Princess Maker
Company founder George Kamitani had an extensive career in video games reaching back to the 1980s, working on pixel art for an unnamed company and for Capcom as an artist and designer on "Saturday Night Slam Masters" and "" before leaving to become a freelancer. His first effort as a director was at the Kansai branch of Atlus on "Princess Crown" for the Sega Saturn, released in 1997. Originally planned as a life simulation game similar to "Princess Maker 2", he changed it into a role-playing game (RPG) to appeal to Sega. The game was a commercial failure, resulting in Atlus Kansai being closed, Kamitani's team being blacklisted in the industry, and an intended Dreamcast sequel being cancelled. While it was developed prior to Vanillaware's official founding, "Princess Crown" remains strongly associated with Kamitani and the company.