, 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 is a Japanese company specializing in the planning, development and distribution of video games and the research, development and distribution of software, data and video media. The company was originally founded in 1996 as a computer graphics pr ...

which is based in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

. His roles in the company included director, designer, and writer. He is the director of the games '' Spy Fiction'', ''

Deadly Premonition ''Deadly Premonition'' is an open world survival horror video game developed by Access Games. Set in the fictional, rural American town of Greenvale, Washington, the story follows FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan as he investigates the mur ...

'' and '' D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die''. He then left the company in 2016, and he founded his own studio, named White Owls Inc.

Career

Suehiro received a degree in film and video advertising at

Osaka University of Arts is a private arts university located in Kanan, Minamikawachi District, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The university was founded in 1945 as , changing its name to in 1957, and then to in 1964. The university adopted the current name in 1966. Notab ...

. 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. The first game he directed was the PlayStation 2 game '' Spy Fiction'' released in 2003. The game is a third-person military themed stealth game and the

target audience A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to said intended audience. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined ...

was Western players rather than Japanese players. 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. That game made its way to the 2012 ''

Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' with the title "Most Critically Polarizing Survival Horror Game" because reviews of the game ranged so heavily. In 2014, he partnered with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

to develop an

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

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", 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 PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX w ...

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 Reactive hypoglycemia, postprandial hypoglycemia, or sugar crash is a term describing recurrent episodes of symptomatic hypoglycemia occurring within four hours"Hypoglycemia." It can also be referred to as "sugar crash" or "glucose crash." Nati ...

. During his sabbatical, he also became a priest, 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.

Works

References

External links

SWERY (@Swery65)
on Twitter *
Hidetaka Suehiro(SWERY)
on Facebook
Hidetaka Suehiro's "Cafe SWERY65" blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suehiro, Hidetaka 1973 births Living people Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests Japanese video game designers Japanese video game directors People from Osaka