Toru Iwatani

Toru Iwatani (岩谷徹) is the creator and father of Pac-Man. He was born in 1955 in a small town in Kyoto, Japan, and joined Namco in the late 1970s. He currently works as an emeritus-professor at Tokyo Polytechnic University.
== History ==
=== Early career at Namco ===
During his youth, Iwatani was rather rebellious, and took interest in various "American" subcultures (such as rock music and pinball). In 1977, Iwatani was required to find a job in his later years of University. Iwatani became intrigued by a job ad published by Namco, with a tagline of "Creation of Play"; Iwatani filed for the job, and was hired by Namco."Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon", Chapters 2 and 3
Iwatani initially expected that he could produce pinball machines at Namco; however, Namco did not actually produce pinball machines at all, due to various legal issues regarding patents. Initially, Iwatani worked on machine repairs, and translating instructions for English-imported Atari games into Japanese. Later in his career, Iwatani was asked to produce an actual arcade game; this title would be released as Gee Bee. Inspired by both pinball and Atari's Breakout, Gee Bee was the first proper video game released by Namco; it would be followed by two sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q.
Despite Gee Bee's line of sequels, the games were not particularly successful; in part due to the unprecedented popularity of the recently-released Space Invaders by Taito. However, as Space Invaders and the "space-shooting" genre was quickly growing, the general public's reception of arcades in Japan worsened. Murky "Invader house" arcades, mostly targeted at adult men, caused other groups to no longer visit arcades (e.g. women and couples).
=== Development of Pac-Man ===
In response to the "space invasion", Iwatani was inspired to specifically design a non-violent game that could appeal to women as well as men. Iwatani felt that, by developing a game with a more relatable subject, the game industry could expand its narrow focus, and broaden the appeal of games to a much larger audience."Five things you never knew about Pac-Man" (Yahoo/CNBC, 2011)
Iwatani chose to focus the concept of the game around eating, and to feature "cute" characters; it was later decided that the game would work best in a labyrinth. Allegedly inspired by seeing a pizza with one slice missing, Iwatani formed the early basis for the in-game Pac-Man character. To keep the game simple, no "fire button" was added; utilizing only a joystick. With the final major additions of Ghosts and Power Pellets, the concept stage of Pac-Man was completed.
Pac-Man was first test-marketed in Japan in May of 1980, with full production beginning in July of the same year. Initially, the game only received moderate success in Japan; in part due to various production issues with the actual machines. Following the game's release in North America, however, the game became a massive success; to date, Pac-Man is one of the most popular and influential video games of all time, much of which can be credited to Iwatani's design decisions.
=== Later works ===
In regards to the Pac-Man series, Toru Iwatani was the producer Pac-Land, and director for Pac-Mania; Iwatani considers Pac-Land in particular to be one of his favorite projects. Iwatani did not work on many of the other Pac-Man sequels, though would return to work on Pac-Man Championship Edition in 2007. Following Championship Edition, Iwatani became a professor at Tokyo Polytechnic University, teaching various video game design courses.Interview with Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man (Geek Culture)
Other notable games worked on by Toru Iwatani include Libble Rabble and Pole Position I and II.
== Trivia ==
*In Shadow Temple of Pac-Man World 3, Orson says the reason his teleporter didn't teleport Pac-Man's entire body was "a glitch in the Iwatani coil", likely in reference to Mr. Iwatani.
*Iwatani made a cameo appearance in the film Pixels, which prominently features Pac-Man as an antagonist. A fictionalized version of Iwatani, portrayed by Denis Akiyama, also appears in the film.
== References ==
Category:Real World People
Category:Namco staff