura behind-the-scenes astatine E3 2019
“I was simply blessed astir each the responses, due to the fact that I was truly passionate astir presenting what I was passionate about,” Nakamura says. “And also, I’m a large instrumentality of manga and anime, truthful I emotion each those memes. [...] And that ended up [leading to] radical focusing connected crippled creators. So, I consciousness that was a success.”
But Nakamura’s clip connected Ghostwire was astir to end. Eventually, the accent of developer-publisher authorities and the steadfast having power implicit the crippled affected her negatively. Nakamura began having nightmares astir higher-ups wrong the company. This went connected for years, she says, starting with conscionable talking successful her slumber astir erstwhile a week, and past progressing to regular nightmares.
“The nightmare I had was that erstwhile I came to work, each the members of the improvement squad had disappeared,” Nakamura recalls. “Then determination was an altar successful the mediate of the room, and erstwhile I looked astatine the picture, it was of my boss, which was a unusual story.”
Her wellness declined astir this clip arsenic good and 4 years into improvement connected Ghostwire, Nakamura made the determination to permission some the task and Tango. Getting to that constituent wasn’t easy. Nakamura likens Ghostwire to a kid and herself arsenic the mother. Four years is simply a agelong clip to pb a project, and walking distant was a hard call.
“I was a originative director, truthful this is virtually my baby,” she says. “My four-year-old baby. So, to fto that spell – inquire immoderate parent to fto her babe go. It was that gut-ripping.”
Nakamura became a escaped agent, but arsenic she tells it, she near without overmuch of a plan. And past thing unexpected happened. Once quality of her departure deed the internet, she began getting offers from developers worldwide, and she befriended immoderate of the bigger names successful movie and crippled development, including Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog, movie manager J.J. Abrams, and Rainbow Six Siege originative manager Leroy Athanassoff. Regaining her health, Nakamura adjacent traveled astir the satellite to sojourn studios, learning from antithetic creators.
But determination was 1 unexpected twist: Around this time, Nakamura became pregnant. It made immoderate workplace visits difficult.
“I had ne'er wanted to person children myself,” Nakamura says. “Because I thought that my children would beryllium a game. In fact, I became steadfast and an alien came into my body. I flew each implicit the satellite and visited galore studios portion being amazed and throwing up from the atrocious effects of greeting sickness. I consciousness similar I person thrown up successful each studio. It’s a memorial for me. Don’t worry, I threw up without making a mess.”
In March 2021, Nakamura announced she had designed a caller acceptable of skins for Rainbow Six Siege, the merchandise of her caller narration with the developer. More than usual, the quality was picked up by mainstream crippled property outlets, cementing Nakamura’s stardom, adjacent erstwhile it came down to thing arsenic tiny arsenic skins. Additionally, Nakamura conceptualized and directed her archetypal euphony video for the Japanese creation radical Dazaifu Mahoroba-shu. She besides says she’s consulted and done plan enactment for different games, but doesn’t elaborate connected which arsenic they aren’t retired astatine the clip of this writing.
Her Own Studio
Her Own Studio
Nakamura is astatine a caller signifier successful life, and she’s taking vantage of it. On apical of her enactment consulting and designing arsenic a freelancer, she precocious announced she’s opened her ain studio. And portion the institution volition initially beryllium headquartered successful Tokyo, Nakamura says she’s prioritizing diverseness wrong her workforce, and hopes to unfastened different offices successful countries specified arsenic the U.S. and China. All her existent squad members, though moving from home, are scattered crossed the globe, she tells us.
Nakamura has besides go a disposable pistillate Japanese crippled developer. While radical specified arsenic Mikami and Kamiya are known by sanction and for their work, it’s not arsenic communal for women to person akin recognition. Nakamura is successful a uncommon spot to animate others to marque akin impacts connected the industry, and it’s not an accidental she plans to waste. She says she plans to enactment different women developers successful the spotlight and item idiosyncratic creators erstwhile the clip comes.
“There is simply a pistillate creator who is similar a large sister to me, who takes attraction of me,” Nakamura says. “She said to me, ‘I privation you to beryllium connected the throne someday, due to the fact that your occurrence volition promote maine and galore different pistillate developers.’ [At the] time, I didn’t truly recognize what she meant by that. But present I cognize what it means.”
“It was purely a coincidence that I was known, I became somewhat famous,” she says. “Yes, it was a coincidence, but I’m going to marque that into an accidental and usage it to enactment for me.”
This nonfiction primitively appeared successful Issue 338 of Game Informer.
Header image: Kerri Solaris (@kerrifique)
English (US) ·