Rieko Kodama

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Rieko Kodama ( Japanese 小玉 理 恵 子 , Kodama Rieko ; born May 1963 in Yokosuka , Japan ) is a Japanese video game artist , director and producer who works for Sega . She is often viewed as one of the earliest successful video game developers.

life and work

Kodama began studying art and archeology , then chose art design at an advertising design college. In 1984 she was hired as a designer at Sega and designed a variety of different games. It was named after a manga character "Phoenix Rie" or "Phenix Rie" because Sega did not allow the developers to use their own name. Her first designs were the characters for the arcade game Champion Boxing . Due to the short development times and the small number of designers at Sega, she worked at times on five to six games at the same time.

She then worked with the master system for home consoles and her first title in 1986 featured Alex Kidd and the world of Radactian. A year later, Black Onyx was the first computer role-playing game made in Japan and was developed by Bullet Proof Software for the Computer PC8801 and PC9801 were released, starting a new era of games in Japan. Phantasy Star was the game that made Rieko Kodama a legend. Her designs were ahead of her time and the game was one of the first to feature a female lead. After working on the Japanese exclusive Sorcerian for Mega Drive and the home version of Shadow Dancer, Kodama worked with Yuji Naka . She switched to the 16-bit mega-drive platform ( known as Sega Genesis in North America ) and contributed to genre-defining titles such as Altered Beast , Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle and Sonic the Hedgehog . She worked with other game development pioneers, such as Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog , and Yu Suzuki , the former boss of AM2, the team behind Virtua Fighter . Fans of the Phantasy Star games saw her one last time as the producer of the Phantasy Star Generation 2 releases on the Japanese PlayStation 2 . Western fans didn't get a chance to see their work as the game never left its home.

Kodama continued her work at SEGA into the 1990s and 2000s, directing Magic Knight Rayearth for Sega Saturn and a producer role on Deep Fear and Sega Dreamcast's Skies of Arcadia and the subsequent release of Nintendo GameCube , Skies of Arcadia Legends . She produced the SEGA-AGES series of classic game ports on the Nintendo Switch , a series that she herself helped shape in her pioneering role as a game developer in the 1980s. She was also the editor of a Japanese Sega newsletter, Sega Players Enjoy Club.

Games (selection)

  • 1984: Champion Boxing Artist (Arcade)
  • 1984: Ninja Princess - Artist (Arcade)
  • 1986: Alex Kidd in Miracle World - Artist (Master System)
  • 1987: The Black Onyx artist (SG-1000)
  • 1987: Quartet - Artist (Master System)
  • 1987: Fantasy Zone II - (Master System)
  • 1987: Phantasy Star - overall design (Master System)
  • 1988: Miracle Warriors - Artist (Master System)
  • 1989: Altered Beast - Designer (Mega Drive)
  • 1989: Alex Kidd in The Enchanted Castle (Mega drive)
  • 1989: Phantasy Star II - Designer (Mega Drive)
  • 1990: Sorcerian - Graphics (Mega Drive)
  • 1990: Shadow Dancer - graphic design (Mega Drive)
  • 1991: Sonic The Hedgehog - Design (Mega Drive)
  • 1992: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 artist (Mega Drive)
  • 1993: Phantasy Star IV - Director, Battle BG Design, Field Graphic Design, Object Design, Visual Event Graphic (Mega Drive)
  • 1998: Magic Knight Rayearth - Director (Saturn)
  • 1998: Deep Fear - producer (Saturn, 1998)
  • 2000: Skies of Arcadia - Producer (Dreamcast)
  • 2002: Phantasy Star Collection - Supervisor (GBA)
  • 2009: Sebunsu doragon - producer (video game)
  • 2012: Phantasy Star Online 2 - Writer (Video Game)
  • 2019: Sega Ages Virtua Racing - Producer (Nintendo Switch)
  • 2019: Sega Ages Wonder Boy: Monster Land - Producer (Nintendo Switch)

Awards

  • 2019: GDCA 2018 Pioneer Award for the areas of art, direction and production of video games

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Kodama, Rieko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Phoenix Rie; Phenix Rie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese video game artist, director and producer
DATE OF BIRTH May 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Yokosuka , Japan