Koji Igarashi

Japan · Born 1968 · Konami, ArtPlay · Producer, Director, Programmer

"IGA" co-directed Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, produced the series' exploration-led sequels for a decade, then crowdfunded his own successor, Bloodstained, with a record $5.5 million.

Koji Igarashi was born on 17 March 1968 in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, and joined Konami as a programmer in 1990. His early work included programming the PC Engine version of Detana!! TwinBee and serving as a scenario writer and programmer on the dating simulation Tokimeki Memorial (1994). His defining project was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997), on which he was assistant director, programmer and scenario writer. The game reshaped Castlevania around a large, interconnected castle, RPG-style levelling and equipment, and exploration in the manner of Super Metroid — the combination later described by the term "Metroidvania". From 2001 to 2011 Igarashi was the lead producer on a run of Castlevania games that refined that formula, many of them on Nintendo's handhelds. Igarashi left Konami in March 2014 and became a founding member of the studio ArtPlay that September. In 2015 he launched a Kickstarter campaign for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to his Castlevania work; it raised $5.5 million, at the time the most successful video game campaign on the platform. The game was released in June 2019.