Ikumi Nakamura

Ikumi Nakamura (Japanese: 中村 育美, Hepburn: Nakamura Ikumi) is a Japanese video game artist and director. She is best known for her work at Tango Gameworks as an artist on The Evil Within (2014) and The Evil Within 2 (2017), and as creative director for Ghostwire: Tokyo before leaving the company mid-development. She also did artwork for Ōkami (2006) at Clover Studio, and Bayonetta (2009) at PlatinumGames. She now heads her own independent game studio, Unseen.

Ikumi Nakamura
中村 育美
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Video game artist, director
Years active2004–present[1]
Employers
Children1

Early life

Ikumi Nakamura enjoyed horror media with her father growing up. They watched horror films together, and enjoyed playing the Resident Evil and Devil May Cry series, both produced by Capcom. She developed an appreciation for the studio and dreamed to work there when she was older. While studying at university, her father died in a motorcycle accident. His death reinforced her desire to work at Capcom.[1] She attended an art school in Tokyo, and later studied game design at the Amusement Media Academy.[1]

Career

Capcom

After applying twice, Nakamura was hired by Capcom in 2004.[1] She joined the internal development team Clover Studio and created background art for Ōkami (2006).[1][3]

PlatinumGames

Nakamura followed her Capcom colleagues when they left to form PlatinumGames.[1] Early on at the studio, she pitched an idea for an original Nintendo DS game. After Nintendo did not take interest to the project, it was canceled.[1] She served as a concept artist for Bayonetta (2009), and briefly worked on Scalebound as art director before leaving the company.[1]

Tango Gameworks

In 2010, Nakamura left PlatinumGames to join Shinji Mikami's new studio Tango Gameworks.[1] She served as artist for The Evil Within (2014) and The Evil Within 2 (2017),[1][4] and as creative director for Ghostwire: Tokyo.[4] Her presentation introducing the game at E3 2019 was widely heralded as a highlight of the press conference for Bethesda Softworks, Tango Gameworks' parent company.[5] However, Nakamura left the project and the company mid-development in 2019 due to her declining health.[4] The stress of developer-publisher politics and the publisher's ultimate control over Ghostwire: Tokyo left her unable to sleep and struggling with daily nightmares.[1]

Unseen

After leaving Tango Gameworks, Nakamura did consulting and freelance jobs.[1] In March 2021, she announced that she had started a new small independent game studio.[6][1] The studio, Unseen, was formally revealed the following year.[7] Nakamura expressed her intent for Unseen to create new intellectual properties (IPs) that can function across entertainment media.[7] She also expressed her desire to continue working on games based in mystery, horror, sci-fi, and the supernatural.[7]

Personal life

Nakamura lives in Tokyo.[1] She had a child in 2020.[1][8]

Selected works
Year Game Studio
2006 Ōkami Clover Studio
2009 Bayonetta PlatinumGames
2014 The Evil Within Tango Gameworks
2017 The Evil Within 2
2022 Ghostwire: Tokyo[9]
2022 Gungrave G.O.R.E. Iggymob

References
  1. Hester, Blake (September 29, 2021). "The Life And Career Of Ikumi Nakamura". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 2021-09-30. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  2. "Ikumi Nakamura". LinkedIn. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  3. Grayson, Nathan (10 June 2019). "Ikumi Nakamura Deserved Her E3 Moment". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  4. "Ikumi Nakamura". VGC. Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  5. Hernandez, Patricia. "The internet is ready to die for Ikumi Nakamura, the most genuine person at E3". Polygon. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  6. Oloman, Jordan (24 March 2021). "Fan Favorite Ex-Bethesda Director Ikumi Nakamura Opens Indie Studio". IGN. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  7. Skrebels, Joe (March 9, 2022). "Fan Favorite Ex-Bethesda Director Ikumi Nakamura Introduces New Studio, Unseen". IGN. Archived from the original on March 30, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  8. Ikumi Nakamura [@nakamura193] (July 8, 2020). ""Are you alive?" Yes, I am! I released my new project which went live on June 1st. This will be the longest ongoing project I've ever taken on and I know it will bring the deepest joy and happiness to the world. I'm grateful to be able to help humanity live long and prosper" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. Scullion, Chris (March 21, 2022). "Ghostwire Tokyo's former creative director only has a small mention in its credits". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2023-02-14. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
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