Hideki Kamiya facts for kids

Hideki Kamiya (神谷 英樹, Kamiya Hideki, born December 19, 1970) is a famous Japanese video game designer and director. He started his career in 1994 at a company called Capcom. There, he helped create and direct many popular games like Resident Evil 2 (1998), Devil May Cry (2001), Viewtiful Joe (2003), and Ōkami (2006).

From 2004 to 2006, he also worked for Clover Studio, which was part of Capcom. After leaving Capcom, Kamiya and some other team members started their own company called PlatinumGames in 2006. He was also a vice president there for several years. With PlatinumGames, he directed Bayonetta (2009) and The Wonderful 101 (2013).

In December 2024, it was announced that he had started a new independent studio called Clovers Inc. Their first big project is a new game in the Ōkami series, which will be published by Capcom.

In 2009, IGN (a big video game website) named him one of the top 100 game creators of all time!

Early Life and Gaming Passions

Hideki Kamiya was born in 1970 in Matsumoto, Japan. When he was young, he loved video games. His neighbor often invited him to play on their Epoch Cassette Vision console. Kamiya especially liked the sounds the games made.

Later, he got his very own first console, the Nintendo Famicom. The first game he bought for it was Nuts & Milk. In high school, he bought a computer called a NEC PC-8801 to learn programming. But he ended up spending most of his time playing games instead!

Some of his favorite games that inspired him as a designer include The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Gradius. He also really enjoyed classic monster movies like Godzilla and Ultraman.

Starting a Career in Games

Kamiya decided he wanted to become a video game developer after reading interviews with famous game creators like Shigeru Miyamoto. After college, he applied to many game companies. He was turned down by Sega but was accepted by Namco. However, Namco wanted him to be an artist, not a game designer. So, he joined Capcom in 1994 as a designer.

Directing Resident Evil 2

Kamiya's early work at Capcom included helping plan the first Resident Evil game. He then became the director for Resident Evil 2. This game was made by a team of about 40 to 50 people. Many of them were new to Capcom or had worked on the first Resident Evil.

Kamiya wanted Resident Evil 2 to feel more like a big Hollywood movie. He aimed to attract new players with an exciting story. The team worked hard to redesign the game to fit these new ideas.

Creating Devil May Cry

Kamiya later directed Devil May Cry. This game actually started as an early idea for Resident Evil 4. Kamiya wanted to make a very cool and stylish action game. The story was about a powerful character named Tony.

As the game developed, Kamiya felt the main character didn't look heroic enough from a fixed camera angle. So, he decided to use a moving camera instead of fixed backgrounds. The team even traveled to Europe to take photos of old buildings and stones for the game's textures.

However, the game started to feel too different from the scary Resident Evil series. So, the team decided to make it a brand new game, separate from Resident Evil. Kamiya rewrote the story to be about demons, and the hero's name became "Dante." The game was officially named Devil May Cry in 2000.

The game's exciting combat was partly inspired by a bug found in another game, Onimusha: Warlords. Kamiya noticed that enemies could be kept in the air by hitting them many times. This led to the cool "juggling" moves in Devil May Cry. Kamiya designed the game around Dante's amazing acrobatics and fighting skills. He also made the game quite challenging, calling it a "challenge to those who played light, casual games."

Even though Devil May Cry was a big success, Kamiya did not direct the sequel, Devil May Cry 2. He was surprised by this decision. He later helped with the story and character design for Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.

Working at Clover Studio

Kamiya directed Viewtiful Joe, which was designed to help the creators improve their skills. He even provided the voice for a character named Six Machine in the game!

In 2006, Kamiya directed Ōkami. This game was born from many ideas at Clover Studio. Kamiya wanted to show a lot of nature in the game. He created a short video showing a wolf running through a forest, making flowers bloom.

The team worked to create a unique gameplay style where players could pause the game and "draw" on the screen to affect the world around them. Many people noticed that Ōkami's gameplay was similar to the Legend of Zelda series, which Kamiya, as a big fan, admits influenced his game design.

Clover Studio closed down in late 2006.

Founding PlatinumGames

On August 1, 2006, Kamiya, along with Shinji Mikami and Atsushi Inaba, founded a new company called Seeds, Inc., which later became PlatinumGames.

In 2008, PlatinumGames announced a deal with Sega to create four games. One of these was Bayonetta, a stylish action game directed by Kamiya. He even studied Devil May Cry 4 to help with its design. Kamiya also directed The Wonderful 101 for the Wii U, released in 2013. He also wrote the story for Bayonetta 2.

Kamiya has often said he would love to make a new Star Fox game. Fans on Twitter encouraged him to share his ideas with Nintendo. Eventually, PlatinumGames did work with Nintendo on Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard, released in 2016.

Kamiya was also working on a game called Scalebound for Microsoft Studios, but it was canceled in 2017.

In 2023, Kamiya decided to leave PlatinumGames. He announced his departure in September and officially left on October 12, 2023.

Starting Clovers

After leaving PlatinumGames, Kamiya was approached by Kento Koyama, another game developer. Koyama suggested that Kamiya start his own studio to make the games he truly wanted to create. Many other staff members from PlatinumGames also wanted to join Kamiya.

Koyama started the new company, Clovers, and Kamiya joined after his departure from PlatinumGames. The name "Clovers" is a nod to the old Clover Studio. Kamiya and Koyama funded the studio themselves, wanting to keep it independent. By December 2024, Clovers had about 25 staff members.

Their first big plan at Clovers was to make new games. But they soon realized they could make a new Ōkami game, which Kamiya had always wanted to do. They talked with Capcom and got the chance to make it happen. The new Ōkami sequel was announced at The Game Awards 2024 in December 2024.

Online Presence

People who have met Hideki Kamiya often say he is a friendly person. However, he has a funny reputation on Twitter for blocking many users who tweet at him in languages other than Japanese, even if he tweets in English himself. This has become a bit of an inside joke among his fans!

Games Hideki Kamiya Has Worked On

Video games

Canceled Projects

• Scalebound – Director, story

See also

In Spanish: Hideki Kamiya para niños