It seemed like almost everyone in the gaming sphere knew who Ikumi Nakamura was following E3 2019. Nakamura has chalked up quite a resume over the years, contributing to AAA projects with her first being Okami. However, when she appeared on stage during the Bethesda press conference as part of the Tango Gameworks team, people immediately connected with her charismatic personality. Since the show, she has parted ways with the studio developing the then introduced Ghostwire Tokyo IP. Ikumi Nakamura has now founded her own independent studio and is working on a new IP of her own.
The Cutscenes YouTube channel recently interviewed Ikumi Nakamura about her role in the video game industry. In the near 20-minute interview, she talks of her past, present, and what the future holds for her. At the 10:20 mark, she explains that when she quit Tango Gameworks, she received “about 2,000 messages on LinkedIn.” Nakamura says that it was a mixture of positive messages and job offers.
Other perks included invitations to visit studios all around the world. Nakamura took this as an opportunity to see how other studios operated and gain experience from her travels. The end result after seeing those studios was a push to start one of her own.
Light in dark places
It’s hard to say what the “small” studio is working on despite Ikumi Nakamura acknowledging that it does have an IP in the works. As she crawls over broken glass and debris of dilapidated and abandoned buildings, one could guess that she still has a fondness for the horror/thriller genre. However, she does go on to say she identifies most with the Marvel character Deadpool and wouldn’t mind making something filled with dark humor.
As her flashlight beam illuminates the shadowy halls of the Kashima Naval Air Base, there’s a dark tone as she describes her entire career. It could also be symbolic of her role in the director’s seat following the course of her profession. There is no doubt that fans are waiting with bated breath to see what director Nakamura has in store.
