, also known by his pseudonym Pixel, is a Japanese

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

developer. He is best known for developing , which has been

remade Bas-Lag is the fictional world in which several of English author China Miéville's novels are set. Bas-Lag is a world where both magic (referred to as "thaumaturgy") and steampunk technology exist, and is home to many intelligent races. It is inf ...

into many versions.

Career

His most popular work, ''

Cave Story ''Cave Story'', originally released as is a 2004 Metroidvania platform-adventure game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed over five years by Japanese independent developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya in his free time. ''Cave Story'' features 2D ...

'', is a

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

PC platform game released in 2004 that was created entirely by himself over the period of five years. The game received widespread praise from critics and in July 2006 appeared at the top of ''

Super PLAY ''Super Play'' was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996. Overview ''Super Play'' covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were ne ...

's'' list of the 50 best freeware games of all time. Amaya's other work includes the game ''

Ikachan is a freeware video game created by Japanese developer Daisuke Amaya, under the art name Pixel. In the game, the player plays a squid named Ikachan, who swims through a cave, meeting and helping other creatures. The game was later released by Ni ...

'' which he released in 2000, as well as many other low-profile games. His current projects, if any, are unknown. Before working on ''Kero Blaster'', he was working on a game titled "Rockfish", which was intended to be finished sometime in 2012. The project was put on indefinite hiatus, and was likely canceled. Amaya was credited with the story concept for

Nicklas Nygren Nicklas Nygren (born 6 January 1983), better known by the handle Nifflas, is an Indie game, independent Swedish video game developer. He is known for his freeware ''Knytt'' series and along with another freeware game, ''Within a Deep Forest''. He ...

's ''NightSky''. In May 2014, Amaya released ''

Kero Blaster is a platform video game created by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. It was released in 2014 for PC and iOS and is the first major project of Pixel since ''Cave Story'' in 2004. The game places a heavy emphasis on shooting and received positive reviews on ...

'', a side-scrolling platform shooter game. This game was Amaya's first major work since the release of ''Cave Story''. In October 2015, Amaya updated ''Kero Blaster,'' under the name ''Kero Blaster ZANGYOU'' or overtime mode, featuring a new story, levels, and overall greater difficulty. In 2021, Amaya was credited for assisting in the development of MIYAKOpubl's game ''Haru to Shura''.

Audio software

Amaya has created various audio and music composition software. All his music composition software uses a piano roll editing interface. Org Maker is the software used to create music for the lightweight .org format, which was used in Cave Story. He is continuously developing the successor to Org Maker, the freeware audio editing suite

PxTone PxTone Collage () is a freeware music editing program. The program is developed by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. It is currently in the beta stage of development, and has been since 2006. The program also is capable of opening other sample formats deve ...

. Users can create their own audio samples and compose music using PxTone Collage.

Games

* ''

'' (2000) **''Ikachan 3DS'' (2013) * ''Azarashi'' (2001) **''Azarashi iOS'' (2012) *''Glasses (Megane)'' (2003) * ''

'' (2004) ** ''Cave Story Wii'' (2010) ** ''Cave Story DSi'' (2010) ** ''Cave Story+'' (2011) ** ''

Cave Story 3D ''Cave Story 3D'' is a Metroidvania platform-adventure game developed by Nicalis and published by Nippon Ichi Software. It was released on November 8, 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS. A remake of the indie video game ''Cave Story'' developed by Daisu ...

'' (2011) ** ''Cave Story 3DS'' (2012) * ''Guxt'' (2007) * ''

NightSky Nicklas Nygren (born 6 January 1983), better known by the handle Nifflas, is an independent Swedish video game developer. He is known for his freeware ''Knytt'' series and along with another freeware game, ''Within a Deep Forest''. He has lived i ...

'' (2011) - story * ''Pink Hour'' (2014) * ''

'' (2014) * ''Pink Heaven'' (2015)

References

External links

Daisuke Amaya's personal page

Challenging Freeware Classic Cave Story Makes Wii Debut
Gus Mastrapa, Wired, March 22, 2010 *
The Cave Story story
The Brainy Gamer, March 29, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Amaya, Daisuke Japanese video game designers Japanese video game programmers Living people 1977 births Indie video game developers