Rieko Kodama, one of the most important developers in the history of Sega and the broader RPG genre, has died at the age of 59.
As IGN reportShe actually died back in May, but her death was not publicly announced by the company at the time. However, fans recently spotted a tribute to Kodama in the Mega Drive Mini 2’s credits section, prompting Sega producer Yosuke Oskunari to confirm the sad news.
Her contributions to Sega’s catalog of classic titles and series have been immense. Starting with the company in 1984, she worked on everything from design to pixel art, spending her early career on series such as Alex Kid and fantasy zone.
She was the main artist of the original at the time fantasy starand continued to work on the series in the sequels, rising to the role of director in the fourth game.
Her other notable works include the Dreamcast classic Sky of Arcadiawhere she again led development while also contributing as an artist to games like the first two sound title and Altered Beast.
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However, Kodama may be best remembered for her pioneering work as a prominent woman in game development, for which she has been dubbed “The First Lady of RPGs” (and indeed won the Pioneer Award at GDC 2018) and leaves a legacy of Characters and games designed for it Everyonenot only traditionally male audience.
“Personally, I don’t usually think about making games exclusively for a female audience, but I think my RPGs attract a larger female audience,” she once said in an interview. “Violent war-themed titles seem to attract a predominantly male audience. I think if companies want to get more girls to play their games they should keep that in mind.
