Eiji Aonuma - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese video game designer and video game director. He currently works for Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

, and has overseen several installments in The Legend of Zelda series of video games.

Education

Aonuma attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

or is one of the oldest and most prestigious art schools in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju, Adachi, Tokyo...

where he majored in design, working on moving mechanical figures. He graduated in 1988.

Nintendo

After graduating, he interviewed at Nintendo. Aonuma met Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto

is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....

during the interview, and showed Miyamoto samples of his college work. His first projects involved graphic design, creating sprites

Sprite (computer graphics)

In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...

for Nintendo Entertainment System games such as Mario's Open Golf. Aonuma later directed the development of Marvelous: Mouhitotsu no Takarajim
Marvelous: Mouhitotsu no Takarajim
is a video game software for the Nintendo Super Famicom. It was published and released in Japan by Nintendo. It is the first title designed by Eiji Aonuma. Two special versions of this game titled and were released exclusively for the Satellaview.-Plot synopsis:...

for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

. Miyamoto later recruited Aonuma to join the development team for the Zelda series; a move Aonuma attributes to his work on Marvelous. A few years later he completed work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released in Japan on November 21, 1998; in North America on November 23, 1998; and in Europe on December 11, 1998...

for the Nintendo 64. Afterward, he continued to work on the following games in The Legend of Zelda series, Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan on April 27, 2000, North America on October 26, 2000, and Europe on November 17, 2000. The game sold approximately 314,000 copies during its first...

, the Nintendo 64 sequel to Ocarina of Time, and The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, released as in Japan, is an action-adventure game and the tenth installment in The Legend of Zelda series. It was released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan on December 13, 2002, in North America on March 24, 2003, in Europe on May 2, 2003, and in Australia on...

, the first Zelda game for the Nintendo GameCube. After The Wind Waker, Aonuma considered moving onto other projects, but was convinced by Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto

is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....

to continue with the Zelda series. He later finished work on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, and published by Nintendo for the GameCube and Wii video game consoles. It is the thirteenth installment in The Legend of Zelda series...

, the second major Zelda game to be released for the GameCube and a launch game for the Wii. He was voted Designer of the Year for his work on Twilight Princess in Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...

s 2006 1Up Network Awards. He then completed work on a sequel to The Wind Waker for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
is the fourteenth game in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. It was released after The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii and before The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS...

, followed by another Nintendo DS title, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, released as in Japan, is the fifteenth installment of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. Developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, it was released worldwide throughout December 2009 after Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced the...

. He also helped develop Link's Crossbow Training
Link's Crossbow Training
Link's Crossbow Training, known in Japan as , is a shooting video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It was bundled with the Wii Zapper peripheral and was the first title to use it. It was first released in North America and was later released in Europe,...

, which is the first game to use the Wii Zapper

Wii Zapper

The Wii Zapper is a gun shell peripheral for the Wii Remote. The name is a reference to the NES Zapper light gun for the Nintendo Entertainment System...

. He recently has been a part of the development team for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
is an action-adventure game for the Wii console and the sixteenth entry in the Legend of Zelda series. Developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, it was released in Europe on November 18, 2011 in North America on November 20, 2011, in Japan on November 23, 2011, and on November...

for the Nintendo Wii.

Other work

Aonuma is a member of the band "The Wind Wakers", named after The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which is composed of several Nintendo employees who perform concerts four times a year for employees of the company. He plays percussion

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

, including instruments such as bongos

Bongo drum

Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...

, conga

Conga

The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...

s and timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.