1-Up Studio Inc. (known as "1-UP STUDIO") was previously called Brownie Brown Inc. It is a Japanese video game company located in Tokyo. The company was started on June 30, 2000, by Shinichi Kameoka and Kouji Tsuda, who were former employees of Square. Both worked on the Mana series of games. The studio created games for Nintendo and Square Enix, such as Magical Vacation and Sword of Mana.
On February 1, 2013, the company shared news that it was changing how it was organized internally because of its recent work with Nintendo. At that time, the company adopted its current name. Kameoka left the company to start a new studio called Brownies.
Since the 2010s, the company has mostly worked as a helper to Nintendo EPD. Its employees are mainly artists, game designers, and programmers.
History
1-Up was created on June 30, 2000 as Brownie Brown. Many of the artists who worked there had previously worked at Square. The founders, Shinichi Kameoka and Kouji Tsuda, had worked on the Mana series for the Game Boy and Super NES. They left Square because they had different ideas about making games. The studio’s name came from the Brownies, fairies from Scottish stories known for being hardworking and friendly. Kameoka believed this name fit the team’s style. A Brownie is shown in the studio’s logo. He wanted to make games for the Game Boy Advance, which led to the creation of Brownie Brown.
The company’s first original game was Magical Vacation, released in 2001 for the Game Boy Advance in Japan only. Another popular game developed by Brownie Brown was Sword of Mana, created and published by Square Enix. Though it was thought to be a new game in the Seiken Densetsu series, it was actually an improved version of the first game in the series, Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (known as Mystic Quest in Europe and Final Fantasy Adventure in North America).
Brownie Brown also helped develop Mother 3 in a partnership with Shigesato Itoi and HAL Laboratory for the Game Boy Advance. They also made Magical Starsign (Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align in Japan) for the Nintendo DS. The company said it would consider making a Nintendo DS version of Mother 3 if Nintendo asked.
Up to this point, the company only made games for Nintendo’s handheld consoles. However, they had previously announced a GameCube game called Gofuku, planned for release in 2005 alongside Magical Starsign.
Later, Brownie Brown released Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS, made with Mistwalker. In 2009, the company entered the downloadable games market with A Kappa’s Trail, a DSiWare game. They also worked on Livly Garden, a DS game based on a browser game from So-net Entertainment, released in Japan on January 28, 2010. They also helped develop two Level-5 games: Professor Layton’s London Life, a bonus game included with Professor Layton and the Last Specter, and Fantasy Life for the DS and 3DS.
On February 1, 2013, the company announced on its official website that it had changed its name to 1-Up Studio and became a support studio for Nintendo after recent collaborations. Kameoka left 1-Up Studio to start a new company called Brownies, aiming to create original games. In the same year, Yoshiaki Koizumi joined the company’s board of directors.
In 2020, the company moved its headquarters to the new Nintendo Tokyo Office building at Kanda Square, Tokyo, joining Nintendo EPD Tokyo, Nintendo PTD Tokyo, HAL Laboratory Head Office, Tokyo R&D Center, and Game Freak.