Hiroyuki Takahashi
Takahashi in 2005
Born (1957-10-30) October 30, 1957
Japan
OccupationVideo game designer
EmployerCamelot Software Planning
Known forShining series
Golden Sun series
Mario sports games

Hiroyuki Takahashi (Japanese: 高橋 宏之, born October 30, 1957), is the president of the video game development studio Camelot Software Planning.[1] He has participated in most of the company's projects as a game designer, producer, and writer.

Career

Hiroyuki Takahashi started his career in video game production as an employee at Enix, where his work on the Dragon Quest franchise included roles as assistant producer on Dragon Quest IV and executive producer for the North American release of Dragon Warrior II.[2]

Takahashi left Enix and in April 1990 founded the game development studio Climax Entertainment alongside Kan Naito, the chief programmer of Dragon Quest III and Dragon Quest IV at Chunsoft.[3][4] Takahashi and Naito were also joined by two former Enix freelancers, artist Yoshitaka Tamaki and programmer Yasuhiro Taguchi.[5][6] Climax's first project was Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Mega Drive, a game which Takahashi wrote and produced.

On June 12, 1991, Takahashi registered a new game company, Sonic! Software Planning, with an 85 percent investment from Sega Enterprises to develop further role-playing games for the Mega Drive. The studio was named after Sonic the Hedgehog, a Sega mascot character whose first game would release that month.[7]

Sonic supported Climax in the development of the first Shining Force, for which Takahashi has design, production, and writing credits. After Climax's departure from the series, Sonic became the primary developer of subsequent Shining games, which Takahashi would continue to produce.

In April 1994, Hiroyuki Takahashi's brother, Shugo Takahashi, founded Camelot Software Planning as an independent studio to develop games for Sony's PlayStation starting with Beyond the Beyond.[8] Camelot would also support Sonic in the development of games in the Shining series including Shining Wisdom and Shining the Holy Ark. After the release of the latter, Sega merged its investment in Sonic into its subsidiary Nextech, and Hiroyuki Takahashi moved to Camelot, where he became president during the development of Shining Force III.[8][9][10]

In late 1998, Sega began focusing their resources on the Dreamcast, leaving Sonic with its last scenario for Shining Force III for the Sega Saturn in jeopardy. After the project was complete, Camelot formed a partnership with Nintendo.

Since working with Nintendo, Camelot has developed many Mario sports games, mainly related to golf and tennis. They have also developed the Golden Sun series of role-playing games.

Works

Year Title Role
1990 Dragon Quest IV Assistant producer
Dragon Warrior II Executive producer
1991 Shining in the Darkness Producer, scenario
1992 Shining Force Producer, game designer, scenario
Shining Force Gaiden Producer, scenario
1993 Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya
Shining Force II Producer, programmer
1995 Shining Wisdom Producer, map designer, scenario
1996 Shining the Holy Ark Producer, game designer
1997 Shining Force III Scenario 1 Producer, game designer, scenario
1998 Shining Force III Scenario 2
Shining Force III Scenario 3
1999 Mario Golf Producer, lead game designer
2000 Mario Tennis
2001 Golden Sun Producer, game designer, scenario
2002 Golden Sun: The Lost Age
2003 Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour Producer, lead game designer
2004 Mario Golf: Advance Tour Producer, game designer, scenario
Mario Power Tennis Producer, lead game designer
2005 Mario Tennis: Power Tour Producer, lead game designer, scenario
2007 We Love Golf! Producer, lead game designer
2010 Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Producer, game designer, scenario[11]
2012 Mario Tennis Open Producer, lead game designer
2014 Mario Golf: World Tour Producer, lead game designer, scenario
2015 Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash Producer, lead game designer
2017 Mario Sports Superstars
2018 Mario Tennis Aces
2021 Mario Golf: Super Rush

References

  1. ↑ "Company Outline – 株式会社キャメロット" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2022-07-14. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
  2. ↑ "Be Mega hot menu special: Special interview talking about Shining and the Darkness", 「BEメガ・ホットメニューSPECIAL　特別インタビュー　シャイニング＆ザ・ダクネスを語る」, Beep! MegaDrive (ビープ！メガドライブ), December 1990 Edition (in Japanese). SoftBank, 1990-12-01.
  3. ↑ "Weekly Famitsu Issue 176" (PDF). Weekly Famicom Tsūshin (in Japanese). No. 176. ASCII. 1992-05-01. pp. 126–129. (Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2019-02-01 at the Wayback Machine)
  4. ↑ "Shining and Darkness: Sudden announcement of an RPG in which Sega has great confidence", 「シャイニング＆ダクネス セガ最大の自信作RPGの速報」, Mega Drive Fan (メガドライブFAN), November 1990 Edition (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten Intermedia, 1990-11-15, pp. 6–9.
  5. ↑ "Yoshitaka Tamaki interview—Animeland", VGDensetsu. Originally published in Animeland, issue 71. 2001-05. Archived from the original on 2023-10-09.
  6. ↑ "Behind the Scenes: Shining Force", 25 Greatest Sega Games. GamesTM, 2009, pp. 22–27.
  7. ↑ "Investment by Climax and Sega!! Game development and market research!!", 「クライマックスとセガが出!! ゲームの企画や市場調査!!」, Mega Drive Fan (メガドライブFAN), November 1991 Edition (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten Intermedia, 1991-11-15, p. 98.
  8. 1 2 "My history with golf, vol. 22: Camelot Co., Ltd., president and CEO Hiroyuki Takahashi and executive vice president Shugo Takahashi",「わたしのゴルフ履歴書〜Vol.22〜株式会社キャメロット 高橋宏之代表取締役社長、高橋秀五代表取締役副社長」. Gridge. Da-Bird, 2020. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27.
  9. ↑ "Historical Record", Nex Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05.
  10. ↑ Shining series history, Camelot Software Planning. Yasuhiro Taguchi. Archived from the original 2000-07-07.
  11. ↑ "Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's Hiroyuki Takahashi on the new game, hoaxes and 3DS". Engadget. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
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