For players who are more or less concerned about the game industry, it may often be seen that the domestic media call some game producers "the father of XX", such as "father of Mario", "father of Mega Man", "Father of God of War", "Father of Pokémon", etc., and even a game has several "father of XX" strange phenomena, and this statement basically refers to the "creators of the XX series".
Of course, after the frequent appearance of these words in recent years, many players have begun to find that promotional terms such as "the father of XX" or "the departure of employees of a large company that has developed a game" can no longer represent the quality of the game. Even if it is used with a similar title, it will be disgusted by players, and there are ten "fathers" and nine pit jokes, and the mocking part of the game producer is not necessarily the biggest contributor to some games, but it is lucky that in the past old works just happened to be loved by players, and later works are almost limited to the same place and cannot keep up with the times.
So what is the latest situation of these "fathers of XX" today? Let me pick a few of the more interesting stories and take you to see them together!
"Father of Mega Man" Keiji Inabari
When it comes to the classic difficult action game of "Mega Man", everyone must also be very impressed, and even under the media rendering, they think that Keiji Inaba is the "father of Mega Man", but this is actually wrong. Inaba Keiji is not the earliest producer of the game, but in charge of the character design of the 4 characters in the first "Mega Man", the real "father of Mega Man" is Rei Kitamura, for such a long-term misunderstanding, in fact, Inaba Keiji at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, he carefully clarified that such glory belongs to Rei Kitamura. He also said that he always respected him as a mentor until 1996, when Rei Kitamura left the game development field after completing Mega Man 3, and the real series development was handed over to Keiji Inaba.
During Capcom's tenure, Keiji Inabashi was indeed responsible for the development of a large number of Mega Man series, such as Mega Man EXEE, Mega Man Dash, Mega Man ZX, etc., either as a producer or character designer, and as a producer of the same Capcom IP such as Ghost Warrior, Zombie Siege, etc., until October 2010, when he announced that he would leave Capcom to set up his own company Comcept.
After that, in addition to developing some console games, it is a familiar event for many people, that is, in the name of the spiritual sequel of Mega Man, the plan of "Invincible 9" was launched to crowdfund on Kickstarter. And won more than the video game crowdfunding record of 3.8 million US dollars, so that many well-known producers who stayed in large companies at that time found a new way to create their ideal game, it can be said that it really began the "father of XX" left the big era of self-employment.
However, the good times were not long, due to the subsequent postponement of "Invincible 9", the trailer screen was not ideal, the gameplay was low, and the second crowdfunding was said to be the production of animation for "Invincible 9", so that players could not imagine that the producers who created many outstanding works in Capcom had fallen to such a fate. Even before the problem was solved, the crowdfunding of the spiritual sequel to the second game "Mega Man Dash", "Red Ash: The Indelible", and the Microsoft exclusive game "Core Recast" developed in collaboration with Armature Studio, although it was also heavily publicized because of its status as the "Father of Mega Man", but in the end it did not get too good reviews.
Later, in 2017, Level-5 officially acquired Comcept and renamed it Level-5 Comcept, and Inabagi Keiji also promised to continue to complete the related operations of "Invincible 9" in the future, but until PSV announced the suspension of production and it was not completed, many players disappointed Keiji Inaba, not to mention whether "Red Ash: The Indelible" can be born is a problem, and later ran to develop some mobile games, such as "", such as "" Dragons and Colonies), although it also ended operations in February 2020.
Interestingly, a 2015 indie game by Inti Creates, Azure Thunder: Gunbart, has been a success, and the company has been involved in the development of the Mega Man Zero series and the Mega Man ZX series in the past. The new IP works also maintain similar gameplay to the "Mega Man" series, and invited Keiji Inaba as the executive producer, but according to relevant news, he himself is not deeply involved in the development, which is the existence of nominal publicity, so it has also been ridiculed by many netizens Fortunately, the game has not been attacked by Keiji Inaba.
"Father of Diablo" David Brevik and Max Schaefer
Speaking of "Father of Diablo", it is not only Bill Roper, David Brevik and Max Schaefer, but also many founders or veteran employees of Northern Blizzard Erich Schaefer and Bill Roper who also have the same honorific title, because they are also involved in the important development of Diablo. After all, no one stipulates that the founder of a game can only have one person, and it is all carried out in the case of a group of people proposing ideas, so there is often a Diablo game, and there are many fathers in different reports. However, these three people are more well-known, and the other "Father of Diablo" has gradually become a "former Northern Blizzard Team" or "Diablo 2 Development Team".
First of all, let's talk about David Brevik, who was the president of the former Northern Blizzard, which is a more famous example of himself than the new games developed later. After leaving Blizzard twice, the studio was founded but eventually closed, and although he stayed with many companies, the latest situation was that Skystone was established in May 2020, no longer developing games, but helping small independent studios to publish games on multiple platforms.
Although he has participated in the development of games such as Dungeons & Dragons Online, Marvel Heroes Online or Darkgate: London during the previous development period, they have not achieved substantial success, and the only independent game "Lurking Underground" that has been developed by himself has received extreme praise on Steam after its release in 2018.
It can only be said that David Brevik's subsequent appearances are not because of the game's big sales or bad reviews, but because they are asked by the media about the recent situation of his original company Blizzard, or have opinions on the current new work of Diablo. Even in 2016, Tencent, the agent of Road of Exile, asked David Brevik to stand, and the game was developed by a group of die-hard diablo 2 fans, which was the complete opposite of Blizzard's later Diablo 3 review.
Max Schaefer was the only "Father of Diablo" to have a showdown after leaving Blizzard, but the relatives soon declined. He and David Brevik initially founded Flagship Studios together after leaving Blizzard North, but after the failure of Darkgate: London, he left the company and some Flagship Studios employees to create Runic Games, the company that later developed the Torchlight series. Although it has become an American cartoon style, the core is still the classic dark-like gameplay, in which the original generation took only 11 months to develop, and even any feedback from players can be processed in the first time, so it is welcomed by many players.
Unfortunately, in 2010, the studio was acquired by Perfect World for a large stake, and from 2013 to 2016, many founders, including Max Schaefer, announced their departure from Runic Games. But then Max Schaefer founded Echtra Games in 2016 and contacted Perfect World to acquire the development rights to Torchlight 3, but unfortunately Echtra Games was acquired by Zynga, and Torchlight 3 was given a dismal review, so Perfect World recovered the development rights to Torchlight 3 in June 2021, and Echtra Games is currently working on other unlisted projects.
"Father of Castlevania" Takashi Igarashi
He created a new game genre, Castlevania, in which Takashi Igarashi, who volunteered to join the development team of Castlevania, won the title of "Father of Castlevania" for the success of the game. He developed a variety of games during his stay at Konami, but mainly based on the Castlevania series, and along the way he developed more than 10 Castlevania series works until March 2014, when he suddenly announced that he had left the company for more than 20 years, which surprised many Fans of the Castlevania series.
However, remember that the aforementioned Keiji Inabagan ushered in the era of self-employment by well-known producers - crowdfunding games. So on May 2014, Takashi Igarashi became one of the influenced producers, unveiling the development plan for Akatsuki: Ritual of the Night, and raising $1.4 million in one day. The game itself uses Unreal 4 to create 3D graphics, and the gameplay returns to the original side-scrolling Castlevania series with rich elements of exploration.
Although it encountered problems such as the postponement of the release date, optimization, and the 3D screen rendering being complained about by players, it was immediately modified and officially released on the whole platform in 2019, and achieved very high results in evaluation and sales. Takashi Igarashi, who often listens to player feedback, is often compared to Keiji Inabashi, who also loves crowdfunding.
At present, because of the success of "Akatsuki: Ritual of the Night", Takashi Igarashi has also announced his sequel in June 2021, and this time because of the big sale of the previous game, there is no need for crowdfunding, and it can be said that he is the most successful "father of XX" among these producers.
"Father of God of War" David Jaffe
Although David Jaffe has also created a series such as "Chariot of Fire" that still makes many players unforgettable, but it is really sought after by players around the world, and the IP that will still determine the launch of a sequel in the future is still the bloody and violent "God of War" full of refreshing QTE. The first two works, starring David Jaffe, were true classics until 2007, when he chose to leave because of rumors of disagreement with Sony, and later joined the new company Eat Sleep Play, signed a contract with Sony to restart "Chariots of Fire" and released it in 2012, but chose to leave again in the same year due to creative disagreements.
In fact, the later development of David Jaffe and David Brevik are very similar, but not to David's part, but to the media than the new games they are involved in developing, or their views on the original company or as the "father of XX" on the sequel game. For example, after leaving the previous company, the Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency studio was announced, and in 2014, a third-person competitive shooter "Death of the Pen" was announced on Sony's PS4 console, although it was released in 2017, it lasted only a year before it closed the server due to scarce players and fierce reviews, and its studio officially closed down later.
But rather than whether "Death in the Pen" is fun, the game media is more concerned about how David Jaffe sees the "New God of War" on PS4 with a shoulder-crossing perspective, or the related character settings in "God of War" and so on. Perhaps because of this, David Jaffe simply changed his career to a video creator and has his own channel, commenting on current events in the game industry or playing popular games, and even interacting with players online often, which can be said to be a former game producer with a considerable sense of distance.
The above is all the content of this time, I wonder what everyone thinks about these "fathers of XX"? You can share it in the comments section and discuss it with everyone.