Ikumi Nakamura, former director for Tango Gameworks, has shared details about her new studio, Unseen. The much-loved director released a video detailing the philosophy behind her new venture. She also gave an in-depth interview where she divulged how the studio would run and what genres it would focus on.
Nakamura announced the new studio earlier this week with a short video. The 3-minute trailer features the creator narrating as she walks through different industrial areas. She speaks on how being a mother, a game developer, and an artist leaves her with a sense of trying to discover her place in the world. Coupled with the recent pandemic, those feelings have left Nakamura doing a bit of soul-searching.
Speaking to IGN, Nakamura discussed the type of team she is trying to build at Unseen; “We want to build a multicultural team – a cross-cultural world made up of international staff.” To achieve this, she wants the studio’s office to be “a place where developers can come and go as they please, like nomads. It’s a new style of office”.
She also went into detail on what this new studio would be creating, saying “I don’t want to think only in terms of video games”. Instead, Unseen will branch out to create “a new IP that can work as a variety of entertainment media” including anime, education, and apparel.
Currently, the studio is hard at work on its first game, though Nakamura is keeping most of the details quiet for now: "I can't say much, but we are putting a lot of care into the scenario and characters of our first game”. While the big details are being kept hush-hush for now, she did share that she wants to create something with “characters that reflect real-life personalities and minorities, with an open-minded setting that represents multiple cultures."
Nakamura became a household name back in 2019 when she appeared on stage to promote Ghostwire: Tokyo at E3. Since then, she left Tango Gameworks to study other studios and eventually launch Unseen.