Hidemaro Fujibayashi | |
---|---|
藤林 秀麿 | |
Born | |
Occupation(s) | Video game designer, director |
Employers |
Hidemaro Fujibayashi (藤林 秀麿, Fujibayashi Hidemaro, born October 1, 1972) is a Japanese video game designer at Nintendo. [1] He has directed several games in the Legend of Zelda series. [1] [2]
Before he entered the video game industry, Fujibayashi had designed layouts of haunted attractions for Japanese theme parks. [2] At that time, he had considered finding an occupation involving production, and came upon a job opening from a company that developed video games. [2] He was fascinated with the fact that his application for employment had to include a sample of his work that would be inspected directly upon transmittal, and he became enamored with the idea of being a game designer. [2] Fujibayashi joined Capcom in 1995, where he gained experience as planner for the interactive movie Gakkō no Kowai Uwasa: Hanako-san ga Kita!! and the mahjong game Yōsuke Ide Meijin no Shin Jissen Maajan. [2] [3] He became part of the company's Production Studio 1, and designed and directed the puzzle game Magical Tetris Challenge. [2]
Fujibayashi's first involvement with the Zelda series was with the Game Boy Color games The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. [2] In the initial development stages, he acted as sort of a clerk, who gathered all staff ideas and created presentations to propose the game concepts to producer Shigeru Miyamoto. [3] Fujibayashi eventually became the director, participated as planner and scenario writer, and devised a system to link the two games for consecutive playthroughs. [3] During his time at Capcom, he also directed the Game Boy Advance games The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Minish Cap. [4] [5] Following his switch to Nintendo, Fujibayashi was assigned to The Legend of Zelda team and became the subdirector and story writer for Phantom Hourglass. [1] [6] He has since directed Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom. [7] [8] [9] According to Fujibayashi, the most important aspect of game design is making the fundamental rule set of a video game absolutely clear to a player. [2]
Year | Game | Role |
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1995 | Gakkō no Kowai Uwasa: Hanako-san ga Kita!! | Planner [3] |
1996 | Yōsuke Ide Meijin no Shin Jissen Maajan | Planner [3] |
1998 | Magical Tetris Challenge | Director, planner [3] |
2001 | The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages | Director, planner, scenario writer [3] |
2002 | The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords | Director, planner |
2004 | The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap | Director, planner, writer |
2007 | The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass | Subdirector, story writer, [1] multiplayer director [10] |
2011 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword | Director, writer [7] |
2017 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Director |
2020 | Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity | Scenario supervisor |
2023 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Director |