Shinichi Kameoka

"Just like movies and manga have done in the past, I would like to continue working hard until the day everyone can confidently refer to games as “culture”."

- Shinichi Kameoka, Brownies company greeting

Shinichi Kameoka is one of the founders of Brownie Brown (presently 1-UP Studio), the other three being Kōji Tsuda, Tomoki Anazawa, and Nobuyuki Inoue. Kameoka is responsible for the character designs, pixel art, animations, and production of the Magical Vacation series. On January 31, 2013, he retired from 1-UP Studio to form a new studio called Brownies later that year, and is currently its president.

Beyond the Magical Vacation series, Kameoka has done artistic work for titles such as SaGa Frontier, various Mana series instalments (most notably Secret, Legend, and Sword of Mana), and more recently, Brownies' original EGGLIA series. He is also in the credits of Mother 3 as a producer. As an artist, he publishes his work under the pseudonym "Kameoka Shinta" (かめおか慎太).

Biography
Not much about Kameoka's life before 1991 has been made public, but he is known to have graduated from Tama Technical High School in Fussa, Tokyo, around 1990.

Early career (c. 1991-1999)
Circa 1991, Kameoka joined Square Co., Ltd. after working as a manga artist for Monthly Shōnen Magazine and Big Comic Spirits, in which he illustrated comic strips influenced by yankī subculture. His first known contribution to a Square video game was debugging for Final Fantasy IV. He originally applied to the company as a graphics artist, but by the time he was recruited, Final Fantasy IV was nearing the end of its development.

Kameoka's debut as a game character designer and sprite artist started with the second Mana series title, Seiken Densetsu 2, known in English as Secret of Mana. He was given this position when Hiromichi Tanaka saw his concept art of the player characters Randi and Primm. This also took place following the cancellation of the Super Famicom CD-ROM extension, and after Chrono Trigger's development was extended due to Akira Toriyama's preoccupation with Dragon Ball. During this hiatus, the team behind Chrono Trigger — under the working title "Maru Island" — was tasked with the production of Secret of Mana. They borrowed many concepts that were left behind from the original Maru Island project, mainly those that had been scrapped on account of the CD-ROM's cancellation. Roughly two years later during the development of the third Mana title, Trials of Mana, Kameoka reprised his role as lead character designer and sprite artist, though he mostly provided draft artwork that would be handed off to Nobuteru Yuki.

Later on, Kameoka was tasked with being an art director for SaGa Frontier. Kōji Tsuda was paired alongside Kameoka soon after, as he rejected working on art direction for Final Fantasy VII. While working on SaGa Frontier, Tsuda and Kameoka had difficulty understanding the principles of series creator Ashitoki Kawazu, who let the creative team do what they wanted with little direction or consistency.

Legend of Mana (1999)
By the time SaGa Frontier was completed, Tsuda talked with Mana series creator Koichi Ishii about wanting to produce another Mana title, that being Legend of Mana. According to Tsuda, he and Ishii felt as though Legend of Mana was a way to express ideas that were not feasible during the production of Final Fantasy VII or SaGa Frontier. Kameoka was also relieved by the Legend of Mana team's foundation, being able to draw characters to his liking once again. The game prioritized visuals over game mechanics, opposite of SaGa Frontier, and Kameoka has alleged that many features and mechanics were last-minute decisions. He considered the game's completion to be a miracle, satisfied that the non-linear and varied storylines managed to fit into place by the end.

Leaving Square and Brownie Brown's creation (2000)
Before and after the release of Legend of Mana, Square was seeing excellent sales in Final Fantasy VIII, and planned on using its profits to increase the production costs for its full CG movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. In January 2000, the company responded to the commercial success of Final Fantasy VIII by focusing development resources on its Final Fantasy series and 3D graphics software. According to Kameoka, he was told that if Legend of Mana hit a certain number in sales, his team could begin working on a sequel. However, due to internal circumstances within the company, Kameoka was relocated to the Final Fantasy XI team.

Alongside the relocation of employees, Square announced a policy that reduced the development of 2D games in favor of 3D Final Fantasy titles. Having contributed to 2D Mana games up until that point, Kameoka left Square with Tsuda, Anazawa, and Inoue to form their own company, Brownie Brown, in February 2000. With the investment of Nintendo Co., Ltd., who were about to release the 2D handheld Game Boy Advance, Brownie Brown Co., Ltd. was established on June 30, 2000, with Shinichi Kameoka as its CEO.

Magical Vacation (2001)
Using Square's policy of "Create Something New" as a creative template, Kameoka and the other members frequently held meetings to discuss the mechanics of their upcoming title, Magical Vacation. He would be the lead character designer, pixel artist, and animator for the game. At this time, Brownie Brown did not have its own headquarters, so plannings sessions were held in family restaurants. Due to the ten-person staff and limited resources, the team's main goal was to release their game on schedule to earn some credibility. In retrospect, Kameoka believed these complications made the final product look rather uninteresting. He compared it to Camelot's RPG Golden Sun, since its combat featured dynamic angles and flashy effects.

Sword of Mana (2003)
Those who stayed with SquareSoft, which became Square Enix in 2003, were merged with the developers behind games such as Chrono Cross and Parasite Eve II. In turn, Square chose to outsource the production of the fifth Mana series instalment, Sword of Mana (an expanded remake of the original Seiken Densetsu title, Final Fantasy Adventure/Mystic Quest) to Brownie Brown. Kameoka was the lead character designer, scenario arranger, and production producer for this title.

Mother 3 (2002-2006)
Brownie Brown assisted HAL Laboratory in the development of the third Mother series title, Mother 3, wherein Kameoka was one of the producers. The June 2013 issue of Nintendo Dream revealed that in 2002, Kameoka had drawn prototype designs for the game's twin protagonists Lucas and Claus, the appearances of whom were drastically different from their present designs. A second photo in the issue showed concept screenshots of in-game locations, with a graphical style that was near identical to Magical Vacation. Although Mother 3 was never localized outside of Japan, Kameoka has supported the idea of an overseas release in recent years.

Art style
Shinichi Kameoka's art style is widely recognized for its exaggerated high-fantasy fashion, coloring style, and anatomical proportions. In his earlier years as a character designer, especially during his time working for Mana titles in the 1990s, Kameoka's main artistic medium was watercolor (or acrylic paint on occasion) and ink on paper, plus hatching for volume and texture. The line art in his final drafts incorporated black and colored lines to distinguish and emphasize particular parts of the body, mostly in a character's hair and facial regions. Between late 1999 and 2003, his style of shading and blending became a lot smoother, evident in his character art for Chocobo Stallion and Magical Vacation. Kameoka has also stated that he designs characters "in reverse" when drawing full-body artwork, since he believes a character's role within a game's setting can be determined based on the style of their shoes.

In the mid-2000s, Kameoka began producing draft artwork through digital means, as seen in the scrapped Game Boy Advance remake of Secret of Mana, Magical Starsign, and Friends of Mana. During this era, his line art was predominantly black, with both coloring and shading being presented through flatter, bolder tones. Additionally, the head and limb ratios took a significant approach towards realism and balance, thus making the character appear more mature. Following Brownies' inception in 2013, he has steered back towards producing art traditionally for EGGLIA, as well as artwork for the 2021 Legend of Mana remaster.

Trivia

 * He voiced Pico's battle shouts in Magical Starsign.
 * His preferred Magical Vacation element is blade.
 * Peche, Kirsche, and Candy are his favorite characters in the Magical Vacation series; Peche for her design, Kirsche for his personality, and Candy for her character arc.
 * For his artwork, Kameoka takes great inspiration from Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Leiji Matsumoto, Fusako Kuramochi, and Makoto Kobayashi.
 * Mother series scenario writer Shigesato Itoi gave Kameoka the nickname "T-Shirt President" (Tシャツ社長) during Mother 3's development. This is because he exclusively wears a rotation of black Paul Smith T-shirts.
 * One of his favorite foods is condensed milk. At a Brownie Brown anniversary party in 2009, he was given a condensed milk cake with "T-Shirt President" written on it.