The Tower of Druaga Character Designer Reveals Namco's Mysterious Creative Center
The interview sheds light on a little-known Namco department that shaped the company's visual identity and produced character designs that remain in use 40 years later.
Reporting from 1 sources: Denfaminicogamer.
Yuichiro Shinozaki, the designer who created Gil, Kai, and Druaga for The Tower of Druaga in 1983, discusses his work in Namco's Creative Center-a department that handled corporate identity and advertising rather than game development. The interview accompanies the June 25 release of NAMCO LEGENDARY Mountains, a voxel puzzle game featuring classic Namco characters.
Yuichiro Shinozaki joined Namco in 1983 and was assigned to the Creative Center, a department under the president's office that focused on corporate identity and advertising, not game development. His first major assignment was designing the characters Gil, Kai, and Druaga for The Tower of Druaga. Shinozaki recalls that at the time, game companies hired few graphic designers, but Namco was expanding after hits like Pac-Man. The interview was published alongside the June 25 release of NAMCO LEGENDARY Mountains, a puzzle game from B'side that turns classic Namco characters into voxel art. Developer Kazunori Minami also participated in the conversation.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.