was a Japanese video game developer who founded the development companies

Game Arts is a Japan, Japanese video game developer, developer and video game publisher, publisher of video games located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Originally established in 1985 as a computer software company, it expanded into producing for a nu ...

(with his brother Yoichi Miyaji) and

G-Mode is a Japanese company that specializes in games for Java-compatible mobile phones. The company also licenses content for mobile telecommunications operators, as well as being involved in the original equipment manufacturing of mobile phone games. ...

. He was best known as the creator of the ''

Silpheed is a video game developed by Game Arts and designed by Takeshi Miyaji. It made its debut on the Japanese PC-8801 in 1986, and was ported to the Fujitsu FM-7 and DOS formats soon after. It was later remade for the Sega CD and has a sequel call ...

'', ''

GunGriffon ''Gungriffon'' is a series of video games developed by Game Arts and designed by Takeshi Miyaji. ''Gungriffon'' and ''Gungriffon II'' originally appeared for the Sega Saturn console in 1996, with more recent appearances in ''Gungriffon Blaze'' ...

'', ''

Lunar Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon". Lunar may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games * "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta * "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...

'' and ''

Grandia is a series of role-playing video games developed by Game Arts and published over the years by Entertainment Software Publishing, Sony Computer Entertainment, Ubisoft, Hudson Soft, Enix, Square Enix and GungHo Online Entertainment. Games in th ...

'' video game series. His work on the ''Lunar'' and ''Grandia'' series in particular had a major influence on the development of role-playing video games. He was the younger brother of Game Arts' CEO Yoichi Miyaji.

Biography

Takeshi began working programming for

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...

at the age of 15. He wrote a book on how to program while working for ASCII. At the age of 19, he co-founded

with his brother Yoichi. He was in charge of the Development Department of Game Arts for over the next 16 years. During that time, he acted as producer and director of various Games Arts titles, including ''Silpheed'', ''GunGriffon'' and ''Grandia''. ''Silpheed'' (1986) is a

shooter game Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

notable for its early use of real-time 3D polygonal graphics and a tilted third-person perspective. He also worked on '' Lunar: The Silver Star'' (1992), which was among the earliest role-playing video games to tell an engaging story through its audio and video presentation. After working on its sequel '' Lunar: Eternal Blue'' (1994), his most successful and memorable video game would be ''

'' (1997), which featured an innovative battle system and a strong story. ''Grandia'' is considered one of the strongest role-playing games during the

32-bit era The fifth-generation era (also known as the 32-bit era, the 64-bit era, or the 3D era) refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming consoles dating from approximately October 4, 1993 to March 23, 2006. For home ...

and had two sequels produced. His company Game Arts was also known for producing the early run and gun shooter '' Thexder'' (1985). In 2000, Miyaji left Game Arts and founded

, a game developing company specializing in the emerging mobile phone market and served as the company's Executive Director. Takeshi died in 2011 at the age of 45 due to complications after surgery for a brain tumor.

Works

*''AX-6'' (1982,

PC-6001 The NEC PC-6000 series is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced in November 1981 by NEC Home Electronics. There are several models in this series, such as the PC-6001, the PC-6001 MK2 and the PC-6001 MK2 SR. There is also an American versio ...

) - Lead Programmer of "Space Enemy" *''SX-2: Doitsu Afurika Sōkō Gundan'' (1984, PC-6001) - Game Design and Programmer *'' Thexder'' (1985, PC) - Producer *''

'' (1986, PC) - Director/Designer *'' Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger'' (1990,

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

) - Program Director *''Harakiri'' (1990, PC) - Director *'' Lunar: The Silver Star'' (1992,

Sega CD The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan ...

) - Designer *''Tenka Fubu: Eiyū-tachi no Hōkō'' (1993, Sega CD) - Director *''

'' (1993, Sega CD) - Director/Designer *'' Lunar 2: Eternal Blue'' (1994, Sega CD) - Designer *''

'' (1996, Sega Saturn) - Director *''

'' (1997, Sega Saturn, PlayStation) - Director *'' GunGriffon II'' (1998, Sega Saturn) - Director *''

Grandia II is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts originally for the Dreamcast console as part of their ''Grandia'' series. Initially released in Japan in August 2000 by Game Arts, the game was later made available in English for North America ...

'' (2000,

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

, PlayStation 2) - Producer/Executive Director *'' Silpheed: The Lost Planet'' (2000, PlayStation 2) - Producer/Planning Producer/3D Engine

References

External links

G-Mode
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyaji, Takeshi Japanese video game designers 1965 births 2011 deaths