Keiji Inafune facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Keiji Inafune
稲船 敬二
Inafune at Japan Expo 2012
Born	(1965-05-08) May 8, 1965 (age 60) Kishiwada, Osaka, Japan
Alma mater	Osaka Designers' College
Occupation	Game producer, character designer, game designer
Years active	1987–present
Employer	Capcom (1987–2010) Level-5 Comcept (2010–2024) Rocket Studio (2024–present)
Notable work	Mega Man series Onimusha series Dead Rising series

Keiji Inafune (born May 8, 1965) is a famous Japanese video game producer, character designer, and businessman. He is known for his work on many popular game series. In 2009, he was named one of the top 100 game creators ever by IGN.

Inafune started his career at Capcom in the late 1980s. He began as an artist and illustrator. His first games were the original Street Fighter and Mega Man in 1987. He later became a character designer for the Mega Man series. He also designed the character Zero for Mega Man X.

Later, Inafune became a producer. His first game as a producer was Mega Man 8 in 1996. He also produced games in the Lost Planet, Dead Rising, and Onimusha series. Inafune left Capcom in 2010. He then started his own companies, Comcept and Intercept. In 2017, Comcept became part of Level-5. Inafune left Level-5 in 2024 and joined Rocket Studio.

Early Life and Education

Keiji Inafune was born in Kishiwada, Osaka, Japan, in 1965. He studied graphic design at the Osaka Designers' College. He graduated in 1987.

Career Highlights

Starting at Capcom

After graduating, Inafune joined Capcom in 1987. He was 22 years old and wanted to be an illustrator. In his early work, he was sometimes credited as "INAFKING." This nickname came from combining his name with "Snufkin" from the Moomin anime.

His first two games at Capcom were Mega Man and Street Fighter. Both games came out in 1987. For Street Fighter, Inafune drew character pictures.

Designing Mega Man

For the first Mega Man game, Inafune designed some enemy characters. He also created "Elec Man," who was his first original game character. He tried to make Elec Man look like a character from an American comic book. Inafune also drew the Japanese box art and promotional pictures for Mega Man. He worked on the in-game animations and pixel art.

The main character, Mega Man, was first designed as a simple pixel sprite by director Akira Kitamura. Inafune then created a more detailed illustration of the character. He called this a "reverse character design" because the art came after the pixel sprite.

Inafune explained his role in creating Mega Man at a 2007 event. He said, "I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom. My mentor [Akira Kitamura] had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him."

The first Mega Man game was released in December 1987. It sold well, but Inafune noted it wasn't a huge success at first.

Expanding the Mega Man Series

For Mega Man 2, Inafune helped turn fan-submitted designs for Robot Masters into final characters. This was a new way to involve players.

Starting with Mega Man 3, Inafune became more involved in the game design. However, he considers Mega Man 3 one of his least favorite Mega Man games. He explained that the team had to release the game before they felt it was ready. He also had to take over as the main planner during its creation.

Inafune also designed boss characters for the Mega Man games on the Game Boy. These included the "Mega Man Killers" like Enker, Punk, and Ballade.

For Mega Man X on the Super NES, Inafune designed the character Zero. He also designed two bosses, Chill Penguin and Storm Eagle. He wanted Zero to be a cool "other main character" who would stand out.

Becoming a Producer

In 1996, Inafune became a producer for Mega Man 8. This happened after the long-time producer Tokuro Fujiwara left Capcom. In 1998, Inafune became the general manager of Capcom Production Studio 2.

He produced the 3D Mega Man Legends series. This series was made for the PlayStation after Sony asked for a new 3D Mega Man game. Inafune supported the game, but it did not sell as well as hoped. He found it hard to promote because the media wasn't very interested in another Mega Man title.

Inafune also produced the Onimusha series. These games were set in samurai-era Japan and became very popular.

He was also the producer for the Mega Man Battle Network series. These games were different, adding role-playing and strategic elements. Inafune got the idea for this series by watching his son play games.

Senior Roles at Capcom

In 2006, Inafune was promoted to senior corporate officer. His team then created Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. This game was about fighting zombies and was influenced by the movie Dawn of the Dead. It was released in 2006.

Inafune also produced Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent. He had the idea to return to the simple gameplay of the original Mega Man series. He produced Mega Man 9 (2008) and Mega Man 10 (2010), which brought back the classic style. He even designed two characters for Mega Man 9: Splash Woman and Plug Man.

He was a producer for Dead Rising 2 (2010). He chose a Canadian developer, Blue Castle Games, to make it. Inafune also directed a short film series called Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun.

In 2010, Inafune became Capcom's Global Head of Production. He wanted to make sure that all Capcom games, no matter where they were made, had the special "Capcom flavor" that fans loved.

Leaving Capcom and New Companies

On October 29, 2010, Inafune announced he was leaving Capcom after 23 years. He wanted to "start his life over." He felt the game industry needed to change how it made games. He believed that job security could make staff too comfortable, and big budgets with large teams were problems for Japanese game companies.

In December 2010, Inafune started a new company called Comcept in Osaka. Comcept focused on design and production, working with other studios to make games. In January 2011, he launched Intercept in Tokyo, which focused on game development. Inafune wanted his companies to work on many games at once and be flexible with different game types.

Inafune also became a director at DiNG, a company that develops smartphone games.

Intercept worked on a game called Kaio: King of Pirates for the 3DS. It was a pirate-themed game. However, the game was canceled in 2015.

Inafune made some fun appearances in games. In Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 (2011), an image of him appears as a special attack. He also appeared in Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, where the main character is his fictional niece.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (2014) was a game Inafune worked on with other studios. It didn't sell well or get good reviews. Inafune said the timing was bad because players were moving to the PlayStation 4 console.

In 2013, Inafune started a Kickstarter project for Mighty No. 9. This game was meant to be a new game similar to the Mega Man series. After several delays, the game was released in 2016. It received mixed reviews. Inafune took responsibility for the game's problems, especially with releasing it on many different platforms at once.

In 2015, Inafune announced he was working on a new game called ReCore for the Xbox One. He also tried to fund another game, Red Ash, through Kickstarter, but it did not reach its goal.

Level-5 and Rocket Studio

In June 2017, Level-5 bought Comcept, and it became Level-5 Comcept. Inafune became its chief communications officer. In 2022, Inafune announced an NFT project called Beastroid, which was inspired by the Mega Man series.

In 2024, Inafune left Level-5 Comcept. The company then became the Level-5 Inc. Osaka Office. Inafune then became an executive officer at Rocket Studio.

Works

Video games

Canceled Games

• Mega Man Legends 3 – Executive producer
• Red Ash: The Indelible Legend – Executive producer, concept
• Kaio: King of Pirates – Project lead

Film Work

See also

In Spanish: Keiji Inafune para niños