Hidetaka Miyazaki facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hidetaka Miyazaki
宮崎 英高
Miyazaki in 2022
Born	(1974-09-19) September 19, 1974 (age 50)
Alma mater	Keio University
Occupation	Video game director game designer writer
Notable work	Demon's Souls Dark Souls Bloodborne Sekiro Elden Ring
Title	Representative director and president, FromSoftware
Term	2014–present
Children	2

Hidetaka Miyazaki (born September 19, 1974) is a famous Japanese video game director, designer, and writer. He is also the president of a game company called FromSoftware. He joined FromSoftware in 2004. He first worked on the Armored Core games. Later, he became very well known for creating the Dark Souls series. In 2014, Miyazaki became the president of FromSoftware. He has also directed other popular games like Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring.

Miyazaki gets ideas from many different writers, manga artists, and game designers. His games are often known for being quite challenging. They also tell stories in a unique way, mostly through clues in the game world and item descriptions, rather than a lot of talking. Many people see Miyazaki as a very important creator in video games. His games are considered some of the best ever made. They even led to a new type of game called "Soulslike" games.

Miyazaki's Journey in Gaming

Miyazaki was born in Japan on September 19, 1974. He grew up in Shizuoka, Japan. He went to Keio University and studied social science. After college, he worked as an account manager for a company called Oracle Corporation. He did this to help pay for his sister's college.

How a Game Changed His Career

One day, a friend told Miyazaki about a video game called Ico, which came out in 2001. Playing this game made him want to become a game designer. It was hard to find a job in the game industry at age 29 without experience. But FromSoftware was one of the few companies that hired him. He started working there in 2004 as a planner for Armored Core: Last Raven. He joined the game's development when it was already partly made. Later, he directed Armored Core 4 and its next game, Armored Core: For Answer.

Creating Demon's Souls and Dark Souls

Miyazaki heard about a new fantasy game project that later became Demon's Souls. He was very excited about it and offered to help. Before he joined, the company thought the project was failing. Miyazaki believed this allowed him to take full control. He thought that if he tried new ideas and they failed, it wouldn't make things worse.

When Demon's Souls was shown at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, people didn't react well. It also didn't sell many copies at first. But after a few months, more people started playing it. Soon, other companies wanted to release the game outside of Japan. After Demon's Souls became popular, its next game, Dark Souls, came out in 2011 and was a big hit. Because of this success, Miyazaki became the president of FromSoftware in May 2014. It was very unusual for someone in Japan to change careers and become a company president in less than 10 years.

New Games and Big Successes

In 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment asked FromSoftware to work together on a new game. Miyazaki wanted to make a game for the newest game consoles. This led to the idea for Bloodborne. Even though Bloodborne didn't have the same story as FromSoftware's other games, Miyazaki said it had the "DNA" of Demon's Souls in its level design. While Bloodborne was being made, Dark Souls II was also in development. Miyazaki only supervised Dark Souls II because he couldn't direct both games at the same time.

Miyazaki returned to direct Dark Souls III, which was released in 2016. After this game, he said he would personally stop making Dark Souls games. His next two projects were a virtual reality game called Déraciné in 2018 and an action-adventure game called Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in 2019. Sekiro won many awards.

Miyazaki directed Elden Ring, which came out in 2022. He asked American fantasy writer George R. R. Martin to help create the game's world. Elden Ring has sold over 25 million copies and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Miyazaki also started as the director for Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023) before Masaru Yamamura took over.

Ideas Behind His Games

Miyazaki is inspired by architectural designs and often uses them as a part of environmental storytelling in his games. One such example is Anor Londo, a central location in Dark Souls, with parts being modeled after the Milan Cathedral in Italy (top) and Château de Chambord in France (bottom).

When Miyazaki was a child, his parents couldn't buy him many books. But he loved to read and often borrowed books from his local library. He read English fantasy and science fiction books that he didn't fully understand. He used the pictures in the books to imagine the missing parts of the stories. He later said this greatly influenced how he designs games. Miyazaki also played gamebooks and tabletop games like Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, Dungeons & Dragons, and RuneQuest. His parents didn't let him play video games until he was old enough for university.

Influences from Games and Books

Once he started playing video games, Miyazaki became a fan of Ico, early Dragon Quest games, The Legend of Zelda, and the King's Field series. He said these games influenced him. He also liked manga such as Berserk, Saint Seiya, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Devilman. His favorite authors include H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, and George R. R. Martin. Miyazaki is also inspired by architecture, especially old European buildings. He often uses these designs in his games to tell stories through the environment. Ideas from Psychology and sociology also help him make design choices.

Game Design Choices

As the main creative director, Miyazaki usually writes most of the story, dialogue, and text for his projects. He also has the final say on how characters, monsters, and levels look. The multiplayer parts of the Souls games were inspired by a real-life experience he had. He was driving up a snowy road, and cars in front of him started slipping. Other people helped push the cars uphill. Miyazaki couldn't thank them before they left. He wondered if the last person made it to their destination, knowing he would probably never meet them again. This feeling of silent cooperation led to the multiplayer systems in his games.

Miyazaki has said that his games are not meant to be difficult just for the sake of it. Instead, the challenge helps players feel a sense of achievement when they "overcome huge obstacles." It also encourages players to try different ways to play and use different weapons. He explained that dying in his games is a way to learn through trial and error. He added that this idea became popular after Demon's Souls was successful. Miyazaki doesn't dislike direct storytelling, but he prefers players to figure out the story for themselves. He believes players get more out of the game when they find story clues from items or side characters. Many game journalists and critics call him an "auteur" (a unique artist) in video games because of his important work on Dark Souls and similar games.

Games Directed by Miyazaki

Awards and Recognition

Miyazaki received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards. This award was given to him by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, who were two of his inspirations. In 2022, he received the Special Award at the CEDEC Awards and the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award at the Japan Game Awards. In 2023, Time magazine included Miyazaki in their list of the 100 Most Influential People of the year. This made him only the second game developer to be on this list, after Shigeru Miyamoto in 2007.

Miyazaki's Family Life

Miyazaki shared in 2019 that he had a son. In 2024, he also revealed that he had a daughter.

See also

In Spanish: Hidetaka Miyazaki para niños