W

Daisuke Amaya , also known by his pseudonym Pixel, is a Japanese indie game developer. He is best known for developing Cave Story , which has been remade into many versions.

W

Yukio Futatsugi is a Japanese video game developer. His work includes leading the teams which created Sega Saturn games Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei, and Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Xbox title Phantom Dust. He is the co-founder of video game development company Grounding Inc, developers of Crimson Dragon.

W

Katsuhiro Harada is a Japanese game producer, director, and general manager from Bandai Namco Entertainment, best known as a producer and director of the popular fighting game series Tekken.

W

Akihiro Hino is a Japanese video game designer and businessman. Starting his career as a programmer in the 1990s, he later took on roles in writing, design, directing and producing. He founded Level-5 in 1998, where he remains its president and CEO.

W

Koji Igarashi is a Japanese video game producer, programmer, writer, and creative director. Often credited as IGA, he began his career by joining Konami in 1990 as a programmer. Over the next ten years, he moved into a senior role within the company, working on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a programmer, writer, and assistant director. He later served as the lead producer on the Castlevania series, starting with Castlevania Chronicles in 1999 and ending with Castlevania: Harmony of Despair in 2011. During his time with Konami, he was also involved in other titles, such as Nano Breaker and Tokimeki Memorial. In 2014, Igarashi left Konami to later become the co-founder of Artplay who in June 2019 released Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night.

W

Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo. He was a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware.

W

Junichi Masuda is a Japanese video game composer, director, designer, producer, singer, programmer and trombonist, best known for his work in the Pokémon franchise. He is a member of the Game Freak board of directors, and has been employed at the company since 1989 when he founded it alongside Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori.

W

Yuji Naka is a Japanese video game programmer, designer, and producer who was the former head of Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog series of games on the Sega Mega Drive. With Sonic Team, Naka also led development on games including Nights into Dreams (1996), Burning Rangers (1998), Sonic Adventure (1998), and Phantasy Star Online (2000). In 2006, he left Sega to found Prope, an independent game company. He also worked under Square Enix in the late 2010s, directing Balan Wonderworld (2021).