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–present)
Notable work	Mega Man series Onimusha series Dead Rising series

Keiji Inafune (born May 8, 1965) is a famous Japanese video game creator. He is known as a producer, character designer, and game designer. In 2009, IGN, a big gaming website, named him one of the top 100 game creators ever.

He started his career at Capcom in the late 1980s. His first jobs were as an artist and illustrator. The first two games he worked on were Street Fighter and Mega Man in 1987. He then became a character designer for the Mega Man series.

Later, Inafune became a producer. His first game as a producer was Mega Man 8 in 1996. He also produced games like Mega Man X4, the Mega Man Legends games, and the Mega Man Zero series. Beyond Mega Man, he produced the Lost Planet, Dead Rising, and Onimusha series. In 2010, he became the Global Head of Production at Capcom.

He left Capcom in late 2010. After that, he started his own companies, Comcept and Intercept. He also became a director at DiNG, a mobile game studio. While at Comcept, Inafune worked on games like Mighty No. 9 and Soul Sacrifice. In 2017, Comcept was bought by Level-5 and became Level-5 Comcept.

Early Life

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

Career in Gaming

Starting Out

After graduating, 22-year-old Inafune joined the Capcom company in 1987. He was looking for a job as an illustrator. Inafune had wanted to join Konami, another game company, but Capcom was much closer to him.

In many early game credits at Capcom, he was known as "INAFKING." This nickname came from combining "Snufkin" (a character from the Moomin anime) with his own name. The first two games Inafune worked on were Mega Man (called Rockman in Japan) and Street Fighter. Both games came out in 1987. For Street Fighter, Inafune drew pictures of the characters.

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

The director, Akira Kitamura, created the first pixel art for Rock Man (Mega Man). This was to make sure the character looked good against the game's backgrounds. After that, Inafune refined the character's look. Inafune calls this a "reverse character design." This is because artists usually draw concept art first, then it's turned into game graphics.

At a special event in 2007, Inafune explained his role in creating Mega Man. He said:

I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom. My mentor [Capcom senior member 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.

The first Mega Man game was released in December 1987. Sales were good, but Inafune noted it "wasn't a huge success."

Akira Kitamura suggested a contest for fans to design Robot Masters for Mega Man games. Mega Man 2 was the first game to do this. Inafune's job was to turn these fan designs into professional ones.

Starting with Mega Man 3, Inafune was deeply involved in the game's design. However, Inafune considers Mega Man 3 one of his least favorite Mega Man games. He explained in an interview that the team had to release the game before it was ready. The main planner left during production, and Inafune had to take over. He felt they could have made it much better with more time.

Inafune also designed boss characters for the Mega Man games on the Game Boy. These included Enker from Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge and Punk from Mega Man III.

Capcom then started a new series for the Super NES, Mega Man X. This series had a darker story set 100 years after the original. Inafune designed the character Zero for these games. He also designed some of the bosses. He said he wanted Zero to be the "other main character" who would "steal all the good scenes."

Inafune also helped design characters for Mega Man 7 in 1995. He designed Auto and made early sketches for Bass and Treble.

Becoming a Producer

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

He produced the 3D Mega Man Legends series. Sony had asked Capcom to make a new 3D Mega Man game for the PlayStation. Inafune supported the game, but it wasn't a huge success. He called it a "clumsy son." It was hard to promote the game because the media wasn't very interested in another Mega Man title. In contrast, Inafune was a promotion producer for Resident Evil 2, which was very popular and easy to sell.

Inafune originally wanted to end the Mega Man X series with Mega Man X5. He told the team to "finish off the series with this title." However, Capcom decided to continue the X series without him.

Inafune also created the Onimusha series. This series was set in samurai-era Japan and had many sequels.

He was also the producer for the Mega Man Battle Network series. This series was different from other Mega Man games. It added role-playing and strategic elements. Inafune got the idea for this series by watching his son.

Senior Roles and New Games

In 2006, Inafune was promoted to senior corporate officer. His team's next big game was Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. This game started as a sequel to Shadow of Rome but changed its story and setting. It is a zombie-fighting game inspired by the 1978 movie Dawn of the Dead. Capcom released it in the U.S. on August 8, 2006.

Inafune also worked as a producer for Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent.

He had the idea to go back to the simple gameplay of the first Mega Man games. He was a producer for Mega Man 9. He designed two characters for this game: Splash Woman and Plug Man. A similar game, Mega Man 10, followed in 2010.

Inafune was a producer for Dead Rising 2. He chose a Canadian company, Blue Castle Games, to develop it instead of Capcom's internal team. The game was released in 2010. He 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 games made by Capcom, no matter where they were developed, still felt like Capcom games.

Starting His Own Companies

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

On December 15, 2010, Inafune started a new company called Comcept in Osaka. Comcept was a design and production studio. It didn't make games itself but worked with other studios to co-develop them. In January 2011, he launched Intercept in Tokyo, which focused on game development. Inafune wanted Comcept to work on many games at once and have the flexibility to try different genres.

In December 2011, Inafune also became a director at DiNG, a company that makes games for smartphones.

Intercept started working on a game called Kaio: King of Pirates in 2012. It was a pirate-themed game for the 3DS console. However, the game was canceled in 2015 by its publisher.

Inafune has made some fun appearances in games. In Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 (2011), a picture of Inafune appears as a special attack. Comcept also worked on Sweet Fuse: At Your Side. The main character of Sweet Fuse is Saki Inafune, who is Keiji Inafune's fictional niece. Inafune himself appears in the game, and his kidnapping is part of the story.

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

On August 31, 2013, Inafune started a Kickstarter project for a game called Mighty No. 9. This game was seen as a new version of the Mega Man series.

After many delays, Mighty No. 9 was released in 2016. It received mixed reviews. During a live stream, Inafune took responsibility for the game's problems. He said that trying to make the game for many different platforms at the same time was a big challenge.

In June 2017, Level-5 bought Comcept, and it became Level-5 Comcept. Inafune became its chief communications officer.

In May 2022, Inafune started an NFT project called Beastroid, which was inspired by the Mega Man series.

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

See also

In Spanish: Keiji Inafune para niños