The online gaming community this week was smitten by Nakamura Ikumi, creative director for video game publishing company Tango Dreamworks, after her bubbly presentation during the Bethesda Softworks conference at E3 2019. Nakamura took the stage to introduce her first game as creative director: GhostWire: Tokyo. According to Nakamura, players in this action thriller are tasked with solving the mystery of a disappearing Japanese urban populous, combating monsters and demons of urban legend in an adventure that can only be described as “spooky”.
In a video game conference historically dominated by male presenters and developers, Nakamura immediately turned heads as a Japanese woman leading the charge in this game’s creative development. It was her enthusiasm and bombastic personality on stage, however, that catapulted her to the top of Twitter’s trending page, generating a surge of over 100k new Twitter followers, with a wave of tweets and fanart pouring over in admiration for the developer. Her overt love and passion for the game was breath of fresh air in a conference where stiff, all-business presentations had become the standard.
While the social media coverage towards Nakamura following her presentation has been overwhelmingly positive, some are rightfully skeptical of this mass fandom reaction. Some, for example, are drawing attention to a problematic Western trend of idolizing and infantilizing female, particularly Asian, personalities as cute. The overflow of Tweets from fans willing to “die to protect” Nakamura seems to speak towards this trend.
An Impressive Career
But others are taking this opportunity to showcase the unseen yet glowing career that Nakamura has lead up until this presentation.
While this might be the first time Nakamura has hit the international spotlight, GhostWire: Tokyo is only the beginning of her impressive resume in the gaming industry. Her artwork can be found in the widely acclaimed titles of Okami, Bayonetta, and Evil Within – the latter of which was her first role in concept design in the realm of horror games.
In interviews surrounding her creative approach, Nakamura highlights the importance of realism in the genre, and in creating fear and tension in the player by distorting what was once familiar:
Reality and horror are inseparable; if you overdesign, you force the player, and without any design the experience becomes less memorable. Just having blood splatters and heads chopped off is not enough…. I focused on the fact that we feel comfort in the familiar, and we remember those things more easily. The real world is full of horror concepts realized by those who came before us. (Nakamura Ikumi, “The Evil Within” Artbook)
Now stepping into the driver’s seat for the development of Ghostwire: Tokyo, it is clear from the debut trailer that her affinity for realism will play a major role in the core narrative of this game. The opening shots of the teaser are particularly familiar to the typical Japanese citizen, featuring bustling Tokyo crosswalks, subway stations, and shopping districts.
Things soon take a turn for the uncanny, however, as people begin to vanish in thin air, with iconic imagery of Shinto shrine gates and bowls of ramen transitioning seamlessly into figures of demons and ghosts. One can guess that the very real concerns of population decline and urbanization in Japan will take center stage in Nakamura’s upcoming game, presented in a way that plays with our sensibilities and understanding of Japanese urban legend.
While internet culture tends to err towards the fanatic, in the case of Nakamura Ikumi, the hype seems to be entirely deserved. Her passion for artistic yet realistic character creation and storytelling radiates through her introduction of the upcoming game, and players worldwide are finding this enthusiasm infectious. Time will tell how the final game will look – and, more importantly, how it will play into the ever-growing conversation on gender that is fomenting in the international gaming community.
