"Mourning Yoshitaka Tamaki"

"Mourning Yoshitaka Tamaki" (「追悼 玉木美孝」) is a memorial written by Climax director and programmer Kan Naito and published in December 2023 by Beep21 following the October announcement of Shining series artist Yoshitaka Tamaki's death in July that year.

English Translation

Beep21 Special Contribution: Kan Naito, "Mourning Yoshitaka Tamaki"

December 19, 2023, 12:30 p.m.

Mourning Yoshitaka Tamaki

I first met Tamakichi in April 1990. We’d only just introduced ourselves when I became absorbed making a ventilation duct out of cardboard. I was making it for the sleeping room I’d just set up in the office because it didn’t have any air conditioning. I wasn’t following any plan or instructions—I’m like that when programming games, too—when out of nowhere Tamakichi took out a knife and, without a word, began cutting up the cardboard. His skill with a knife was really impressive and his cuts were of a totally different quality than my sloppy work. "I guess you’re good with your hands, aren’t you?" "Yeah, well . . ." That was our first conversation. I found out that he was into mechanical stuff like motor bikes and cars, and we hit it off immediately. Tamakichi and I were the same age. I was fifteen when I entered the industry, and most of the people around me were older. No one else was our age, so that’s one of the reasons we became close. A lot of people called him "Tama-chan", but it was with no small affection that I knew him as Tamakichi.

As you know, Shining and the Darkness was the first game I worked on once I went independent.

It was the 3D dungeon crawler that we’d yearned for. For Tamakichi, you could say it was his first foray into professional game design. It was impossible on the Mega Drive to render real 3D environments like you can today, but we were determined to make the animation smooth inside the dungeon. It was challenging representing the town in 3D, so we ended up making it 2D instead, but Tamakichi came to us with a sketch of a bar scene. The counter was drawn using bold perspective with angles that gave such a sense of depth that even though it was 2D, it gave the impression of being 3D. It was just what we needed for Shining and the Darkness. There was a doorway to another room behind the counter. We were able to stage a greater sense of depth by having characters and guests change size as they came and went from the room.

He drew this enigmatic character named Yogurt. Tamakichi didn’t just do illustrations—he also thought up detailed backstories for his characters, and Tamakichi even came up with this inscrutable backstory for Yogurt that he was personally very proud of. With that, Yogurt became a huge hit with the staff, and the character made an appearance in Shining Force, where I even went to the trouble of programming Yogurt to show up in certain places as a secret. When all was said and done, Yogurt had become a beloved character, and we ended up making a life-sized(?) costume of Yogurt to wear to a gaming expo for the reveal of Climax Landers (Dreamcast, September 15, 1999).

Lyle and Friday from Land Stalker are other characters emblematic of Tamakichi. So much so that we put Friday on our logo, and even today there’s a lot of people who still draw Lyle.

Since he was so shy, he never showed his true self to the media, but he had a strong sense of duty and empathy. He wouldn’t accept work that he didn’t agree with. But when he did take something on, he put everything into seeing it through. He would draw until he was exhausted, and more than once I drove him home to his house in Kanagawa in the middle of the night. On days when the journey home was too much, I would take him to my house, which was near the office, and get a bath ready for him. If too much time passed without him coming back out, I’d go in to check on him only to find him lying in the bathtub fast asleep. It makes me wonder how many people became intrigued by Tamakichi seeing how hard he worked.

Tamakichi worked together with me on many of my games, and he created many of their characters. It is truly unfortunate that we will no longer be able to work together to make another game, but in my heart and the hearts of his fans, I’m sure that Lyle and Friday are going to go on having adventures.

Thank you, Tamakichi.

Sayonara, Tamakichi.

We Await Everyone’s Messages of Remembrance and Mourning

The news of his passing in July 2023 came as a shock.

We pray for Yoshitaka Tamaki’s happiness in the afterlife, and we await everyone’s expressions of warmth.

If you’re OK with us publishing your memorial posts, please include within them the hashtags #Beep21 and #YoshitakaTamaki.

Thank you very much.