Former GhostWire: Tokyo creative director Ikumi Nakamura announces new studio, Unseen

Ikumi Nakamura, former creative director on the imminent GhostWire: Tokyo, has revealed more details of her new studio. It’s called Unseen, with an office in Tokyo and remote staff, and they’re working on a new IP that can work across different mediums, not just games.

Here’s a video, released by Unseen, which introduces the philosophy of the studio and contains glimpses of the (still empty) office space.

“At Unseen, we want to build a multicultural team – a cross-cultural world made up of international staff,” Nakamura told IGN in a video interview. “I want [the office] to be a place where developers can come and go as they please, like nomads. It’s a new style of office.”

“I don’t want to think only in terms of video games; I want to make a new IP that can work as a variety of entertainment media,” Nakamura said. “For example anime, education, apparel… I’d like to make a game that can have an impact on those kinds of media too, and to grow carefully.”

“I can’t say much, but we are putting a lot of care into the scenario and characters of our first game,” she continues. “In this day and age, it feels so important to celebrate individuality. I want to make a game with characters that reflect real-life personalities and minorities, with an open-minded setting that represents multiple cultures.”

While there’s no specific details on what project the studio is working on, Nakamura does talk about her own interests. “I think I haven’t changed much since I was a kid. I like mystery, I like horror films, I love zombies, and the supernatural and science fiction – I find these genres fascinating, and I’m good at them, so I want to keep working on games related to these subjects.”

I’m always interested when people are setting up a new studio, because those early decisions seem essential in establishing a good company culture. I like Unseen’s nomadic, cross-cultural plans.

Nakamura came to public attention after appearing onstage to introduce GhostWire: Tokyo at E3 in 2019. Her brief appearance was so popular it prompted Nakamura to reconsider her career, and she left Tango Gameworks shortly afterwards to spend time visiting other development studios. She announced her intention to open a new studio in March of last year. Prior to her work on GhostWire, Nakamura also contributed to The Evil Within 1 and 2, as well as Okami at Clover Studio and Bayonetta at PlatinumGames.