Kenichi Nishi
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese video game designer. He was born June 20, 1967 in Tokyo
, Japan
. Over the years, he has helped found a number of notable video game companies and currently develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).
and its subsidiary Riot
. He was later hired by Square
as a field designer for two of its larger releases. After leaving Square in 1995, Nishi helped establish Love-de-Lic, Inc.
with many of his former Square coworkers. There, he designed two of the small company's three game releases: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
and L.O.L.: Lack of Love
. He also helped design and write the script for the 1999
Polygon Magic title Incredible Crisis
. Nishi then co-founded skip Ltd.
, a second-party developer for Nintendo
. Acting as vice president of the company, he also directed
GiFTPiA
and co-directed Chibi-Robo!
. Shortly thereafter, he left skip and founded Route24 on February 23, 2006. According to Nishi, he felt that working on large projects with a large group of people such as those at skip limited his freedom in designing games.
At Route24, Nishi and a staff of four other people developed LOL
for the Nintendo DS
, which was published by skip in 2007. He recently worked on Newtonica and Newtonica2 for the iPhone
and iPod Touch
with Kenji Eno
, among other independently-developed mobile games. In 2010, Nishi expressed interest in developing a sequel to Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, asking fans to voice their support via Twitter
.
. He is a fan of British rock
music and once had a dog named Tao, who Nishi featured as a character in many of his games including Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, GiFTPiA, L.O.L.: Lack of Love, Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow. Tao passed away in October 2009 due to kidney complications. It is said that Dragon Quest III
is Nishi's favorite game.
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Over the years, he has helped found a number of notable video game companies and currently develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).
Career
Kenichi Nishi previously worked for both Telenet JapanTelenet Japan
was a Japanese video game and software developer founded in October 1983 by Kazuyuki Fukushima. The company was also known as Nippon Telenet . The company was best known for the Valis series as well as its Wolfteam & RiOT divisions...
and its subsidiary Riot
Riot (developer)
Riot was one of Nihon Telenet's in-house development teams. They were mainly responsible for the ports of several Telenet games on the PC Engine, such as Browning, Valis, Exile and Xak I & II.-See also:*Nippon Telenet...
. He was later hired by Square
Square (company)
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
as a field designer for two of its larger releases. After leaving Square in 1995, Nishi helped establish Love-de-Lic, Inc.
Love-de-Lic
was a Japanese company that developed video games. It was founded by Kenichi Nishi in 1995. Its staff included many former employees of Square. After producing three adventure games, the company disbanded in 2000, going their separate ways to other small and independent game companies such as skip...
with many of his former Square coworkers. There, he designed two of the small company's three game releases: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
, usually referred to simply as Moon, is a 1997 role-playing game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment. The game was first released on October 16, 1997, and was re-released as part of the PlayStation the Best line on November 5, 1998...
and L.O.L.: Lack of Love
L.O.L.: Lack of Love
L.O.L.: Lack of Love, or simply Lack of Love, is an evolutionary adventure game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment for the Sega Dreamcast...
. He also helped design and write the script for the 1999
1999 in video gaming
-Events:*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards*March – Game Over republished as “Game Over: Press Start to Continue”...
Polygon Magic title Incredible Crisis
Incredible Crisis
Incredible Crisis, known in Japan as , is a PlayStation video game developed by Polygon Magic. The game was first published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten on June 24, 1999...
. Nishi then co-founded skip Ltd.
Skip Ltd.
Skip is a Japanese video game developer that has a close relationship with Nintendo of Japan. Nintendo has published all of their Japanese releases; with the only notable exception being LOL , which Skip Ltd. published independently. The company's staff includes prominent developers from Square...
, a second-party developer for Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
. Acting as vice president of the company, he also directed
Game director
Game director may refer to:* Video game producer, the person in charge of overseeing development of a video game* Technical director, usually a senior technical person within creative group...
GiFTPiA
GiFTPiA
is a video game that was developed by Skip Ltd. for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on April 25, 2003. Despite that its last showing at Electronic Entertainment Expo was in English, Nintendo cancelled the North American localization of GiFTPiA...
and co-directed Chibi-Robo!
Chibi-Robo!
, fully titled Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!, is a platform-adventure video game for the Nintendo GameCube console. It was developed by Skip Ltd. with collaboration from Nintendo. The game was first released in Japan on June 23, 2005, in North America on February 6, 2006, and in Europe on May...
. Shortly thereafter, he left skip and founded Route24 on February 23, 2006. According to Nishi, he felt that working on large projects with a large group of people such as those at skip limited his freedom in designing games.
At Route24, Nishi and a staff of four other people developed LOL
LOL (video game)
LOL, known in Europe as Bakushow and in Japan as , is a Nintendo DS video game. The game was published by Skip in Japan, Agetec in North America, and Rising Star Games in Europe....
for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, which was published by skip in 2007. He recently worked on Newtonica and Newtonica2 for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
with Kenji Eno
Kenji Eno
is a musician and video game designer based in Japan. He is best-known for his cult survival horror series, the D games and his audio game series, Real Sound.-Childhood and early years:...
, among other independently-developed mobile games. In 2010, Nishi expressed interest in developing a sequel to Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, asking fans to voice their support via Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
Personal life
Nishi currently lives in Meguro, TokyoMeguro, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It calls itself Meguro City in English.Meguro hosts fifteen foreign embassies and consulates. One of Tokyo's most exclusive residential neighborhoods is located in Meguro....
. He is a fan of British rock
British rock
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by The Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the...
music and once had a dog named Tao, who Nishi featured as a character in many of his games including Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, GiFTPiA, L.O.L.: Lack of Love, Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow. Tao passed away in October 2009 due to kidney complications. It is said that Dragon Quest III
Dragon Warrior III
Dragon Warrior III, known in Japan as , is a console role-playing game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix . It is the third installment in the Dragon Quest series , first released for the Famicom in Japan, and then the NES in North America...
is Nishi's favorite game.
Credits
- Tenshi no Uta (1991)
- ExileExile (video game)Exile is an action RPG video game series developed by Nihon Telenet. In Japan, the series is known as XZR and Exile in North America. The first game in the trilogy never saw a release outside of Japan. Exile had two different versions...
(1991) - Psycho Dream (1992)
- Chrono TriggerChrono Triggeris a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a...
(1995) - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven StarsSuper Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven StarsSuper Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, often shortened and officially known in Japan as , is an action role-playing game developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . It was originally released on March 9, 1996 in Japan and on May 13,...
(1996) - Moon: Remix RPG AdventureMoon: Remix RPG Adventure, usually referred to simply as Moon, is a 1997 role-playing game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment. The game was first released on October 16, 1997, and was re-released as part of the PlayStation the Best line on November 5, 1998...
(1997) - Incredible CrisisIncredible CrisisIncredible Crisis, known in Japan as , is a PlayStation video game developed by Polygon Magic. The game was first published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten on June 24, 1999...
(1999) - L.O.L.: Lack of LoveL.O.L.: Lack of LoveL.O.L.: Lack of Love, or simply Lack of Love, is an evolutionary adventure game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment for the Sega Dreamcast...
(2000) - GiFTPiAGiFTPiAis a video game that was developed by Skip Ltd. for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on April 25, 2003. Despite that its last showing at Electronic Entertainment Expo was in English, Nintendo cancelled the North American localization of GiFTPiA...
(2003) - Chibi-Robo!Chibi-Robo!, fully titled Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!, is a platform-adventure video game for the Nintendo GameCube console. It was developed by Skip Ltd. with collaboration from Nintendo. The game was first released in Japan on June 23, 2005, in North America on February 6, 2006, and in Europe on May...
(2005) - LOLLOL (video game)LOL, known in Europe as Bakushow and in Japan as , is a Nintendo DS video game. The game was published by Skip in Japan, Agetec in North America, and Rising Star Games in Europe....
(2007) - Captain RainbowCaptain Rainbowis a video game developed by Skip Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The game was released exclusively in Japan on August 28, 2008.The game puts players in the role of Nick, an ordinary guy whose alter ego "Captain★Rainbow", was once a popular TV superhero. In order to regain his...
(2008) - Newtonica (2008)
- Takurou Morinaga DS (2008)
- Newtonica2 (2008)
- Wacky World of SportsWacky World of SportsWacky World of Sports, known in Japan as , is a video game by Sega for the Wii console. Featuring non-conventional sports like tuna tossing, lumberjack sports and cheese wheel rolling, among other fanciful and fictional activities.- External links:...
(2009) - PostPet DS (2009)
- iCLK (2010)
- geotrion (2010)
- Followars (2010)