(June 24, 1957 – October 16, 2021) was a Japanese

video game artist Game art design is a subset of game development involving the process of creating the artistic aspects for video games. Video game art design begins in the pre-production phase of creating a video game. Video game artists are visual artists inv ...

. He spent most of his career at

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

and later

Bandai Namco also known as the Bandai Namco Group and generally Bandai Namco, is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, formed from the merger of Bandai and Namco on S ...

, designing

pixel art Pixel art () is a form of digital art drawn with graphics software, graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers a ...

and cabinet artwork for their

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...

s. Because of his focus and expertise on pixel art, he was nicknamed Mr. Dotman and The Wizard of Dot Art.

Early life

Ono was born on June 24, 1957, and raised in Chūō and Kokubunji in Tokyo, where he learned to paint tiles for Japanese bathhouses. He attended the Nippon Designer Gakuin vocational school in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

for his secondary education, where he received training under

Tarō Okamoto was a Japanese artist, art theorist, and writer. He is particularly well known for his avant-garde paintings and public sculptures and murals, and for his theorization of traditional Japanese culture and avant-garde artistic practices. Biograph ...

Yumeji Takehisa was a Japanese poet and painter. He is known foremost for his ''Nihonga'' illustrations of ''bijin'', beautiful women and girls, though he also produced a wide variety of works including book covers, serial newspaper illustrations, ''furoshiki ...

, and

Shigeo Fukuda was a sculptor, medallist, graphic artist and poster designer who created optical illusions. His art pieces usually portray deception, such as ''Lunch With a Helmet On'', a sculpture created entirely from forks, knives, and spoons, that cas ...

that continued his tile artwork skills into

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

. Near graduation, he failed to obtain a job at toy company

Tomy is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Tak ...

, but one of his professors suggested he apply at

instead, which at the time was becoming a leading Japanese company in

Career

Ono was hired at Namco in 1979, and one of his first tasks was to help improve the logo and bezel art for ''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who ...

''. As he become more involved with other projects, such as ''

Tank Battalion is a multi-directional shooter arcade video game that was released by Namco in 1980. The only direct home conversion is for the MSX, and in 1985 a similar game release is ''Battle City'' for the Family Computer. ''Tank Battalion'' received a ...

'' and ''

Warp & Warp is a multidirectional shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco in 1981. It was released by Rock-Ola in North America as ''Warp Warp''. The game was ported to the Sord M5 and MSX. A sequel, ''Warpman'', was released in 1985 fo ...

'', he also began working on the

used within the game itself in addition to the physical game cabinet art. Many of Namco's arcade games during the

golden age of arcade video games The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978, ...

through the early 1980s featured his pixel art, including ''

Galaga is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was released by Midway Manufacturing. It is the sequel to ''Galaxian'' (1979), Namco's first major video game hit in arcades. Controlling a starshi ...

'', ''

Dig Dug is a maze game, maze arcade game developed by Namco in 1981 and released in 1982, distributed in North America by Atari, Inc. The player controls Dig Dug to defeat all enemies per stage, by either inflating them to bursting or crushing them unde ...

'', and ''

Mappy is an arcade game by Namco, introduced in 1983 and distributed in the United States by Bally Midway. A side-scrolling platform game featuring a mouse protagonist and cat antagonists, it runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware modified to suppo ...

''. He helped to contribute art and columns to a Namco fan newsletter '' NG'', where another Namco employee gave him the moniker "Mr. Dotman", which he readily accepted for the rest of his life. Shigeru Yokoyama, the creator of ''Galaga'', called him "an authority on pixel design" for arcade games. He was called The Wizard of Dot Art. Between 1989 and 2000, Ono was transferred to Namco's

electro-mechanical game Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun g ...

division, where he continued to design art and layout for the game cabinets, such as ''

Golly! Ghost! is a 1991 shoot'em up, light gun shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. It employs a diorama which is controlled by the game's driver board to open and close mechanical doors which are connected to solenoids, much like the moveable ...

''. He was then transferred to Namco's new

mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

division established in 2000, which allowed him to return to creating pixel art. He continued in this role even after the merger of

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

and Namco into

in 2005. As mobile devices evolved beyond only pixel art, he left the company in 2013 so as to progress his work independently. As a freelance artist, he was hired by third-party studios to help develop pixel art for mobile and other types of games, including for those published through Bandai Namco, such as ''

The Idolmaster is a Japanese media franchise that began in 2005 with a raising simulation and rhythm video game series created by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The series primarily centers on the career of a producer who works with a group of p ...

'' and '' Tales of...'' series. Ono remained active until 2020 when he reported that a mysterious illness destroyed his mobility, and his home was burgled of some of his early Namco works, so he reduced his freelance work. In 2021, a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

was launched to create a documentary on his career.

Death

He died on October 16, 2021, from an undisclosed long-term illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ono, Hiroshi 1957 births 2021 deaths Japanese video game designers Namco Video game artists