Hideki Kamiya

is a Japanese video game designer and director. He began his career in 1994 with Capcom, where he directed Resident Evil 2 (1998), Devil May Cry (2001), Viewtiful Joe (2003), and Ōkami (2006). From 2004 to 2006, he worked for the Capcom subsidiary Clover Studio. After leaving Capcom, Kamiya and other former staff members founded PlatinumGames in 2006, where he has served as vice-president from 2017 to 2023, when he left the company. His projects with PlatinumGames include Bayonetta (2009) and The Wonderful 101 (2013). Early life Kamiya was born in 1970 in Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture. At a young age, he was already a fan of video games thanks to a neighbor who often invited him to play with his Epoch Cassette Vision console. Gaming appealed to Kamiya mainly due to the sounds it produced. During his early years of junior school he got his own first console, Nintendo's Famicom. The first game he bought was Nuts & Milk. In high school, Kamiya bought a NEC PC-8801 to study programming, but ended up playing video games every day. The first software he purchased for his PC-8801 MA computer was Hydlide 3: The Space Memories. He also loved monster movies such as Godzilla and Ultraman as a child. As a game designer, Kamiya stated he has been most inspired by the games The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Gradius. His favorite action game is the original Castlevania. Other favorite games include Space Harrier, Cybernator, Punch-Out, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Snatcher, Sorcerian, and Star Cruiser.