Masamoto Morita
From Sega Retro
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| Masamoto Morita |
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| Employment history:
Divisions:
Asahi Net (2006-01[2] – )
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| Role(s): Director, Designer |
Masamoto Morita (森田 真基) was a director at Sega who specialized in puzzle games.
Career
He joined in 1994 after being impressed by the 3D graphics of Virtua Fighter, wanting to work at a developer that provided opportunities to work in 3D, such as Sega AM3, but was instead assigned to Sega AM1, where he mainly developed fortune-telling games and puzzle games. The mass output and short development periods of the department instead gave him the opportunity to experience a variety of games in various stages, from design, to early development, to location testing, to final release.[2]
Under WOW Entertainment, he shifted his focus from arcades to console and handheld games, culminating in being the lead game designer for the 2004 PS2 game Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo, himself a massive fan of the original manga, and being satisfied with the high-budget product he was able to develop.[2]
Wanting to break out of the game industry, Morita became intriqued with the game-like experiences possible using browser services such as Google Maps. He ran the website for a 3D shoot em' up developed by Asahi Net's founder, which was his gateway into joining said company in January 2006. His most lasting contribution to the company is the learning management system manaba,[3] which he thought was a good service with poor presentation, so he used the skills he learned at Sega to refine features and redesign the user interface without sacrificing any of the base program.[2]
Production history
- Die Hard Arcade (Sega Titan Video; 1996)
- Die Hard Arcade (Saturn; 1997) — Special Thanks[4]
- Hanagumi Taisen Columns (Saturn; 1997) — Original Columns '97 Design (as 森田 真基)
- Taisen Tanto-R Sasissu! (Sega Titan Video; 1998) — Director
- Sega Tetris (NAOMI; 1999) — Director
- Sega Tetris (Dreamcast; 2000) — Director
- Columns Crown (Game Boy Advance; 2001) — Director[5]
- Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo (PlayStation 2; 2004) — Lead Game Designer[6]
Magazine articles
- Main article: Masamoto Morita/Magazine articles.
References
- ↑ Dreamcast Magazine, "2001-02 (2001-01-19,26)" (JP; 2001-01-05), page 95
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20181206063/
- ↑ https://asahi-net.co.jp/en/corporate/service/
- ↑ File:Die Hard Arcade Saturn credits.pdf
- ↑ File:Columns Crown GBA credits.pdf
- ↑ File:BloodWillTell PS2 US Manual.pdf, page 28