Other – NMarfoBlogs

Ok, so it’s been a while since I did an editorial of sorts, but I would say there’s not been anything I wanted to talk about. However, recently, the game studio UNSEEN popped up founded by Ikumi Nakamura. Hey. she’s one that showed off Ghostwire: Tokyo for Tango Gameworks, before leaving and putting it in the hands of Shinji Mikami and Kenji Kimura respectfully. So, remembering some stuff from before(and also just wanting to do some writing that isn’t reviews), I decided why don’t we look into some stuff here, and also have some fun giving some opinions on it?

Please keep in mind I’m not an investigative journalist, I’m just a dude who knows how to research, and also remembers stuff pretty well. That being said, let’s talk about why UNSEEN is pretty different, and why Ikumi Nakamura is great.

Before we can go into that I have to go back and discuss the past of Ikumi Nakamura. though I’ll try and keep things pre-Ghostwire Tokyo as brief as possible. Nakamura applied twice for Capcom and got accepted in the year 2004. Capcom was Nakamura’s dream studio to work at after her father passed in a motorcycle accident, and how much they bonded over horror movies, even though she admits she wasn’t the best starting out in Ask Ikumi number 1:

I used to get called in by my senior once every three months and get they would often tell me “You might get fired next time”. I wasn’t exactly a star rookie.

Still, she did stay on long enough to be the background artist for the cult classic, Okami by Clover Works, a game that she gets asked about a lot, though with her running her own studio, and Hideki Kamiya now out of a job for a bit, yea Kamiya left Platinum and is now under a non-compete clause, which given that this isn’t a sport this is… dumb, that game could be getting an unexpected revival. Only time will tell on that part.

It was a IP where everything was new and the goal wasn’t clear, but it turned out to be the project I learned the most on.
Nakumara on “How did you feel when you got involved with Okami?”

Anyways, if you know anything about Clover Works, you will know that the studio eventually became Platinum Games, as most people working at Capcom left the studio to become independent, and she joined the Studio founded by Kamiya, Resident Evil 1 director Shinji Mikami and Current PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba. Ikumi actually pitched a Nintendo DS game for them, and it got greenlit, however…

I even went to Nintendo to give a presentation, and they told me if Platinum Games released this through the DS, not that it will be the end of Platinum Games, but Platinum Games will have a really, really bad reputation,
Nakamura on her cancelled DS game

That… is an extremely lame excuse, because the DS was pretty hot in 2007, so games would probably be a hit for it, but for now, it remains lost to time. She then worked on Bayonetta as a Conspest artist, something she said she was fortunate to be on, as she really loved Devil May Cry. She then went to work on Scalebound, but that game got canned even after she left, and well… this face sums up my feelings on if I should comment on this or not, given the mess that game has seemed to be for Microsoft. Hell, given what we know now, it might have been the warning shot…

Anyways, she ended up going to Tango Gameworks alongside Mikami, and ended up being the lead artist for the 1st Evil Within, then did additional art for the 2nd Evil Within game. She then got a chance to direct her own game, Ghostwire Tokyo and the reveal of this game is probably one of the last great moments, if not the last great moment in the history of the now cancelled E3.

An important event which pushed me forward.

There’s something in her presentation style that feels so genuine and brings out a lot a charm and genuine passion which is hard to find nowadays. I think was in my last weeks of A-Level exams, so seeing this before school was nice to see. She got pretty popular overnight with this, but it would all come to a crashing halt as in September 2019, she left Tango Gameworks, due to the stress of publisher-developer politics making her ill, which just shows how difficult making games can be. Ghostwire Tokyo would once again, be put in the hands of Mikami and noted Tekken and Metal Gear artist, Kenji Kimura and would come out in March 2022 for PS5, and a year later for Xbox Series X and S.

Nakamura then hit a big layoff doing a lot of different things, mainly travelling. I do remember her announcing she was working for a construction company, and I was like “What the hell happened here for her to leave games entirely?” Keep in mind, we didn’t know what made her leave until mid-2021, so that was my though process there. However, she did some stuff for games, such as Rainbow Six skins, and designs for Gungrave: G.O.R.E, and after visiting some studios, having a kid, congratulations, and getting Gastroenteritis at one point, Jesus Christ, we end up to March 2022, where she announced her Studio, UNSEEN.

WE ARE ARTISTS, WE ARE BORDLESS, WE ARE UNSEEN.

Unseen is a different type of development studio for sure, as they cross cultures and are very open to doing things like indie studios. So far on their channels, they have done a few Ikumi Nakamura Q&A’s which I’ve enjoyed watching, Ikumi doing more travelling, along with the entire Unseen crew and Midnight UNSEEN, which I have not watched yet, but it seems interesting.

All of this led to 2023’s Game Awards, where she revealed the team’s 1st game, KEMURI.

While a teaser trailer was shown at The Game Awards, more information was given in February of 2024, revealing that it is a multiplayer game where you hunt Yokai. You seem to mainly use something called the “Fox Window”, from what I can gather, it’s a piece of old Japanese folklore, being the idea that if you connect your hands in a certain shape, you can see Yokai or Ghosts, though I know that’s an elementary and dumbed down explanation for it, though. The trailers and the Ask Ikumi on this subject say a lot more, and I recommend you check them out.

As for my opinion on this; KEMURI looks very good, but I’m worried about the Multiplayer stuff, I’m not a big fan of Multiplayer projects, but this looks pretty stellar, and they did say there is the option to play by yourself, so it should be fun. Plus the character designs and animation are truly stellar, it’s amazing how expressive they look, and it’s helped by the team leader being very relaxed and happy in how she presents herself to the general public.

Nakamura is somebody that I feel is very passionate for games and game development, something that I feel has been missing from a lot leaders in the game industry nowadays. Teams like UNSEEN and people like Ikumi Nakamura are showing that it still matters, The fact that she’s so open with her stories and what inspires her is also really great… even if I don’t get what she sees in Ghost from Call of Duty.

While do have some reservations about KEMURI, it does look like a good and very fun game to play. I hope she and the entire UNSEEN team do well, and please remember the one thing that Nakamura-san wants the most:

ADDITIONAL. DEVELOPMENT. FUNDING.

So yea, that was a fun little thing to write about. Sorry that this didn’t come out in April. I was very busy, I had something going on basically every day this month, and there’s been a lot happening in general, so I kinda put this on the back-burner for a bit. But I’m glad it’s over now.

Before I go, thank you to everyone I met at WASD this year! It was my 1st convention, and I had a great time. Hopefully I can go to more of them.

But yea, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

Hey! Here’s another one of these old articles. Granted, IDK if this game is still being worked on, but eh, I do still like this quite a bit. I was gonna do a new small thing, but this month got kinda of busy at the end, plus I kind of ended up working a lot more on the editorial, so that will be out next month alongside 2 anime 1st impressions!

But here’s one about Boneko, a cat platformer that I found pretty neat. Please keep in mind that these, unlike the updated ones that have older dates on them, are for other sides, so the tone is pretty different from what I write normally.

That being said, thanks for reading, and enjoy this article. I’ll see you all soon.

Boneko was made by Patchoid,a developer who has a few other games under his belt such as EVA: Battle for Survival. This game centres around a girl named Bony, who’s cat, Boneko has drunk a potion, and turned into a hat. A very basic story, something has happened to a loved one; go save them before it’s too late. The dialogue does lend helpful tips, giving both light comedic humour, and informative description at the same time.

This is your view of collectables. You have 8 of these lost and found toys, and 60 balls of yarn to collect, but I feel that the jump arc really hinders me from getting to some of these places. Isn’t the that goal of a collect-a-thon platformer? These are mostly for show value, so collect at your own risk. The game is styled like a metroidvania, and mostly takes place in a house, so while you are restricted to one area, I can say it is very pleasing to look at.

I would suggest that you should only play this demo if you really want to know more about the early development of this game. It’s being upgraded to unity, meaning that the game engine being used here(Game Maker) will differ in physics from the final product. This demo is charming and fun, but may alienate players with its new overhaul later on.