is a Japanese game designer famous for designing innovative video games, often featuring the use of voice recognition technology, such as Seaman

Seaman (video game)

is a virtual pet video game for the Sega Dreamcast. It is one of the few Dreamcast games to take advantage of the microphone attachment. The narration is voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the English-language version....

for the Dreamcast. In 1996, he founded his own video game development company, Vivarium

Vivarium (company)

Vivarium Inc. is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1996 by company president Yoot Saito. It is famous for designing innovative video games which use voice recognition technology...

. His latest game is Odama

Odama

is a video game for the Nintendo GameCube developed by Vivarium and published by Nintendo in 2006. The game was designed by Seaman creator Yoot Saito.Odama blends tactical wargaming with pinball gameplay. The game takes place in a feudal Japan setting...

for the Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...

, and Seaman 2

Seaman 2

is a virtual pet video game for the PlayStation 2. It's a sequel to Seaman on the Dreamcast. In this game, players act as god of a miniature island, charged with the task of rearing Gabo, a 20-centimeter tall Peking Man, communicating through a custom microphone-equipped gamepad.-Gameplay:Seaman 2...

 released in Japan only, though he is currently working on an unnamed game 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...

, which is said to take advantage of both the system's inbuilt microphone and wireless networking capabilities.

His first major game release was SimTower

SimTower

SimTower: The Vertical Empire is a construction and management simulation computer game developed by OPeNBooK Co., Ltd. and published by Maxis for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS 7 operating systems in November 1994. In Japan, it was published by OPeNBooK that same year and was later released for...

, developed by his previous company OPeNBooK Co., Ltd. and published by Maxis

Maxis

Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...

 in 1994. He was also involved in the sequel, Yoot Tower

Yoot Tower

Yoot Tower is a 1998 construction and management simulation computer game.- Description :The lead designer, Yoot Saito, who also worked on SimTower, produced this game as a sequel to SimTower, adding several new features while retaining the same general interface and style...

, the Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

 remake called The Tower SP

The Tower SP

The Tower SP is a 2005 construction and management simulation video game for the Game Boy Advance. It is a port and revision of the SimTower , aka The Tower in Japan, with some elements of Yoot Tower...

, and 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...

 remake called The Tower DS. After founding Vivarium, he published some of his most famous games, including Seaman

Seaman (video game)

is a virtual pet video game for the Sega Dreamcast. It is one of the few Dreamcast games to take advantage of the microphone attachment. The narration is voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the English-language version....

, a virtual pet game which was one of the best selling titles for the Dreamcast in Japan, and Odama

Odama

is a video game for the Nintendo GameCube developed by Vivarium and published by Nintendo in 2006. The game was designed by Seaman creator Yoot Saito.Odama blends tactical wargaming with pinball gameplay. The game takes place in a feudal Japan setting...

, a curious mix of pinball

Pinball

Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...

 and real time strategy. Both of these games make use of their respective consoles' microphone peripherals.

External links

• Yoot Saito at MobyGames
  MobyGames
  -Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
  
  Yoot Saito's Blog