is a Japanese

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, graphical artist, and composer. After previously working for several notable companies, he currently designs games from his own company Audio, Inc.

Career

Ueda was born in 1970 in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. He moved to

Urayasu, Chiba 260px, old Urayasu is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 170,533 in 81,136 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Urayasu is best known as the home of the Tokyo ...

at the age of 10. As a teenager, he took a part-time job at

Tokyo Disney Resort The (local nickname ''TDR'') is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, who constru ...

, where he worked until 1988, when he attended Tokyo Design Academy. He was hired by

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

in 1990. At Square, Ueda worked mostly as a background and map designer, most prominently on ''

Super Mario RPG ''Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars'' is a role-playing video game developed by Square (video game company), Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1996. It was the final ''Mario (franchise), Ma ...

''. In 1995, he joined co-worker

Kenichi Nishi is a Japanese video game designer. He has helped found a number of notable video game companies and develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4). Car ...

and others in the establishment of the independent developer

Love-de-Lic was a Japanese video game developer founded in 1995 by Kenichi Nishi. Its staff included many former employees of Square. After producing three games, the company disbanded in 2000. Many staff members joined other small and independent game compan ...

, where Ueda carried over his responsibilities from Square in the design of the company's first two releases. In 1999, Ueda left Love-de-Lic and joined

Grasshopper Manufacture is a Japanese video game developer founded on March 30, 1998 by Goichi Suda. They are well known for creating titles such as ''killer7'' and the '' No More Heroes'' series. History The company was founded on March 30, 1998 in Suginami, Ja ...

. He continued to design backgrounds and maps, but his debut as a director came with the two ''

Shining Soul is an action role-playing game for the Game Boy Advance. It is part of the '' Shining'' series. ''Shining Soul'' is a reboot of the '' Shining'' series. The game was followed by a sequel, ''Shining Soul II'', in 2003. Both games were re-released ...

'' games released for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

. He was also directed and acted as the main designer for ''

Contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * ...

'' on the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

. Ueda left Grasshopper Manufacture in 2005 and founded Audio, Inc. the following January. The company currently consists of Ueda and 8 other individuals. So far, the company has made several Japan-exclusive releases on the DS, including its most recent game, '' Sakura Note: Ima ni Tsunagaru Mirai''.

Works

References

External links

Audio, Inc. official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ueda, Akira 1970 births Japanese video game designers Living people People from Tokyo Square Enix people Video game composers