Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru) was born on January 25, 1955. He is a Japanese video game designer who worked for Namco for most of his life. He is most famous for creating the arcade game Pac-Man, which was released in 1980. In 2009, IGN named him one of the top 100 video game creators ever.

Early life

Iwatani was born on January 25, 1955, in the Meguro area of Tokyo, Japan. When he was in kindergarten, his family moved to the Tōhoku region because his father started working as an engineer for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. After starting junior high school, Iwatani went back to Tokyo. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University High School and later from the Tokai University Engineering department. Iwatani learned about computers on his own without any official training in programming or graphic design. He often filled his textbooks with manga drawings, which he says had a big influence on the characters in his games.

Career

In 1977, when he was 22 years old, Iwatani joined Namco, a Japanese video game company. Before Iwatani joined, Namco had bought the rights to distribute games from Atari, Inc. in Japan, including games like Breakout. This helped Namco become very successful, and they wanted to create their own games instead of relying on other companies.

Iwatani worked in Namco’s video game development team. He first wanted to make pinball machines, but Namco’s leaders refused because of patent problems. As a compromise, Iwatani was allowed to make a video game inspired by pinball. With help from programmer Shigeichi Ishimura, he created Gee Bee, released in 1978. Although it was not as successful as hoped, Gee Bee helped Namco gain a place in the growing video game market. Two follow-up games, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q, were released in 1979, and Iwatani worked on them as a designer.

By late 1979, Iwatani felt the video game industry focused too much on games that were violent or about sports, like Space Invaders or Pong. He decided to create a game that would appeal to women, using cute characters, bright colors, and simple gameplay based on eating. With a team of nine people, he made Pac-Man, which was test-marketed in May 1980. It was released in Japan in July and in North America in October. While Pac-Man did not do as well in Japan as Namco’s Galaxian, it became extremely popular in North America, selling over 100,000 arcade units and becoming the best-selling and highest-grossing arcade game ever. Pac-Man is now Namco’s most successful game and its signature title. After its release, Iwatani was promoted within Namco, eventually overseeing the company’s administration. However, he did not receive a bonus or raise in salary. A common story claims he left Namco angry over this, but Iwatani says this is not true.

In 1983, Iwatani designed Libble Rabble, a puzzle game inspired by a childhood game he played. He considers Libble Rabble his favorite game. He also worked as a producer on several Namco games, including Rally-X, Galaga, Pole Position, Ridge Racer, and Time Crisis. From April 2005, he taught Character Design Studies at Osaka University of Arts as a visiting professor. In March 2007, he left Namco to become a full-time lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University. In 2007, he returned to Pac-Man by creating Pac-Man Championship Edition for the Xbox 360, which he said would be his final game.

On June 3, 2010, at the Festival of Games, Iwatani received a certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having the most coin-operated arcade machines worldwide: 293,822. This record was set in 2005 and noted in the 2008 Gamer’s Edition of Guinness World Records.

Iwatani was portrayed in the movie Pixels by actor Denis Akiyama. In the film, Iwatani himself appears as an arcade repairman.