is a Japanese video game designer. He has helped found a number of notable video game companies and develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).
Career Nishi previously worked for both Telenet Japan and its subsidiary Riot. He was later hired by Square as a field designer for two of its larger releases. After leaving Square in 1995, Nishi helped establish Love-de-Lic, Inc. with many of his former Square coworkers. There, he designed two of the small company's three game releases: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and L.O.L.: Lack of Love. He also helped design and write the script for the 1999 Polygon Magic title Incredible Crisis. Nishi then co-founded skip Ltd., a second-party developer for Nintendo. Acting as vice president of the company, he also directed GiFTPiA and co-directed Chibi-Robo!. Shortly thereafter, he left skip and founded Route24 on February 23, 2006. According to Nishi, he felt that working on large projects with a large group of people such as those at skip limited his freedom in designing games. He apparently still collaborates with them though, seeing Captain Rainbow (2008) credited him for the game's script.
At Route24, Nishi and a staff of four other people developed LOL for the Nintendo DS, which was published by skip in 2007. He worked on Newtonica and Newtonica2 for the iPhone and iPod Touch with Kenji Eno, among other independently developed mobile games. In 2010, Nishi expressed interest in developing a sequel to Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, asking fans to voice their support via Twitter.
Personal life Nishi lives in Meguro, Tokyo. He is a fan of British rock music and once had a dog named Tao, who Nishi featured as a character in many of his games including Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, GiFTPiA, L.O.L.: Lack of Love, Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow. Tao died in October 2009 due to kidney complications. It is said that Dragon Quest III is Nishi's favorite game.
Credits
+ Video game credits of Kenichi Nishi Year Title Developer Role(s) 1991 Tenshi no Uta Telenet Japan Planning Exile Telenet Japan, Riot 1992 Psycho Dream Riot Story 1995 Chrono Trigger Square Field planning 1996Super Mario RPG 1997 Moon: Remix RPG Adventure Love-de-Lic Game design 1999 Incredible Crisis Polygon Magic Game design and script 2000 L.O.L.: Lack of Love Love-de-Lic Writing 2003 GiFTPiA Skip Ltd. Director 2005 Chibi-Robo! 2007 LOL Designer 2008 Captain Rainbow Scenario Newtonica Route24 Designer Morinaga Takurou no Okane no Shin Joushiki DS Training Newtonica22009 Wacky World of Sports Tabot Concept and advicePostPet DS AlphaDream, Route24, Vanpool 2010 iCLK Route24 Geotrion Producer and director Followars Designer 2012 Paper Mario Sticker Star Intelligent Systems Special thanks 2013 Cobits Route24 Designer 2021Pixel Game Maker Series Puzzle Pedestrians 2026Briki'n Roll: Course Maker
References
External links Route24 Official Blog Kenichi Nishi's blog at Studio Voice Online Kenichi Nishi's dual blog with Kenji Eno