Horii is CEO of his own company, Armor Project, a company that has an exclusive production contract with Square Enix,[4] a contract established with Enix before the company merged with Square, and is also one of the companies who co-own the Dragon Quest franchise alongside Square Enix.
Historyedit
Horii was born on January 6, 1954, in Awaji Island, Japan. He graduated from Waseda University's Department of Literature. He also worked as a freelance writer for newspapers, comics, and magazines, including the Famicom Shinkenvideo games column that ran in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1988.[5]
He then entered in an Enix-sponsored game programming contest, where he placed with Love Match Tennis, a tennis video game, motivating him to become a video game designer.[6]
Horii then created The Portopia Serial Murder Case by himself,[7] a game that later inspired Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) to enter the video game industry.[2][3] It is the first part of the Yuji Horii Mysteries trilogy, along with its successors Okhotsk ni Kiyu: Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin (1984) and Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (1985).
He was a fan of Apple PC role-playing games and was motivated to create Dragon Quest for ordinary gamers, who found such games difficult, and thus he worked on an intuitive control system,[9] influenced by his work on Portopia.[8]
^ abSzczepaniak, John (February 2011). "Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken". Retro Gamer. Archived from the original on September 26, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2011. (Reprinted at Szczepaniak, John. "Retro Gamer 85". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on April 12, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2011.)
^ abKasavin, Greg (March 21, 2005). ""Everything is Possible": Inside the Minds of Gaming's Master Storytellers". GameSpot. CNET Networks. p. 2. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
^"Top 100 Game Creators of All Time". IGN. Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
^Fujii, Daiji (2003). "Entrepreneurial Choices of Strategic Options in Japan's RPG Development" (PDF). p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 30, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2006.
^"Dragon Quest 30th Anniversary Special". Shmuplations. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^"1994 Game Developers - Interview Collection". Shmuplations. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^ abc"East and West, Warrior and Quest: A Dragon Quest Retrospective". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
^Graft, Kris (September 4, 2009). "Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Hori Headlines Awards". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 20, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
^Lada, Jenni (March 24, 2022). "Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Horii Gets GDC 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award". Siliconera. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.