Yasuhiro Minamimoto
Yasuhiro Minamimoto (Japanese: みなみもと やすひろ) is an employee of TOSE. He is a director of Densetsu no Starfy and a producer of the other four games in The Legendary Starfy series. He and Hitoshi Yamagami of Nintendo have worked together on the series for over fifteen years (as of 2009).[1]
'Floaty Platformer'
- Main article: Densetsu no Starfy (GBC)
Hitoshi Yamagami and Yasuhiro Minamimoto's first work together was on producing a 'floaty platformer' game that was originally a balloon-lifting game for the Game Boy. After six months of work on the game, Hitoshi thought of using a floating character to be pushed through a maze and initially designed a balloon-lifting game until canceling it due to difficulties of having the balloon move where it was intended to. According to Hitoshi Yamagami, it turned out to be an "annoying game that wasn't any fun at all". In a 2009 conference call between Nintendo Life and six developers of The Legendary Starfy, Hitoshi Yamagami says that he worked on pushing a floating character through a maze for six months. It is unclear whether he is referring to the balloon or not.
Later, Hitoshi Yamagami talked over with Yasuhiro Minamimoto and they decided that using a water based character would be a good idea, as long as that character fit the environment. Initially they came up with the idea of changing the balloon into a bubble with a Nintendo character in it, but this apparently "wasn't a very practical setup". Later they talked about making the bubble itself into a character, and a jellyfish and a starfish were proposed. A starfish was chosen for the game. This game would eventually become Densetsu no Starfy for the Game Boy Color and later for the Game Boy Advance. Starfy was originally a starfish, but plans were carried out so that he would fall from the sky unlike an actual starfish.
Works
The Legendary Starfy series
- Densetsu no Starfy (2002) - Director with Hitoshi Yamagami
- Densetsu no Starfy 2 (2003) - Producer with Hitoshi Yamagami
- Densetsu no Starfy 3 (2004) - Producer with Hitoshi Yamagami
- Densetsu no Starfy 4 (2006) - Producer with Hitoshi Yamagami
- The Legendary Starfy (2008/9) - Producer with Hitoshi Yamagami
Other works
- Tetris 2 (1993/4)
- Kirby's Block Ball (1995/6)
- Super Princess Peach (2005) - Producer with Hitoshi Yamagami
- Dr. Mario & Puzzle League (2005) - Producer with Hitoshi Yamagami
- Game & Watch Gallery 4 (2002) - Director with Hitoshi Yamagami
- Nintendo Puzzle Collection (2003) - Director
- Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! (2005) - Progress Management[2]
- Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005) - System & Arrangement Games: Producer[3]
