Pac-Man Creator Leaves Namco Bandai for... School!

Posted Jul 14, 2006 at 1:11AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Wii, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 Tags: Famitsu, Japan, Namco, Pac-Man, Walt Disney

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What do you next after creating the No.1 video game of all time ("Top 100 Videogames" in the The Killer List of Videogames) and working for the same company for 30 freaking years? For Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man,  the next step is going back to school to teach. Wow, that's like having Walt Disney teaching you to draw!

After lecturing regularly at several universities Iwatani says he realized the importance of teaching. "I experienced first hand the passion today's young people have for games. So, when TPU (Tokyo Polytechnic University) told me they were beginning a new course on games, and asked me to become a full-time lecturer, I decided to do it."

Sure, he still wants to make games but he thinks its more important to pass on the know-how he had accumulated over the last 30 years to the next generation. Iwatani hopes other veteran game designers will follow in his footsteps and help train the next-gen game makers.

Out of his 30 years of experience, what would be the most important lesson he wants his students to learn? The importance of communication in the workplace. "Game development is a group activity, so communication is crucial," Iwatani said. "On the other hand, it's a creative process, so assertiveness is necessary. I hope to foster in my students a balance between assertiveness and cooperation."

Via Gamespot

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Comments 

 

# Huh! — PHae 2006-07-14 03:14

Why does the picture say puck man.

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# w00tbike 1st comment — Guest 2006-07-14 03:14

He's going to be one of the best teachers lucky bastards

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# @#1.. — youresam 2006-07-14 03:16

If memory serves me right, Puck Man was its first name (I believe in japan?), but it was later changed to PacMan.

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# ??? — Cheater912 2006-07-14 03:23

So what????

Let him go to school...

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# No. 3 is right. — Guest 2006-07-14 03:26

youresam is right. It was changed to PacMan, for what reason, I think we all know. ;)

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# yeah — Guest 2006-07-14 03:34

let him pursue his dreams and finish school pac-man is not gunna last forever he better have somthing to fall back on.yeah why does pac man have a penis nose and named puck man?i think some sexual subliminals.lol

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# o__O; — Jx1 2006-07-14 03:53

30 years. woow. that's a long time.

so PacMan was originally called Puck-man? lol!!

funny, love the lil poster.

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# ... — Guest 2006-07-14 04:02

The comment made it look like going to school is a bad thing. Who care Alaric S.! If the man wants to go to school and teach - let him do it! Don't treat it like something negative. I bet a lot of people can learn from him (plus I bet he'd get paid decent too).

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# puck man — Guest 2006-07-14 06:51

puck man is the japenese name

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# Am I not "all"?? — RaiderX 2006-07-14 09:38

" 5. » No. 3 is right.



youresam is right. It was changed to PacMan, for what reason, I think we all know. ;)"



I have no idea why it was changed? please elaborate. :/

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# @raiderx — Guest 2006-07-14 10:25

puck man f-uck man ^^

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# . — Guest 2006-07-14 22:59

in japan it was first released as puck-man, they were afraid that when released in US it would become a grafitti thing (i dont get it either, i read it off a site) ("puck", the demon-thingy from the shakespeare novel thingy, "midsummer nights dream") so they renamed it to pacman.

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