, known as SWERY or Swery65, is a Japanese video game director and writer. He was one of the founding members of the game development studio

Access Games is a Japanese company specializing in the planning, development and distribution of video games and the research, development and distribution of software, data and video media. The company was originally founded in 1996 as a computer graphics ...

which is based in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

. His roles in the company included director, designer, and writer. He is the director of the games ''

Spy Fiction Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...

'', '' Deadly Premonition'' and '' D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die''. He then left the company in 2016, and he founded his own studio, named White Owls Inc.

Career

Suehiro received a degree in film and video advertising at

Osaka University of Arts is a private arts university located in Kanan, Minamikawachi District, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The university was founded in 1945 as , changing its name to in 1957, and then to in 1964. The university adopted the current name in 1966. Not ...

. After graduation he decided to join the game industry and worked at various game companies including

SNK is a Japanese video gaming and interactive entertainment company. It was founded in 1978 as by Eikichi Kawasaki and began by developing arcade games. SNK is known for its Neo Geo arcade system on which the company established many franchises ...

. In January 2002 he was one of the founding members of Access Games. The first game he directed was the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

game ''

'' released in 2003. The game is a third-person military themed stealth game and the

target audience The target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to the previously intended audience. In marketing and advertising, the target audience is a particular group of cons ...

was Western players rather than Japanese players. Production began in 2004 on a game titled ''Rainy Woods'', which was then cancelled in 2007. Work was restarted under the new title ''Deadly Premonition'' and it was released in 2010. A survival horror game, it also placed emphasis on targeting Western gamers rather than Japanese players. That game made its way to the 2012 '' Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition'' with the title "Most Critically Polarizing Survival Horror Game" because reviews of the game ranged so heavily. In 2014, he partnered with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

to develop an

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

game titled '' D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die'', which utilizes the

Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...

motion-sensing device. The game was highlighted at GDC Next 2013 as one of their "GDC Next 10", where chosen developers give talks on the inspiration behind their upcoming games. In 2015, he gave a lecture in Osaka and at GDC 2015 regarding physical input in video games and the Kinect device. He also opened a booth along with Access Games at

Penny Arcade Expo PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. Previously, it was also held in San Anton ...

East 2015. In November 2015, he announced that he would be taking a health-related break from game development in order to focus on recovering from reactive hypoglycemia. During his sabbatical, he also became a priest, within Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism. On 31 October 2016, he announced his departure from Access Games. A new video game studio was later founded by Suehiro on 1 November 2016 as White Owls Inc. White Owls was formally revealed to the public on 15 January 2017. Suehiro is a good friend of fellow game creator

Goichi Suda , known by his alias Suda51, is a Japanese video game director, designer, and writer. Affiliated with Human Entertainment from 1994 to 1998, he founded Grasshopper Manufacture in 1998 with a number of other Human Entertainment staff to produce the ...

. Appearing on a livestream in 2019, the pair revealed they worked on a cancelled

PlayStation VR The PlayStation VR (PS VR) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. The headset works with the company's PlayStation 4 video game console and is forward compatible with PlaySta ...

game together, after which they decided to collaborate on a horror title. Just before the stream, Suda titled it ''Hotel Barcelona'', and both envisioned a "light and easy to play" game for mobile platforms or Nintendo Switch. In 2023, it has resurfaced as a

slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...

parody action game for consoles and PC.

Works

References

External links

SWERY (@Swery65)
on Twitter *
Hidetaka Suehiro(SWERY)
on Facebook
Hidetaka Suehiro's "Cafe SWERY65" blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suehiro, Hidetaka 1973 births Living people Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests Japanese video game designers Japanese video game directors People from Osaka