Ikumi Nakamura, the first GhostWire: Tokyo creative director who made a huge splash with her brief appearance at E3 2019, she is finally ready to talk about opening her own game development studio after leaving Tango Gameworks in 2019. Appropriately, she did so while exploring some scary abandoned buildings.
During your interview with Cutscenes, a new YouTube channel created by an independent documentary filmmaker Archipelago and Japanese gaming site GameSpark, Nakamura explains that the decision to leave his position at Tango Gameworks arose out of concern for his health. Although it was difficult to stop finishing GhostWire: Tokyo, a game she considers her son in a way, Nakamura felt she had to get out of the situation before it was too late.
“You can’t play games if you’re not healthy,” says Nakamura. “I started to wonder if there was a way to play games while I was feeling better. I was running away in a way. However, I believe that running away can be very positive. Rather than just stacking things about yourself, I think running away to something better is the healthiest choice. “
Nakamura mentions that, after leaving Tango Gameworks, she was inundated with messages, from incentive notes to job offers. She ended up accepting several invitations from studios around the world to simply visit her office and see how they were organized. Nakamura says it helped her to form an idea of how she might want to run her own studio someday, knowledge she plans to bring to this new venture.
“It was the chance to travel and learn what creates a good working environment,” explains Nakamura. “I decided to use this experience to open my own small studio and build my IP. I want to try my hand at an IP again in that studio; that’s what I’m working on now. It is stimulating to learn about new cultures. Of course, there is a language barrier, but even for someone like me who doesn’t speak English, I want to speak to people who are curious to learn and understand each other. If I can form this type of team to work on a new game, I feel that we will be able to bring something new to the players ”.
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Although she hasn’t been able to share much about what kind of game her studio is making, Nakamura has been open about her experiences as a woman in the games industry. After seeing how women are often treated badly in the male-dominated world of game development, she aims to achieve “total gender equality” in her new company and hopes that more Japanese studios will do the same.
“In my personal opinion, I think the stories written by women are more thoughtful and easier to understand,” adds Nakamura. “I also feel that there is more diversity in their characters. For men, they are more direct and easier to understand in this sense. I tend to feel that stories written by women are more in sync with their time. In the end, nobody can do everything. It is about finding the talents of each person and harnessing them accordingly to make a great game. “
With a curriculum that includes contributions to Okami, Bayonetta, and The evil within, Nakamura is one of the anonymous creators of the gaming industry, and it’s wonderful to know that she wants her new studio to be organized with workers’ health in mind. Be sure to check out the full interview above for more discussion of its developing history and the events surrounding its appearance at E3 2019, as well as some great rental pictures.