I’ve only met Keiji Inafune once, in a noisy demo room in a corner of the main hall at PSX 2015.

Our team’s audio equipment was on the fritz and everything we tried to do to repair the malfunctioning microphones only seemed to make things worse. Through the whole process, Inafune waited graciously and patiently — a middle-aged, stylishly casual Japanese man with strikingly-bright eyes, courteously tolerating our shenanigans as we arranged and rearranged seating and equipment. He made friendly small talk, and smiled throughout it all despite the heat of the room.

Thanks to the technical problems, almost every portion of that interview was lost, but one moment lives on in my mind. I asked him, given unlimited resources, what his dream game would be to create. He looked very thoughtful, smiled a giant smile and told me he would make a worldwide multiplayer zombie survival scenario where every single person on the planet Earth has one life to live, and where the final survivor wins a huge prize.

I grinned back, and I remember thinking to myself, “Yeah, I’d play that.”

Mega Man

Keiji Inafune’s artistic voice has remained relevant from the NES era through modern next-gen consoles. A key contributor to many of Capcom’s most successful series, Inafune is best known as a character designer and producer of the Mega Man

He helped create Mega Man and likewise helped reinvent him on at least two occasions, dragging the Blue Bomber into 3D for Mega Man Legends, and then transforming him into an RPG hero in Battle Network. And when he felt he’d accomplished all he could with a company he spent two decades serving, Inafune set out on his own to create projects that he hoped would challenge the status quo of his homeland’s development process

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Inafune joined Capcom in 1987 and was soon assigned to the Mega Man project.

"My first job was the 'do anything guy' for Street Fighter," Inafune told IGN. "To be more detailed, I helped make the stage selection screen (Thailand was mine), and the character victory or defeat faces. Right after I was assigned to Mega Man, and started working on things like character design, sprite art, sprite animations, and PR illustrations."

Outside of Nintendo first party staples like Mario, Samus, and Link, very few video games characters invented during the 8-bit era remain as widely recognizable. But Inafune’s Mega Man design exists at kind of a perfect nexus of simplicity and complex articulation that allows the Blue Bomber to be aesthetically adapted between a variety of game genres as well as manga, toys, and cartoons. He’s one of a tiny and elite fraternity of third-party characters to join the Smash Bros. roster, and the only third party NES-era character to ever do so.

“ ...very few video games characters invented during the 8-bit era remain as widely recognizable.

The first Mega Man game wasn’t a breakout hit, but the team believed that with refinement the core concept could become something truly special. Infanune was one of a handful of true believers within Capcom who were so determined to see a Mega Man sequel that they built and programmed it in their off hours after finishing their regular workday.

Developed in semi-secrecy, Mega Man 2 succeeded on every level. It was technically spellbinding in comparison to its contemporaries, with immense enemies and very colorful, detailed character sprite work. The music includes several of the most recognizable, enduring themes of the NES era, and the team’s extremely careful level layout and enemy placement created situations that were challenging without feeling impossible. Mega Man 2’s triumphant critical and commercial success launched a franchise that now totals ten core installments and dozens of spin-off titles.

After Mega Man 2, Inafune’s signature design style also made its way into Disney’s Ducktales and Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers as well as future Mega Man titles. As the years passed and his responsibilities grew, he served in production roles in high-profile Capcom projects like Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Onimusha, the Street Fighter series, and Flagship’s The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap. But through it all, Inafune remained most intrinsically connected to Mega Man.

As the character transitioned onto the PlayStation, Inafune moved into the coordinating role of producer, first for the 2D platformer Mega Man 8, and then in two 3D Mega Man Legends adventures. Mega Man Legends abandoned the precision platforming of the classic series in favor of an over-the-shoulder perspective and more immersive 3D world design. While neither Legends game was particularly successful, both PlayStation titles were critically well-received and proved that Mega Man could inhabit more than one type of video game.

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That potential was more fully and successfully explored in the portable Mega Man Battle Network franchise, which helped introduce Mega Man to a new generation. Battle Network came hot on the heels of Pokemon, and its kid-centric design, fast pace, and silly story all felt aimed squarely at the same audience. Battle Network fused RPG and action elements in a simple to understand but delightfully-engaging combat system.

"It was my idea (concept)," said Infaune. "Also it was pretty much our first try to do a project with multi media approach. Anime, toyline, magazine (comic), and game itself. I had to look over all of these as producer. We collaborated with experts from all those companies, it’s hard to name any individuals." Battle Network was a success that spawned five sequels and its own secondary spin-off. At the same time Battle Network was in development, Inafune worked as producer on the handheld Mega Man Zero series, a collection of more traditional 2D action games.

Stepping Out

In 2010, Keiji Inafune was quoted in the New York Times saying, “I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind.” A month later, Inafune stepped away from Capcom, a company he had spent over two decades, stating, "It would probably be good for me to sit gracefully in this seat and become a leading figure in the industry." He continued, "However, I cannot do this. Settling down means death for a creator. As long as you are a creator, you cannot settle down."

He founded a small studio called Comcept which quickly began a series of cooperative co-development projects including Yaibi: Ninja Gaiden Z and Soul Sacrifice. At Penny Arcade Expo 2013, Inafune announced a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to facilitate the creation of Mighty No. 9, an action platformer stylistically reminiscent of the Mega Man series. Kickstarter was coming into its own as a launchpad for creative projects. Combining Paypal contributions and Kickstarter funds, Inafune’s Comcept raised over four million dollars in pledged revenue from tens of thousands of backers.

“ Released after many delays, Mighty No. 9 was poorly received by critics

Released after many delays, Mighty No. 9 was poorly received by critics. Inafune took responsibility: “You know, I want to word this in a way to explain some of the issues that come with trying to make a game of this size on multiple platforms [...] I'm kind of loath to say this because it's going to sound like an excuse and I don't want to make any excuses. I own all the problems that came with this game and if you want to hurl insults at me, it's totally my fault. I'm the key creator. I will own that responsibility.”

I asked Mr. Inafune what he considered his greatest successes with Mighty No. 9, and what he would do differently if given the opportunity. "It was a great success as a new challenge," he replied. "We learned and gained so much from this project. We should have done more detailed planning before and during the campaign. It was going well, but as the project went on our plan started to show flaws. Time is against you, and people are asking for more. It was hard to make additional promises during the campaign under pressures like these. If we can do it all over again, I think I would be way more careful with the planning."

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Two years after Mighty No. 9’s announcement, Comcept launched another Kickstarter campaign, this time for an adventure RPG called Red Ash. Red Ash failed to meet its $800,000 fundraising goal via Kickstarter, but mid-campaign, Comcept announced a partnership with Chinese publisher Fuze to guarantee the game’s completion. Red Ash continues in development, targeted for release in 2017.

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Keiji Inafune’s latest project is ReCore, a collaborative effort between Comcept and Armature Studio.

"Usually making a game with foreign dev companies can be a real challenge, and a lot of time needs to be devoted to making sure everyone is even on the same page," Said Mr. Inafune. "These challenges can come from something as simple as a language barrier, or a more complex issue such as different cultures clashing. In the case of ReCore this happened, but with a positive chemical reaction. We can agree/and understand each other, but still keep each sides’ own uniqueness."

"As for my personal favourite aspect of the game, then I have to say the world setting itself," he continued. "Because of the 'good chemistry' I mentioned above, the world has its ownuniqueness to it. You can show ReCore to anyone in any part of the world and they will have that kind of 'oh it looks new and interesting but somehow familiar in a way' feeling. This is due to the fact that both JP and US dev team kept their own idea/uniqueness alive in the final product. I love it when this happens."

ReCore’s early reviews are mixed - IGN awarded the game a 7.3 'Good' score - so we’ve yet to see whether this project represents Inafune’s first prominent success since leaving Capcom six years ago. Whether ReCore ultimately succeeds or fails, I can’t help but appreciate that Inafune could have simply have stayed relatively safe and increasingly isolated from design in the upper echelons of Capcom, but instead choose to step out and do what he loves on something closer to his own terms.

Over the course of a long career, he’s seen dozens of successes alongside some of missteps, but I can’t help but think the charming, polite man who told me about his dream of a game that the whole world would play still has something wonderful waiting up his sleeve.

Jared Petty is a Senior Editor at IGN. He really, really loves Mega Man. Chat with him on Twitter @pettycommajared