is a Tokyo-based video game designer and musician responsible for a number of

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

titles including his most famous game, the 2002

cult video game A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

, ''

Gitaroo Man ''Gitaroo Man'' is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Koei for PlayStation 2. The game features visual production by Mitsuru Nakamura and an original soundtrack by Japanese band COIL. The game was released in Japan on June 2 ...

''. Yano has been involved in music (especially jazz music) from a young age and he earned a major in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

studies at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. He has spent time playing saxophone in Tokyo jazz clubs.

Career

In 1996, Keiichi Yano co-founded the production company,

iNiS INIS may refer to: *International Nuclear Information System *Iraqi National Intelligence Service *iNiS Corporation *Institut national de l'image et du son *Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service *INIS character set See also * * Innis (di ...

, and began development of video games. His first project was the early

, ''

'' for which he acted as lead programmer. The game enjoyed only moderate sales, however it received critical accolades and became a well-known

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

classic. Since then Yano has developed a number of other

s including the '' Ouendan'' series. The ''Ouendan'' games have been criticized as unintelligible to Western markets due to its emphasis on Japanese

Ōendan An , literally "cheering squad" or "cheering section", is a Japanese sports rallying team similar in purpose to a cheerleading squad in the United States, but relies more on making a lot of noise with taiko drums, blowing horns and other items ...

culture, however despite this Yano has created Western-targeted localizations such as the

Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respective ...

-influenced ''

Elite Beat Agents ''Elite Beat Agents'' is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It was released in North America, Europe and South Korea. As the second of three rhythm games developed by iNiS specifically for the DS, ...

''. Most recently Yano has created the karaoke game, ''

Lips The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...

'' Yano is personal friends with fellow

pioneer,

Tetsuya Mizuguchi is a Japanese video game designer, producer, and businessman. Along with ex-Sega developers he is the one of the co-founders of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega as a producer in their Sega AM3 'arcade m ...

,Rodriguez, Steven; Kaluszka, Aaron; Cole, Michael.
GDC 2007: The Keiichi Yano Interview
'. Nintendo World Report. 12 March 2007. and Yano's contributions to the world of

s have gained him notoriety as one of the pioneers of the genre. Aside from music games, Yano has worked on a number of other utilities such as the NFactor2 (a Realtime 3D Engine), the MixJuice Interactive Music Engine, and the Japanese version of the Xbox Voice Chat Interface. He has also worked on such projects as the Japanese localization of the Western '' Sudeki'' and even an arcade prototype for a '' Gundam Pilot Academy'' from

Banpresto (formerly Coreland Technology Inc.) was a Japanese video game developer and publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It had a branch in Hong Kong named Banpresto H.K., which was headquartered in the New Territories. Banpresto was a partly-own ...

.Carless, Simon.
Special: Gitaroo Man Creator On The State Of The Japanese Game Biz
'.

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

. 21 September 2006.

Utilities and non-games

* NFactor2 Realtime 3D Engine * MixJuice Interactive Music Engine
Keiichi Yano
'.

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

. Retrieved 27 November 2008. * Xbox Voice Chat Interface for the Japanese

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

Games

* ''

'' (2002,

PS2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia o ...

) * '' Sudeki'' (2004,

) - Japanese localization * ''

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan or ''Ouendan'', is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in 2005, for release only in Japan. ''Ouendan'' stars a cheer squad rhythmically cheering for various troubled peopl ...

'' (2005,

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 ...

) * ''

Gitaroo Man Lives! ''Gitaroo Man'' is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Koei for PlayStation 2. The game features visual production by Mitsuru Nakamura and an original soundtrack by Japanese band COIL. The game was released in Japan on June 21, ...

'' (2006, PSP) * ''

'' (2006,

) * '' Rain: Wonder Trip'' (2006, PSP) * ''

Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It is the third of three rhythm games developed by iNiS for the DS, and is the sequel to ''Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan'' while incorpora ...

'' (2007,

) * ''

'' (2008,

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

)

References

External links

INiS
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yano, Keiichi Japanese male musicians Japanese musicians Living people Video game composers Year of birth missing (living people)