This is an English adaptation of my Japanese interview on “Mumeijin Interview” (無名人インタビュー). This English version is published with permission from the Mumeijin Interview (Anonymous Interview) editorial team. Japanese original: https://note.com/unknowninterview/n/n9e15300e0c8d
Once upon a time, in a certain town, there lived a craftsman named Yugi. Yugi made playthings for children.
One day, Yugi wondered: “Could these playthings do more than what people usually expect of them?”
The spinning tops Yugi made were not only for spinning. They could be bumped against each other, admired for their patterns, and even enjoyed for the sounds they made.
The villagers said: “A spinning top is for spinning. Nothing more, nothing less.”
But Yugi replied: “There may still be ways of enjoying it that no one has discovered yet.”
Yugi combined beanbag play with learning to count. For battledore-and-shuttlecock, he imagined a way of playing that emphasized cooperation and keeping the game going for a long time. The children’s eyes lit up. “I never knew you could play like this!” Before long, people from distant villages began to visit Yugi.
Yugi said: “Play is not limited to one fixed form. By discovering the possibilities hidden within it and creating new forms of fun, we can make people’s hearts richer.”
And so, the saying “Play has no end; its possibilities are endless” spread from that town. And so the story goes.
Or so I thought, writing this preface for the 1,290th Mumeijin Interview at 12:00 a.m. on March 16, 2026!!!!! [Preface: QBC / Yasuhiro Kuribayashi (writer, organizer of Mumeijin Interview)]
Age: Late 40s Gender: Male Occupation: Game designer / Founder & CEO, Lean 'N Games Co., Ltd. https://ln-g.com/en/ https://note.com/lean_and_games (in Japanese)
QBC: What do you do now?
KWSK: I work in game development, mainly in game planning and direction. My areas of specialization are game systems design and level design — designing gameplay systems and the content of stages.
QBC: What does that mean in concrete terms?
KWSK: Specifically, it includes things like designing the placement of enemy characters in a stage and fine-tuning game balance. At the same time, I design the overall flow of the game and the user experience, while also managing implementation progress and the project as a whole depending on my role.
QBC: Is the game genre fixed?
KWSK: Not really. Sometimes I make action games, sometimes RPGs, and sometimes even mahjong games.