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Kenichi Nishi (西 健一, Nishi Ken'ichi, born June 20, 1967) is a Japanese video game designer. He has helped found a number of notable video game companies and develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).

Career

Nishi previously worked for both Telenet Japan and its subsidiary Riot. He was later hired by Square as a field designer for two of its larger releases. After leaving Square in 1995, Nishi helped establish Love-de-Lic, Inc. with many of his former Square coworkers. There, he designed two of the small company's three game releases: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and L.O.L.: Lack of Love. He also helped design and write the script for the 1999 Polygon Magic title Incredible Crisis. Nishi then co-founded skip Ltd., a second-party developer for Nintendo. Acting as vice president of the company, he also directed GiFTPiA and co-directed Chibi-Robo!. Shortly thereafter, he left skip and founded Route24 on February 23, 2006. According to Nishi, he felt that working on large projects with a large group of people such as those at skip limited his freedom in designing games.

At Route24, Nishi and a staff of four other people developed LOL for the Nintendo DS, which was published by skip in 2007. He worked on Newtonica and Newtonica2 for the iPhone and iPod Touch with Kenji Eno, among other independently developed mobile games. In 2010, Nishi expressed interest in developing a sequel to Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, asking fans to voice their support via Twitter.

Personal life

Nishi lives in Meguro, Tokyo. He is a fan of British rock music and once had a dog named Tao, who Nishi featured as a character in many of his games including Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, GiFTPiA, L.O.L.: Lack of Love, Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow. Tao died in October 2009 due to kidney complications. It is said that Dragon Quest III is Nishi's favorite game.

Credits

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2024)

References

1. ^ Bruno de Figueiredo. "Hardcore Gaming 101: Love De Lic". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
2. ^ Riley, Adam (July 22, 2006). "Skip, Ltd Talks Nintendo, Chibi-Robo DS, GiFTPiA & More! (Transcript)". Cubed3. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
3. ^ "Route24OfficialBlog Profile" (in Japanese). Route24. Archived from the original on 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
4. ^ "Behind the Scenes – LOL: Lack of Love". GamesTM. The Ultimate Retro Companion. No. 3. Imagine Publishing. 2010. p. 117. ISSN 1448-2606. OCLC 173412381. Archived from the original on 2011-04-28. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
5. Hoffman, Chris (March 2006). "Breaking the Mold: Chibi-Robo". Nintendo Power. No. 201. Redmond Washington: Nintendo of America. pp. 28–33.
6. ^ Alexander, Patrick (March 14, 2008). "Feature: Kenichi Nishi and Archime-DS Interview (Part One)". Eegra. Archived from the original on 2008-09-14. Retrieved 2008-09-11. He apparently still collaborates with them though, seeing Captain Rainbow (2008) credited him for the game's script.
7. ^ Riley, Adam (May 3, 2007). "Kenichi Nishi on Archime-DS". Cubed3. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
8. Parkin, Simon (October 13, 2010). "JRPG Producer Looks To Twitter To Help Secure A Publisher". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
9. Caoili, Eric (November 16, 2009). "All Dogs Go To Heaven: Kenichi Nishi's Tao Passes". GameSetWatch. Archived from the original on 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
10. "Psycho Dream Release Information". GameFAQs. Archived from the original on 2009-03-01. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
11. Caoili, Eric (November 24, 2008). "Best Of FingerGaming: From Aurora Feint to Dr. Awesome". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
12. キャプテン★レインボー (in Japanese). Nintendo Software DataBase. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
13. "NEWTONICA: De Motu Corporum in Gyrium". Coregamer. August 21, 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-11-27. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
14. Nishi, Kenichi (September 10, 2009). "お知らせ086 : PostPetDS 夢見るモモと不思議のペン" (in Japanese). Route24. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
15. "リアルタイムGPSゲーム iPhoneアプリ［geotrion］GameComplex". 2013-06-08. Archived from the original on 2013-06-08. Retrieved 2021-03-24.

External links

• Route24 Official Blog (in Japanese)
• Kenichi Nishi's blog at Studio Voice Online (in Japanese)
• Kenichi Nishi's dual blog with Kenji Eno (in Japanese)

• 1967 births
• Japanese video game designers
• Living people
• Designers from Tokyo
• Square Enix people