Akira Kitamura

Last updated
Akira Kitamura
北村玲
PronunciationKitamura Rei
NationalityJapanese
CitizenshipJapan
Years active1987-1991
EmployerCapcom (former)
Known forDesigning Mega Man
Notable work Mega Man, Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3

Akira Kitamura is a former video game artist and director. [1] He is the creator of the character Mega Man. [2] [3] He worked on the first three games in the series as a planner and artist. He is also the director of the 1991 game Cocoron, which was released only in Japan.

Contents

Due to the prominent practice of only using pseudonyms for credits, Kitamura is variously credited as "Famicon Akira" or "A.K" on many of the games he worked on. [4]

Career

He worked as an artist, and overall director for Mega Man (known as Rock Man in Japan) for the Famicom. He created the original static pixel art sprite for Mega Man. This was to ensure that the sprite could be properly seen against the game's backgrounds, and could work in the game. After that, the pixel art was handed over to artist Keiji Inafune who created a refined illustration of the character. [5] [6] [7] Inafune refers to this process as "like a reverse character design" as it is the opposite of what typically occurs, where artists create concept art which is then translated into game's graphics. [5]

At a special event during the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, Inafune commented on his and Akira's role in the creation of Mega Man. "I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom,". "My mentor (Akira Kitamura), who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him." [6]

He again worked on Mega Man 2 as the game's director. [8] He left Capcom during the development of Mega Man 3. He joined the game design company Takeru. [9] There he directed a game called Cocoron which bore some similarities to Mega Man. [10]

In the early 90's, he retired from game development.

Gameography

DateTitlePlatformDirectorPlannerDesignerNotes
1985 Section Z NES--✔Game Designer
1986 Legendary Wings Arcade-✔✔Character Designer
1987 Mega Man NES--✔Character Designer
1987 Avengers (Hissatsu Buraiken) Arcade---Mentioned in Special Thanks
1988 Last Duel: Inter Planet War 2012 NES---Mentioned in Special Thanks
1988 Mega Man 2 NES---Character Designer
1989 Willow NES--✔Game Designer
1990 Mega Man 3 NES---Original Game Designer (uncredited)
1991 Cocoron NES--✔Character Designer
1991 Nostalgia 1907 Sharp X68000---Planning Advisor
1992 Funky Jet Arcade--✔Game Designer
1994 Virgin Dream PC Engine Super CD-ROM²✔--CG Director

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References

  1. ↑ "Akira Kitamura Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames". MobyGames.
  2. ↑ "Companions Through Life and Death: The Story of Inti Creates and Mega Man". USgamer.net.
  3. ↑ "Ominous Mega Man poster hints at dark days of future past". GMA News Online.
  4. ↑ Capcom Co., Ltd. (December 1987). Mega Man . Capcom U.S.A., Inc. Scene: staff credits.
  5. 1 2 "Keiji Inafune dropped mad Mega Man secrets on me". Destructoid.
  6. 1 2 Hirohiko Niizumi (23 September 2007). "TGS '07: Mega Man celebrates 20th anniversary". GameSpot . CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  7. ↑ Mega Man: Official Complete Works. Udon Entertainment Corp. 23 December 2009. p. 6.
  8. ↑ "Akira Kitamura". IMDb.
  9. ↑ "Little Samson (NES)". The Gaming Historian.
  10. ↑ "Hardcore Gaming 101: Cocoron". hardcoregaming101.net.
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