Shinya Kumazaki

Shinya Kumazaki (熊崎 信也, Kumazaki Shinya, born May 21, 1979) is a Japanese video game director and game designer and HAL Laboratory employee who is the current director of the Kirby series overall.

Shinya Kumazaki
熊崎 信也
Born (1979-05-21) May 21, 1979
Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Occupation
EmployerHAL Laboratory (2002–present)
Works
Kirby series
BoxBoy! series

Biography

Early life

Born in the Gifu Prefecture in 1979, Kumazaki studied at the Kanazawa College of Art and the Suidobata Fine Arts Academy.[1]

Early work at HAL Laboratory

Kumazaki first joined HAL Laboratory in 2002, where some of his early roles included debugging the game Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland and designer for Kirby Air Ride (for the levels) and Kirby Canvas Curse (for the battle with the final boss Drawcia). His first game as director came in 2008 as the Nintendo DS remake Kirby Super Star Ultra where the original game was further expanded to include four additional sub-games.

As director

In 2010, he was working on the built-in software for the then-new Nintendo 3DS system when he was roped in to the development team the then unfinished Kirby Wii game; under his supervision the development team eventually managed to incorporate elements from the three unfinished concepts for the project and the game was finally released as Kirby's Return to Dream Land.[2]

Since then, Kumazaki has helmed the role of Director and later, General Director for various main Kirby platformers, including Kirby's Dream Collection 20th anniversary compilation (2012), Kirby Triple Deluxe (2014), Kirby: Planet Robobot (2016) and Kirby Star Allies (2018). In addition, he has worked on the drafts of the box comics of the BoxBoy! series games since 2016 and is the voice actor of King Dedede of the Kirby series, a callback to Masahiro Sakurai’s role as voice actor of King Dedede in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

As general director of the Kirby series games, Kumazaki considers "devices, maps, and tough boss battles" the essential components of quality action games.[2] Kumazaki is also well known within the Kirby fandom for incorporating lore (the most notable being the Ancients first mentioned in Kirby's Return to Dream Land by Magolor) and backstories of various characters and unifying the canon of the series through the pause screen descriptions of various bosses and interviews.

Personal life

Kumazaki used to own a pet cat by the name of Tom; he sampled the voice of Tom for the voice of the final boss of Kirby: Planet Robobot. The cat died in 2017.[3]

Kumazaki also maintains his own personal blog and a public Instagram profile.

Works
Year Title Role(s)
2002 Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland Communication debugging
2003 Kirby Air Ride Designer
2005 Kirby Canvas Curse
2006 Otona no Joshiki Ryoku Training DS Special Thanks
2008 Kirby Super Star Ultra Director
2011 Kirby's Return to Dream Land Director, voice actor (King Dedede)
2012 Kirby's Dream Collection Director (with Tatsuya Kamiyama)
2014 Kirby Triple Deluxe Director, voice actor (King Dedede, Shadow Dedede)
Kirby Fighters Deluxe
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe
2015 Kirby and the Rainbow Curse Special Thanks
2016 BoxBoxBoy! Box comics - Drafts
Kirby: Planet Robobot General Director, voice actor (Dedede Clones)
2017 Bye-Bye BoxBoy! Box comics - Drafts
Team Kirby Clash Deluxe General Director, voice actor (King D-Mind)
Kirby's Blowout Blast General Director, voice actor (King Dedede)
Kirby Battle Royale
2018 Kirby Star Allies General Director, voice actor (King Dedede, Parallel Dedede, Void Termina)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Original Game Supervisor
2019 Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn Character Supervisor
BoxBoy! + BoxGirl! Box comics - Drafts
Super Kirby Clash General Director, voice actor (King D-Mind)
2020 Kirby Fighters 2 General Director, voice actor (King Dedede)

See also

References
  1. Kumazaki, Shinya. "KR Prof".
  2. "Iwata Asks : Kirby's Return to Dream Land : The Three Lost Kirby Games". Nintendo: Iwata Asks.
  3. "Tom the cat has passed away". Reddit.
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