Ikumi Nakamura, the creative director of Ghostwire: Tokyo, has officially left studio Tango Gameworks and Publisher Bethesda/Zenimax. Nakamura became instantly recognizable following her wholesome and eager presentation at E3 this past June.
The announcement came as many often do within the video game industry, in a tweet announcing her decision and thanking those whom she worked with. It is unclear at the moment what Nakamura’s plans are for the future. Her tweet concluded with a statement to contact her for potential projects, and a link to her LinkedIn page.
Nakamura shot to social media fame overnight following her presentation at E3 while promoting Ghostwire: Tokyo. She began with an earnest admission of feeling nervous in front of a large crowd and made numerous poses that have since been replicated around the internet in fan drawings and images. Following her presentation, she gained more Twitter followers than any of her bosses and fan-art abounds with a simple search online.
For now, we are all wondering what might have spurred this decision. In all likelihood, it was a thought-out move that has been planned for some time, but the timing feels off. Following her presentation at E3, one would assume that the opportunities were now endless.
Cryptically, her closing statement in her tweet implies that perhaps she was released from her position, which would again seem strange given the overall positive mood around E3, though the inclusion of a LinkedIn profile supports that notion.
Alternatively, Nakamura may have left with the intention of starting her own studio, and the LinkedIn profile may have been more of an invitation for interested collaborators to contact her. Such a prospect would certainly be exciting, especially since Nakamura seems to favor the horror genre above all others.
In The Evil Within art book, Nakamura says of designing horror games:
“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. This is only scary for its grotesqueness and is not what we were looking for with Evil Within. Realizing this idea in the visuals of a video game is incredibly difficult, one of the more difficult challenges game designers face.”
For now, we have only speculation, but the prospect of Nakamura branching out to work on her own brand of horror games is an exciting possibility.
Until we know more, all we can do is wish Nakamura the best!
Source: Ign.com