Gamasutra 20 'Breakthrough' Honoree:
Level-5
http://www.level5.co.jp/
Studio overview
Based in Fukuoka, Japan,
Level-5 has been developing games for more than a decade. The company's first
title was Dark Cloud for the
PlayStation 2, published in 2000.
Since then, it has made games including Rogue Galaxy and Japan's
best-selling PS2 game, Dragon Quest VIII
(for which the studio was hand-picked by Square Enix).
Key staff
Company president and CEO Akihiro Hino got his start at
Riverhillsoft, working on the Overblood
series of PlayStation games. In 1998, he left Riverhillsoft and started
Level-5; he oversees design and production for all of the company's titles.
Resume highlights
Level-5 might have actually been on a list like this a few
years earlier for True Fantasy Live
Online, an MMORPG that the company was developing for release on Xbox;
however, the title was canceled by Microsoft just a few months before its
scheduled 2004 release.
While the company has since released several
well-received RPGs -- including last year's PSP title Jeanne D'Arc -- the game that finally broke through in North
America was the puzzle-based DS title Professor
Layton and the Curious Village, which was released here a year after it hit
stores in Japan and topped DS sales charts for several weeks after its February
2008 release.
 In addition to being a new genre for Level-5, Professor Layton was also the company's
first self-funded and self-published title in Japan.
The second game in the series was
released in Japan
at the end of 2007; while no date has been announced yet for North American
markets, it is presumed that the title will eventually make its way to the
west.
What's next
The third installment of the Professor Layton trilogy of games is due out in Japan this fall;
also close to release is Inazuma Eleven,
a unique combination of soccer and RPG that will be coming out in Japan on DS
in August.
The company's first release for this generation of consoles is White Knight Chronicles for PS3, which
will be released before March 31, 2009,
according to a recent Sony press conference, although there are no details yet
on whether that date applies to a worldwide release.
In addition, the company
is also working on Dragon Quest IX
for DS, which does not currently have an announced release date.
Our take
"Level-5 has quietly become one of the most important
development studios in Japan.
In the near future, the company will ship its second title in Japan's
most popular role-playing series, Dragon
Quest IX.
The game, to be released on the Nintendo DS, brings multiplayer
to the series for the first time. It will cement Level 5's position as shepherd
of the franchise for the forseeable future.
But the company, just as importantly for its survival and
growth, has several other games: the Professor
Layton series has won plaudits and global sales. Inazuma Eleven, the company's second original DS series - mixes the
company's signature RPG style with soccer, which sounds weird but could very
well appeal to kids raised on gym class and Pokémon,
and though it's yet under the radar, White
Knight Chronicles is a flagship first-party PS3 title.
The company clearly
understands the importance of maintaining a balanced portfolio -- even while
sticking principally to one genre."
- Christian Nutt
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1.) Kyle Gabler
2.) Joseph M. Tringali, Jeremiah Slaczka
3.) Frank Lantz
4.) Katsura Hashino, Shigenori Soejima
5.) Tom Fulp, John Baez, Dan Paladin
6.) Max Hoberman
7.) Tim Schafer
8.) Goichi Suda
9.) Randy Pitchford
10.) Vlad Ceraldi, Joel DeYoung, Ron Gilbert
11.) Steve Fawkner
12.) Akihiro Hino
13.) Mark Healey, Alex Evans
14.) Mare Sheppard, Raigan Burns
15.) Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba
16.) Dylan Cuthbert, Kenkichi Shimooka
17.) Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago
18.) Masato Maegawa
19.) Michael Booth
20.) Dave Gilbert
Also, a football team is made up of a lot of people - however, that doesn't stop us from learning and talking about star players like Bret Favre, Joe Montana, etc.
Also, a film is made by many people - however, that doesn't stop us learning about key creators like William Golding, Steven Spielberg, Francois Truffaut, Roman Polanski, etc.
Also, many people are needed to construct a building - however that doesn't stop us giving recognition to key designers like Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Libskind, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, etc.
(Shall I continue...?)
There is no excuse for the game industry to obstinately refuse to acknowledge and celebrate the talent of those individuals who have exceptional talent.
I'm...not sure what you want!
I sure am making a post on the internet. Hi mom!
Besides, I didn't know posts could be edited. Where's the button?
We can't go in to these studios and evaluate their skills and find that hidden gem. Nobody will pay us to do that. It's the responsibility of two parties, the companies themselves, and the persons themselves.
-end quote-
There IS a completely logical and near-effortless alternative: contacting the developers before these articles are written and polling them directly for key personnel on their staff. For instance, some noteworthy people who work/have worked with Dave Gilbert are Peter Gresser (Lead Musician), Ian Schlaepfer (Lead Artist for Blackwell Legacy/ Portrait Artist for Blackwell Convergence), Erin Robinson (Lead Artist for Blackwell Unbound), and myself (sprites/animations for The Shivah and Lead Artist for Blackwell Convergence).
I'm sure a quick email could've gotten you all this and more, though! :)
"with Activision apparently opting not to publish the title after acquiring Vivendi Games. "
Err... Sorry????
It's Vivendi who aquired Activision & merged it with Vivendi Games. Yes it's true that the Activision board now lead the game branch of Vivendi but still.. Vivendi IS THE BOSS.
Vivendi holds 54% of Activision Blizzard, so I'm not sure you can tell that Activision aquired anything..
Citing other industries and media is no excuse. I find it just as bad in the film industry that the talent of a whole team and the culture of the company that team resides in (which contributes hugely to how a game is produced) is neglected in favor of single-person worship/stardom.
So, I think that naming the companies AND some of the names of the leads there is appropiate.
Just naming the few leads - like you suggest - is just not enough.
No, Vivendi Games is indeed now a subsidiary of Activision. Also, Vivendi (the parent company, not Games) owns a controlling interest in Activision.
Excuse for what? For standing up for the contributions of key creators?
Like it or not, experience and hundreds of years of history show that key talented people - leaders, shapers - make a difference far out of proportion to their singular number. You can argue against this, but you do so in the face of a vast amount of evidence.
If you have a team of 100, you can pull someone at random and the creative output probably won't change - but if you pull a leader, a shaper, then suddenly the quality and quantity of that output falls a full magnitude.
But what's more - recognition of the effort AND talent of individuals is fundamental to progress out of the dark ages of collectivist tribalism into the enlightenment of self-awareness and humanistic accomplishment.
When faced with real talent, humans generally skew along three trends. They actively suppress it (the old "barrel of monkeys pulling down anyone who rises"); they tolerate it, and let it be "part of the team"; or they openly celebrate it and actively search for and fund it (and that means rewarding it).
I am arguing for the latter.
This, however, already happens. Maybe not enough though.
someone started http://www.internetgamedatabase.com/ but it has no content yet...
What is wrong to actually SHOW some people, see the people who make consumers and gamers enjoy and have good time for HOURS. Show the people we want to cherish, copy and celebrate.
Claiming it's unfair for the ones who are not on the picture is pure BS and so lame. If they work on a project they love next time they will, and next time they will demand to appear on the "collective shot for Gamasutra, the gamedev industry bible".
It's all about making change! We're not made in the stone.
I love to see the face of Introversion guys, or have a big picture of Ken Levine or Will Wright or Jon Blow speaking on a video stream... Watching Raph Koster playing guitar and all,
Of course you can be a big fat nerdy gamedev and so what, making efforts like Gabe Newell (he did lose weight and it was not to use Outlook) isn't bad for you.
And it's certainly good for us, gamedev people. Step up and exist!