Akira Okada (岡田 昌, Okada Akira) is the assistant director and game designer for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, and a character mentioned in the Lemniscate YouTube series. He would later go on to become the main director for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative.
He's known for previously working alongside Kotaro Uchikoshi, the director of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and scenario writer of nirvanA Initiative, on the game Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, serving as the game designer.
History[]
Okada began working at Spike Chunsoft, with his first known work as one of the writers for Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls in 2014. He eventually worked as the game designer of Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi, working mostly for the escape puzzle scenarios. The following year he worked on Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, the modern ports of the first two games in the series, as an editor.
Okada was later assigned as Assistant Director for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, along with retaining the role of Game Designer. After working with Uchikoshi on his previous game, he gained more confidence in his abilities and began focusing in delivering a game experience that could match the quality and style of Uchikoshi's.
With Uchikoshi's departure from Spike Chunsoft, Okada took over as series Director into production of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative.
Appearances[]
Works[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Assistant Director | Game Designer | |||
| 2014 | Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls | Credited as Writer | |||
| 2016 | Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma | Yes | Focused on escape scenarios | ||
| 2017 | Zero Escape: The Nonary Games | Credited as Editor | |||
| 2019 | AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2022 | AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative | Yes | Took over for Kotaro Uchikoshi | ||
Trivia[]
- According to an interview, Okada was influenced by the choice-based adventure works of Life is Strange, Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain, and the Walking Dead games when developing the concept and design for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES.
- Additionally, he was influenced by the urban legend of the "This Man" theory, which makes various cameo appearances in CAPTaiN, MaiN: 1, and MaiN: 2.
- His page on the database website Moby Games credits him for the games D (Dの食卓, lit. D's Dining Table) by Warp Inc. as Sales Manager and Maria: Kimitachi ga Umareta Wake (マリア 君たちが生まれた理由, lit. Maria: The Reason You Were Born) by Axela as Project Supervisor. It's unclear if the "Akira Okada" credited there is the same one who eventually worked at Spike Chunsoft, as there would be a 17 year gap between his supposed known work Maria (1997) and Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (2014).