One of E3’s bright spots in 2019 was Ikumi Nakamura, who made a memorable enthusiastic announcement for (yet to come) GhostWire: Tokyo, of which she was then the creative director. GhostWire looked intriguing and Nakamura’s excitement was a success. However, she announced just a few months after that successful reception she had decided to leave Tango Gameworks. In a new interview, Nakamura explores some scary abandoned buildings while explaining the difficult decision to leave GhostWire behind and his plans to open his own studio to work on a game full of dark jokes.
Nakamura begins by explaining his 16-year career, starting in Okami and then moving on to the games Bayonetta and The Evil Within. “I liked to think about new project ideas,” says Nakamura. “I started talking my way to get to that kind of position.” That’s how she ended up as the creative director of GhostWire: Tokyo, which she says combined her interests in urban legends, the occult and the mysteries of marginal scientific ghosts.
Nakamura remembers being nervous about the GhostWire presentation at E3 and fearing it went wrong, only to discover how much people liked it. She says it made her realize how important it was to be honest with herself. His work began to affect his health around the time of his E3 debut, Nakamura says, and that “I started to wonder if there was a way to play games while I was feeling better.” Although leaving GhostWire was difficult, Nakamura says he spent some time after leaving Tango Gameworks traveling to other studios and learning about his work environments.
“I decided to use this experience to open my own small studio and build my IP,” she says. “I want to try my hand at an IP again at that studio. That’s what I’m working on now.” She says she will also act as a creative director in her new studio. It doesn’t go into details or real announcements, of course. Your interview with Cutscenes is more a reflection on your career path than a marketing space.
What she shows is that, although she believes that players see her as someone “attracted by horror or the grotesque”, she wants to make the games a little less seriously. She compares herself to Deadpool, saying she wants to create a game full of dark jokes.
It will probably be a while before we hear anything more concrete about Nakamura’s new studio or what it will work on. Her excitement for Ghostwire: Tokyo was seriously endearing, so I am very interested in finding out what she will be involved in next.