With a simple message, “In Memory of Rieko Kodama,” affixed to the Mega Drive Mini 2’s credits, the world of digital entertainment broke the news. At 58 (her 59th birthday is approaching), the one who will have spent her entire career at SEGA has left us. As with Hidekazu Yukawa last June, the announcement of this disappearance was delayed (as is sometimes the case in Japan), and it came as a shock when the industry woke up on this October 27, 2022.
Rieko Kodama.
For the vast majority of French people, this name will be completely unfamiliar. On the other hand, it will have a special resonance for those who are interested in video games and their history.
Rieko Kodama
Japanese video game pioneer who bore the nickname Phoenix Rie / Phoenix Rie (inspired by Phoenix Ikki from Knights of the Zodiac) – at a time when studios were protecting themselves from headhunters – died on May 9th. We could spend hours reflecting on what she brought to the video game industry and the role of women in that medium. In truth, to give him a worthy tribute, it would take a book spanning his entire career. While waiting for this book to arrive one day, your servant has decided to write these few lines to pay homage to him.
Rieko Kodama passed away on May 9, 2022. I have very fond memories of them because we were Sega colleagues and we created Phantasy Star and Sonic together. I wasn’t sure about the funeral pictures, but I wanted everyone to remember them. May she rest in peace. Rieko Kodama, forever. pic.twitter.com/lw9UTxLXbS
In 1984, she was only 21 when she was hired by SEGA. By the early 1980s, the company had just opened its home appliances division and was in dire need of games for its consoles and more directly for its first-ever Western-dominated device, the SEGA Mark III, which would become the master system with us. A little lost in this masculine universe, she gets the support of who will become one of her mentors: Yoshiki Kawasaki, the artist behind the game Flicky.
I wasn’t very interested in video games, but my parents ran a coffee shop, so it was something I’d known about since high school. After that store closed, I played titles like Space Invaders and Galaxian, and my parents got to know this universe.
He teaches her the basics of game design (via the digitizer systema kind of digital tablet) and, month after month, manages to break free from the limitations of the machines of the moment by creating beautiful things sprites (characters, sets, objects, etc.) and animations.
The Digitizer System, here in its first version, is the tool Rieko Kodama started with.
We had a special tool called Digitizer and the first thing we had to do was learn how to use it. It consisted of two screens (NDA: side-by-side) and when you tapped the touchmonitor with the light pen, the drawing was then rendered on the other monitor in the same display format as the console. It was then copied into ROM (basically a prototype of the future cartridge) and handed the whole thing over to the programmer. Experienced designers showed me documents (from the analog era) and at that time drew figures with colored pencils on special graph paper.
She thus participates in the development of the graphics of Champion Boxing (Yu Suzuki, the origin of SEGA’s greatest successes in Arcade, goes so far as to sit next to her to give her advice and show her various tricks) and the Protagonists from Ninja Princess (adapted to Master System under the name The Ninja). The one who imagined making archeology or painting a profession will end up pursuing a very different career. Finally she can do what she always wanted to do: create something.
Since the tools were rudimentary, Rieko Kodama designed a cartoon look for the Championship Boxing characters. A feat for a first game!
When I got to SEGA I thought I would do commercial graphics, but when I saw the game creation section I thought it might be interesting. So I was allowed to draw the characters for Champion Boxing right after I joined the company. I’ve also worked on arcade games like Ninja Princess. There were few designers and the production time was short, so I sometimes worked on five or six games a year.
His colleagues noticed Rieko Kodama’s talent. After proving herself in the arcade, she is accepted into the domestic division. In the mid-1980s, SEGA was not in a logic of “quality” but primarily of “quantity” to impose its Mark III (Master System) at the expense of Nintendo’s Famicom (NES). Despite the pressure, she decides not to rush her method and eventually chooses an approach that gives her games a unique twist: color. Not color in the true sense, but color as a visual seal of quality. Just check out each of these titles, including the furthest one to flush out a leg that lights up the screen. She attaches great importance to the fact that her games are colorful and visually appealing. This touch is reflected in one of its emblematic titles: Phantasy Star on Master System!
Dragon Quest was popular and I thought SEGA as a console designer needed RPGs. The team was made up of people who really wanted to make RPGs, and that’s how I think the development of Phantasy Star started.
Led by Kotaro Hayashida (Mr. Alex Kidd) and accompanied by Yuji Naka (programmer), Naoto Oshima (graphic designer) and Tokuhiko Uwabo (music), the young designer models the world of Phantasy Star (and not fantasy, to avoid that too medieval character of the word). She not only designs the main characters but also draws the 2D maps and background images during the battle scenes.
The concept was to create a “moving map” so that if you look closely at the area of the map where the sea is, you can see the movement of the waves.
To develop the vehicles for Advanced Daisenryaku, Rieko Kodama was inspired by scale models. She was also very good at making these models.
With this experience, Rieko Kodama will then multiply the projects. Not only did she pilot Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle on the Mega Drive (a development that wasn’t easy because the architecture of the Mega Drive was not yet complete), but she also acquired the position of leading designers (Chief Designer) and helps the developers of Sonic the Hedgehog (yes, yes), Advanced Daisenryaku (she takes inspiration from models to build the vehicles in the game), Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi and many others. She was also the one who customized the graphics for the arcade version of Altered Beast on Mega Drive. With his tenacity, creativity, kindness and humor, Rieko Kodama was a real Swiss Army knife within SEGA. A talented and valued jack of all trades who paved the way for many women in the industry. At SEGA, she’s always admitted that she’s never felt treated any differently, but it’s probably thanks to a very strong temper. With the Mega Drive, she enjoyed making games come alive visually. She loved this time when the atmosphere in the small teams was very good. And above all, she has done everything to ensure that the SEGA console displays graphics that are as impressive as its competition.
The Super Famicom allowed things that the Mega Drive could not, such as transparency effects or the display of intermediate colors. Instead of seeing it as a rival, I was mostly envious and to compensate I did various research to find an alternative to create beautiful graphics.
By a happy coincidence, she finally becomes a producer, even though the position didn’t exist at the time of the Mega Drive. At the time, there was talk of a new RPG, and development started with four designers, but there was no one overseeing the project. Rieko Kodama first stepped in to help the small team, and little by little the game grew into a new episode of Phantasy Star. Eventually, she took pleasure in overseeing the game as a whole and took over the management of the project. Phantasy Star IV: The End Of The Millennium is undoubtedly one of his greatest achievements.
Rieko Kodama has tried several video game genres, like here with Deep Fear.
Despite being close to SEGA’s (ahhh, Magic Knight Rayearth) RPG productions, Rieko Kodama has also worked on titles far removed from this universe. Of particular note is the excellent Deep Fear on Saturn, a very immersive Resident Evil “clone” set underwater (in a submarine, to be precise), or even Atsumare! Guru Guru Onsen, a party game on Dreamcast. More recently, she’s produced several episodes of the SEGA Ages collection for Switch, and also made her mark as the 7th Dragon series lead on handhelds. But of course we can’t miss one of his masterpieces: Skies of Arcadia.
Again, we could talk about this game for hours, but we invite you to read the article about its incredible creation. On the other hand, all SEGA developers have always had good things to say about Rieko Kodama, and that’s where yours really ends. It’s enough to check his interviews or look at his photos to be convinced that his kindness and approachability are really missed by this industry. And one can imagine the shock caused by this internal disappearance. At SEGA. Rieko Kodama was an essential character in addition to being a producer loved by everyone.
I personally find it interesting to create remakes that take into account the feelings of people who discovered the original work at the time. When I was working on these games, I did everything I could not to regret saying to myself, “Damn, I should have done this or that”. People get angry when I say that, but I think with every game, this could be my last.
As a woman, it may have always been part of SEGA’s corporate culture, but I never felt devalued. I have now been in this universe for more than 30 years and since the beginning I have been able to work without any distinction between men and women.
In 2019 you won the award pioneer at the Game Developers Choice Awards and it was well deserved. But if you’ve won an award, it’s our hearts.
Rest in peace Ms. Rieko Kodama and thank you for everything.
Sources :
Rieko Kodama Interview – SEGA Japan
Interview Rieko Kodama – Famitsu
Interview with Rieko Kodama translated by Sega-mag.com
.jpg/BROK/thumbnail/1600x900/format/jpg/quality/80/Overwatch2-Genji-(1).jpg)