Hideki Konno

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hideki Konno at GDC 2011

Hideki Konno ( Japanese 紺 野 秀 樹 , Konno Hideki ; * 1965 in Matsudo , Chiba Prefecture ) is a Japanese game developer at Nintendo . He started working at Nintendo in 1986, initially on the Super Mario series; later he worked as a director on Mario Kart games. Since 2004, Konno has been head of Nintendo's No. 1 software development group, Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD), and in this position, producer of the Mario Kart and Nintendogs series. Aside from software development, Konno was the overall producer for the Nintendo 3DS .

Act

Born in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Hideki Konno graduated from the Electronic Data Processing Department of Japan Electronics College .

In 1986 Konno joined Nintendo. He was assigned to Shigeru Miyamoto and his EAD department, then Research & Development 4 (R & D4). His first position was as Assistant Director of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic , which was released in Japan in 1987, directed by Kensuke Tanabe . He then worked as a director of ice hockey . For the non-Japanese market, Doki Doki Panic was changed so that it came out in the USA in 1988 as Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

Since Super Mario Bros. 2 , Konno has worked closely with Miyamoto on the Mario series. In the follow-up games Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES, 1988) and Super Mario World ( SNES 1990), he was responsible for the level selection screens and level creation together with Katsuya Eguchi , who was at the same time as Nintendo. At Super Mario Bros. 3 he held the position of Assistant Director and at Super Mario World he was Map Director .

After working as director on the SNES port of SimCity , he took part in the same function in the development of an offshoot of the Mario series: Super Mario Kart came out in 1992 for the SNES and is considered the founder of the fun racer genre. He was then director of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES 1995) and then responsible for the development of the N64 offshoot of Mario Kart , Mario Kart 64 (1996). Konno developed a successor to Yoshi's Island , Yoshi's Story (SNES 1997).

The next title under Konno's direction was the GameCube starting title Luigi's Mansion (2001). In the same year, Mario Kart Super Circuit appeared for the Game Boy Advance , which, however, was not developed by EAD, but developed by Intelligent Systems , so Konno did not occupy a leading role, but that of a consultant. In the same capacity, he worked on The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker in 2002 and Mario Kart: Double Dash !! .

In 2004, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata carried out a general restructuring of Nintendo's internal development departments. Among other things, EAD was given new members and the structure of the studio was changed. It has been divided into the largest internal department and into individual groups that act independently of one another and are each under the direction of a producer. Miyamoto retained his position as general manager of EAD so he could continue overseeing the biggest Nintendo developments. Konno, who was a director for many years at the time, was raised to the status of producer as part of these measures and became the head of the software development group No. 1 of the reorganized EAD.

In 2005 Konno and his team produced the Nintendo DS games Nintendogs and Mario Kart DS . In the same year, the GameCube title Geist was published , which Nintendo developed together with n-Space , here too Konno acted as producer. Next he was responsible for Mario Kart Wii ( Wii 2008). Also in 2008, the Nintendo DSi was released , on which a sound application called DSi Sound was preinstalled, made by Konno's team.

In 2011, Nintendo 3DS appeared , the first mobile device to use an autostereoscopic display to enable 3D effects without glasses. The console's origins date back to after the DS was released; In early 2008, Iwata and Miyamoto Konno presented plans and prototypes of this new console. Konno had just finished working on Mario Kart Wii at the time . He was involved in the development of this console as an overall producer, although he was not part of the hardware but the software department. At Nintendo there was a long-term collaboration between software and hardware employees, but Nintendo wanted to strengthen this connection with the 3DS by appointing a software developer to lead the project. This was unique in the history of Nintendo.

In 2011, Konno and his EAD group launched two games for the 3DS, the planning of which began in early 2010: Nintendogs + Cats and Mario Kart 7 . Since Konno was commissioned to complete Nintendogs + Cats for the market launch of the 3DS, he put the resources of his group into this project, while eight employees took care of Mario Kart 7 . When the title got into the phase of more intensive development, there weren't enough staff available and other EAD groups were also busy. So Shinya Takahashi and Kensuke Tanabe of the Nintendo Software Planning & Development Department (SPD) arranged a collaboration with the first-party developer Retro Studios , who had just completed work on Donkey Kong Country Returns . Mario Kart 7 was released in late 2011.

Mario Kart 8 was released for the Wii U in May 2014 . Konno was involved as a producer.

Games with Konnos participation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Iwata asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary - Part 3: The developers of the Super Mario series (1) - 1. Entry at Nintendo after "Super Mario" at nintendo.de. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
  2. ↑ a b Iwata asks: Mario Kart Wii - 1. It all started with a guy in dungarees at nintendo.de. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
  3. ↑ 3DS Development Trivia With Hideki Konno at andraisang.com (English). Archived from the original on December 25, 2012 ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Iwata asks: Mario Kart 7 - 1. It all started with a Yakiniku party at nintendo.de. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
personal data
SURNAME Konno, Hideki
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 紺 野 秀 樹 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese game developer at Nintendo
DATE OF BIRTH 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Matsudo , Chiba Prefecture