Hidetaka Suehiro

Hidetaka Suehiro (末弘 秀孝, Suehiro Hidetaka), known as SWERY or Swery65, is a Japanese video game director and writer. He was one of the founding members of the game development studio Access Games which is based in Osaka. His roles in the company included director, designer, and writer. He is the director of the games Spy Fiction, Deadly Premonition and D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die. He then left the company in 2016, and he founded his own studio, named White Owls Inc.

Hidetaka Suehiro
末弘 秀孝
Suehiro in 2011
Born (1973-04-14) 14 April 1973
Osaka, Japan[1]
Other namesSWERY, Swery65
Occupation(s)President and CEO of White Owls Inc.[2]
Video game producer, scenario writer, game designer

Career

Suehiro received a degree in film and video advertising at Osaka University of Arts.[3] After graduation he decided to join the game industry and worked at various game companies including SNK. In January 2002 he was one of the founding members of Access Games.[3]

The first game he directed was the PlayStation 2 game Spy Fiction released in 2003.[3] The game is a third-person military themed stealth game and the target audience was Western players rather than Japanese players.[3]

Production began in 2004 on a game titled Rainy Woods, which was then cancelled in 2007. Work was restarted under the new title Deadly Premonition and it was released in 2010. A survival horror game, it also placed emphasis on targeting Western gamers rather than Japanese players.[3] That game made its way to the 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition with the title "Most Critically Polarizing Survival Horror Game" because reviews of the game ranged so heavily.[4]

In 2014, he partnered with Microsoft to develop an Xbox One game titled D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, which utilizes the Kinect motion-sensing device. The game was highlighted at GDC Next 2013 as one of their "GDC Next 10",[5] where chosen developers give talks on the inspiration behind their upcoming games.

In 2015, he gave a lecture in Osaka and at GDC 2015 regarding physical input in video games and the Kinect device. He also opened a booth along with Access Games at Penny Arcade Expo East 2015.

In November 2015, he announced that he would be taking a health-related break from game development in order to focus on recovering from reactive hypoglycemia.[6] During his sabbatical, he also became a priest,[7] within Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism.

On 31 October 2016, he announced his departure from Access Games. A new video game studio was later founded by Suehiro on 1 November 2016 as White Owls Inc. White Owls was formally revealed to the public on 15 January 2017.[8]

Suehiro is a good friend of fellow game creator Goichi Suda. Appearing on a livestream in 2019, the pair revealed they worked on a cancelled PlayStation VR game together, after which they decided to collaborate on a horror title. Just before the stream, Suda titled it Hotel Barcelona, and both envisioned a "light and easy to play" game for mobile platforms or Nintendo Switch.[9] In 2023, it has resurfaced as a slasher film parody action game for consoles and PC.[10]

Works
YearTitleDeveloperPlatformRole
1996 Kizuna Encounter[11] SNK Neo Geo MVS Scenario
1997 The Last Blade SNK Neo Geo MVS Scenario
1998 The Last Blade 2 SNK Neo Geo MVS Scenario
1999 Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return Whoopee Camp PlayStation Designer
2001 Extermination Deep Space PlayStation 2 Writer/Planner
2003 Spy Fiction Access Games PlayStation 2 Writer/Director
2009 Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senjō no Kizuna Portable Access Games PlayStation Portable Director
2010 Deadly Premonition Access Games Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Co-writer/Director/Designer
2010 Lord of Arcana Access Games PlayStation Portable Co-writer/Designer
2012 Lord of Apocalypse Access Games PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita Co-writer/Designer
2013 Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut Toybox Inc., Access Games PlayStation 3, Windows Director/Designer
2014 D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die Access Games Xbox One, Windows (2015) Writer/Director
2018 The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories White Owls Inc. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows Writer/Director
2019 Deadly Premonition: Origins (Switch Remaster) Toybox Inc. Nintendo Switch Director/Designer
2020 Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise[12] Toybox Inc., Now Production, White Owls Inc. Nintendo Switch, Windows (2022) Co-writer/Director
2021 The Good Life[13] Grounding, White Owls Inc. Nintendo Switch,[14] PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows Co-writer/Director/Producer
2024 Hotel Barcelona White Owls Inc. PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S Writer/Director. Original idea by Goichi Suda

References
  1. Sheffield, Brandon (12 September 2016). "Deadly Premonition director Swery becomes a Buddhist Monk. What does this mean for his games?". Gamasutra. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  2. "Greeting from the CEO". White Owls Inc. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  3. "Butsummit 2015: Speakers". Bitsummit. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  4. Tach, Dave (17 October 2012). "How Hideteka 'Swery' Suehiro aims to bring Deadly Premonition to a new audience". Polygon. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  5. "GDC Next, App Developers Conference see nearly 4,000 in attendance - GDC News". GDC News. 8 November 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  6. "お知らせ。: Cafe SWERY65". Access Games Blog. 6 November 2015.
  7. Robson, Daniel (November 2021), Deadly Premonition Creator Swery Has Become a Certified Buddhist Priest - IGN, retrieved 11 December 2021
  8. Yoshimura, Mill. "『レッドシーズプロファイル』、『D4』などでカルト的な人気を誇るSWERY氏が新スタジオWhite Owlsを設立。インタビューでその経緯を聞いた". Famitsu (in Japanese). Kadokawa Duwango Corporation. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  9. "Hotel Barcelona". IGN. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  10. "Swery 65 and Suda 51 announce '2.5D slasher film parodic action' game Hotel Barcelona for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC". Gematsu. 21 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  11. "Game Design in the Coffee. Lovable Game Design by SWERY". Game Developers Conference. February–March 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  12. "Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise". Twitter. 4 September 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  13. "The Good Life". Kickstarter. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  14. "Nintendo Switch - Indie World Showcase 3.17.20". YouTube. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
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