Ikumi Nakamura is gearing up her independent studio, and a new profile charts her career and details the highs and lows leading to this exciting new chapter.
In a new profile in Game Informer, Nakamura shared her history in game development starting with her first job at Capcom’s Clover, a beloved sub-division known for its work on Okami and Viewtiful Joe.
While it was at Clover that Nakamura met future co-workers, Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami, Nakamura said her time at Clover and Capcom was difficult.
She says Capcom viewed Clover as “just the group of weirdos” and a “totally separate entity.” Nakamura cited the Wii-port of Okami which left out the name of Clover and its developers in the credits, something Capcom says was due to a rights issue.
“I’m sure something happened — politics,” Nakamura said. Additionally, she describes Capcom as being “old-school” with managers who yelled at employees and kicked office furniture. Behaviour she says wouldn’t be allowed in modern workplaces.
Nakamura went on to work at Platinum on games like Bayonetta and the canceled Scalebound before joining Mikami at Tango Gameworks. She was creative director on the upcoming title Ghostwire: Tokyo.
The full profile reveals how deep Nakamura’s love of horror is, a passion she shared with her father. And while working with Mikami on a horror game is an extension of that passion, she also revealed that the Resident Evil director wanted to create new games and not keep doing the same thing, “But people in the world wanted him to create — expected him to create survival horror.”
Nakamura is currently working as a consultant as she prepares her new studio. The full profile is worth reading over at Game Informer while Ghostwire: Tokyo has been delayed until 2022.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.