is a Tokyo-based video game designer and musician responsible for a number of

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

titles including his most famous game, the 2002

cult video game A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, book ...

, ''

Gitaroo Man ''Gitaroo Man'' is a rhythm game, rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Koei for PlayStation 2. The game features visual production by Mitsuru Nakamura and an original soundtrack by Japanese band COIL. The game was released in Japa ...

''. Yano has been involved in music (especially jazz music) from a young age and he earned a major in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

studies at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. He has spent time playing saxophone in Tokyo jazz clubs.

Career

In 1996, Keiichi Yano co-founded the production company,

iNiS The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) hosts one of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. History One of the founding purposes of the International Atomic Ene ...

, and began development of video games. His first project was the early

, ''

'' for which he acted as lead programmer. The game enjoyed only moderate sales, however it received critical accolades and became a well-known

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

classic. Since then Yano has developed a number of other

s including the '' Ouendan'' series. The ''Ouendan'' games have been criticized as unintelligible to Western markets due to its emphasis on Japanese

Ōendan An , literally "cheering squad" or "cheering section", is a Japanese sports rallying team similar in purpose and allegedly inspirated by the cheerleading squads in the United States, but relies more on making a lot of noise with brass drum ...

culture, however despite this Yano has created Western-targeted localizations such as the

Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast members of ...

-influenced ''

Elite Beat Agents ''Elite Beat Agents'' is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It was released in North America, Europe and South Korea. As the second of three rhythm games developed by iNiS specifically for the DS, ...

''. Most recently Yano has created the karaoke game, ''

Lips The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

'' Yano is personal friends with fellow

pioneer,

Tetsuya Mizuguchi is a Japanese video game designer, producer, and businessman. Along with ex-Sega developers he is one of the co-founders of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega as a producer in their Sega AM3 'arcade mach ...

,Rodriguez, Steven; Kaluszka, Aaron; Cole, Michael.
GDC 2007: The Keiichi Yano Interview
'. Nintendo World Report. 12 March 2007. and Yano's contributions to the world of

s have gained him notability as one of the pioneers of the genre. Aside from music games, Yano has worked on a number of other utilities such as the NFactor2 (a Realtime 3D Engine), the MixJuice Interactive Music Engine, and the Japanese version of the Xbox Voice Chat Interface. He has also worked on such projects as the Japanese localization of the Western '' Sudeki'' and even an arcade prototype for a '' Gundam Pilot Academy'' from

Banpresto (formerly Coreland Technology Inc.) was a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It had a branch in Hong Kong named Banpresto H.K., which was headquartered in the New Territories. Ba ...

.Carless, Simon.
Special: Gitaroo Man Creator On The State Of The Japanese Game Biz
'.

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget and acted as the online sister publication to the print maga ...

. 21 September 2006.

Utilities and non-games

* NFactor2 Realtime 3D Engine * MixJuice Interactive Music Engine
Keiichi Yano
'.

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

. Retrieved 27 November 2008. * Xbox Voice Chat Interface for the Japanese

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

Games

* ''

'' (2002,

PS2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 November, in Australia on 30 November, ...

) * '' Sudeki'' (2004,

) - Japanese localization * ''

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan or ''Ouendan'', is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in 2005, for release only in Japan. ''Ouendan'' stars a cheer squad rhythmically cheering for various troubled peopl ...

'' (2005,

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

) * '' Gitaroo Man Lives!'' (2006, PSP) * ''

'' (2006,

) * '' Rain: Wonder Trip'' (2006, PSP) * ''

Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It is the third of three rhythm games developed by iNiS for the DS, and is the sequel to '' Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan'' while incorp ...

'' (2007,

) * ''

'' (2008,

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

)

References

External links

INiS
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yano, Keiichi Japanese male musicians 21st-century Japanese musicians Japanese video game composers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)