is a Japanese

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development ...

, director, and producer at

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

. He is a senior officer within their

Nintendo EPD abbreviated Nintendo EPD, is the largest division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. The division focuses on developing and producing video games, mobile apps, and other related entertainment software for the company. Nintendo EPD ...

division and serves as the producer of the ''

Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'' franchise.

Career

Aonuma was born as on March 16, 1963, in

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. He graduated from the

Tokyo University of the Arts or is a school of art and music in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, crafts, inter ...

in 1988 with a master's degree in composition design, working on animated puppets called

karakuri Karakuri () may refer to: * ''Karakuri'' (manga), a manga by Masashi Kishimoto *Karakuri puppet are traditional Japanese mechanized puppets or automata, made from the 17th century to the 19th century. The dolls' gestures provided a form of ...

. After graduating, he was interviewed at Nintendo. Aonuma met

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

during the interview, and showed Miyamoto samples of his college work. He landed a job at Nintendo without ever having played a video game before. He asked his girlfriend about video games, and she introduced him to two

Yuji Horii is a Japanese author, video game designer, writer and director best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' franchise, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger'', and '' The Portopia Serial Murder Case'', released in 1983 ...

games, ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing video games created by Japanese game designer Yuji Horii (Armor Project), character designer Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), and composer Koi ...

'' (1986) on the

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

and ''

The Portopia Serial Murder Case is a 1983 adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 and has since been ported to other personal computers, the Family Computer (Famicom), mobile phone services and most recently, Win ...

'' (1983) on the

PC-8801 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the four major Japanes ...

, which were the first video games he ever played. His first projects involved graphic design, creating sprites for Nintendo Entertainment System games such as 1991's ''

NES Open Tournament Golf ''NES Open Tournament Golf'', known in Japan as is a 1991 sports video game developed by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the fourth golf game to feature Mario as a player ...

''. Aonuma was director on 1996's '' Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima'' for the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

. Miyamoto later recruited Aonuma to join the development team for ''

The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'' series. He was a lead designer for '' The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'' and its sequel '' The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask''. Following work on '' The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'', he considered moving on to other projects but was convinced by Miyamoto to continue with the series.

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

, Issue 213, March 2007. Page 79. Aonuma has since led the production of '' The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'', ''

Phantom Hourglass is a 2007 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is the fourteenth installment in The Legend of Zelda, ''The Legend of Zelda'' series and the direct sequel to the 2002 GameCube ...

'', ''

Spirit Tracks is a 2009 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. Set a century after ''The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Wind Waker'' and its sequel ''The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, P ...

'', '' Link's Crossbow Training'', ''

Skyward Sword is a 2011 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. A mainline entry in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, ''Skyward Sword'' is the first game in the ''Zelda'' timeline, and details the origins of the Master Sword, a ...

'', ''

A Link Between Worlds ''The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is the 17th in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series and is a sequel to the 1991 title '' The Legend of Z ...

'', ''

Breath of the Wild is a 2017 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo. Set at the end of the Zelda timeline, ''Zelda'' timeline, the player controls an amnesiac Link (The Legend of Zelda), Link as he sets out to save Princess Zelda and prevent ...

'', and ''

Tears of the Kingdom is a 2023 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The player controls Link (The Legend of Zelda), Link as he searches for Princess Zelda and fights to prevent Ganondorf from destroying Hyrule. ''Tears ...

''. Aonuma plays percussion as a founding member of the Wind Wakers, a brass band formed in 1995. The band comprises over 70 Nintendo employees who perform a few concerts a year. He was promoted to the position of deputy general manager within the company's Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) division in June 2019. By 2023, Aonuma had been promoted to senior officer at EPD.

Recognition

Aonuma received a lifetime achievement award at the 2016

Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...

. In 2023, the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...

in France chose to distinguish Aonuma with the ''

Order of Arts and Letters The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

''.

Works

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aonuma, Eiji 1963 births Japanese video game designers Living people Nintendo people People from Nagano (city) Tokyo University of the Arts alumni The Legend of Zelda Japanese video game producers Japanese video game directors Japanese video game businesspeople