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Aya Kyogoku

Aya Kyogoku
京極あや
Born1981 or 1982[1]
Osaka, Japan[2]
Occupation(s)Video game director and producer
Employers
Notable workAnimal Crossing
TitleManager of Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 5 (2019–present)

Aya Kyogoku (Japanese: 京極あや, Hepburn: Kyōgoku Aya; born c. 1981) is a Japanese video game director and producer. She is the current manager of Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) Production Group No. 5, which oversees the Animal Crossing and Splatoon franchises. Kyogoku is best known for her work on Animal Crossing, where she has alternately served as a producer, director, and supervisor since 2008.

Career

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Kyogoku began her career in 2000 at the video game company Atlus before joining Nintendo in September 2003.[1][3] While at Atlus, she served as an Assistant Planner for the Dreamcast title deSPIRIA and Assistant Director for the PlayStation 2 title Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land before moving to Nintendo.[4][5] At Nintendo, Kyogoku worked as a scriptwriter on The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, work for which she won a Game Developers Choice Award.[1][6]

In 2008, she worked as a sequence director on Animal Crossing: City Folk, where she was responsible for script writing and all elements relating to non-player character behavior and dialogue.[1][7] Kyogoku and Isao Moro jointly served as directors of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the 2012 sequel to City Folk.[8] Following the mixed critical and commercial performance of City Folk, Kyogoku sought to "get back to the series' roots" in New Leaf.[9] In 2015, Kyogoku produced the Animal Crossing spin-off title Happy Home Designer.[10] In 2019, she was named as Manager of Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) Production Group No. 5, a position previously held by Hisashi Nogami before he was promoted at Deputy General Manager of Nintendo EPD.[1][11] She directed Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the fifth main series title in the Animal Crossing series, in 2020.[1] Following the extensive critical and commercial success of New Horizons, Kyogoku has received media attention from both video-game and non-video-game media outlets alike, being dubbed “Nintendo’s Rising Star and Secret Weapon.”[12][13][14]

Serving as the director of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Kyogoku became the first woman to direct a video game at Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD).[1][11] After noting that she was frequently the only woman on development teams, Kyogoku and New Leaf producer Katsuya Eguchi hired a team that was half female; Kyogoku also encouraged all individuals on the development team to contribute ideas for the game, regardless of their role on the project.[15][16] Kyogoku credits the diversity of the team for New Leaf's critical and commercial success,[1][16] stating that "when you are trying to create something that will appeal to many types of people, I have experienced how beneficial it is to have diversity on your team"[9] and “it is very exciting to be able to have different types of people on the development team.”[17] When asked for a message to women who would like to work in the game industry during a Nintendo Developer Chat, Kyogoku responded, “if you want to, please join! I’ll be so happy if we can work together.”[17]

Furthermore, Kyogoku has been praised for broadening the series' appeal "beyond the typical teenage-male demographic.”[12] Notably, Animal Crossing: New Horizons expanded visibility and representation through increased character customization options, including skin tone options and gender-neutral hairstyles that the player can switch between freely. Kyogoku explained that these options are "not just about gender," but rather the sentiment that "society is shifting to valuing a lot of people's different identities."[13] She explained further that “we basically wanted to create a game where users didn't really have to think about gender or if they wanted to think about gender, they're also able to."[13]

Works

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Year Game Credit(s)
2000 deSPIRIA [ja] Assistant planner[4]
2001 Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land Assistant director[5]
2004 The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures Scriptwriter[18]
2006 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
2008 Animal Crossing: City Folk Sequence director[7]
2012 Animal Crossing: New Leaf Director[8]
2013 Animal Crossing Plaza Producer[19]
2015 Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival Director[20]
2016 Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo Producer[8]
2017 Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Supervisor[21]
2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Director[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Woitier, Chloé (18 June 2019). "Ikumi Nakamura, Aya Kyogoku... les créatrices de jeux vidéo mises à l'honneur durant l'E3 2019". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  2. ^ Garcia, Eddie (2015). "Nintendo E3 2015 Press Kit". Nintendo. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  3. ^ Davidson, Ty (29 March 2016). "Aya Kyogoku: Nintendo's Rising Star and Secret Weapon". Goomba Stomp. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  4. ^ a b "deSPIRIA – Credits". GameFAQs. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land – Credits". GameFAQs. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Aya Kyogoku". IMDb. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Iwata Asks - Animal Crossing: City Folk". Nintendo. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  8. ^ a b c "Iwata Asks - Animal Crossing: New Leaf". Nintendo. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  9. ^ a b McWhertor, Michael (19 March 2014). "Animal Crossing: New Leaf director says team diversity, communication core to its success". Polygon. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  10. ^ "Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer devs – spin-off origins, decision to focus on house creation, more". Nintendo Everything. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  11. ^ a b "Nintendo promotes Aya Kyogoku, Hisashi Nogami, Eiji Aonuma, and Yoshihito Ikebata". Nintendo Everything. 14 June 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Aya Kyogoku and Hisashi Nogami, the Humans Behind Animal Crossing". Bloomberg.com. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  13. ^ a b c Favis, Elise. "Nintendo explains philosophy behind Animal Crossing's big changes, such as gender expression and terraforming". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  14. ^ "Aya Kyogoku: Nintendo's Rising Star and Secret Weapon". Goomba Stomp. 29 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  15. ^ "Nintendo's New Key to Creativity: More Women". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  16. ^ a b Hudson, Laura (28 March 2014). "Nintendo's New Key to Creativity: More Women". Wired. Archived from the original on 3 June 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  17. ^ a b Nintendo - Developer Chat with Aya Kyogoku and Risa Tabata, 21 July 2015, retrieved 16 March 2021
  18. ^ "Iwata Asks - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess". Nintendo. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  19. ^ Doolan, Liam (8 December 2014). "Animal Crossing Plaza Service Stops At the End of This Month". Nintendo Life. Gamer Network. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  20. ^ Parish, Jeremy (9 July 2015). ""Honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing Amiibo": Nintendo's Aya Kyogoku on Evolving The Series". USGamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  21. ^ Weber, Rachel (20 December 2017). "Nintendo explains how it added microtransactions to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp without pissing me off". GamesRadar. Retrieved 12 February 2020.

Further reading

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Aya Kyogoku.