[RM2K] [RM2K3] [RMXP] [RMVX] [RMVX ACE] [RMMV] YOJI OJIMA, INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY

So the other day I was trying to figure out exactly how Kadokawa/Degica Games/Enterbrain want to be credited because I was throwing together a WIP credits .txt for Malleus Maleficarum and in virtually every area I have to (or at least, should and will) credit them and I didn't want to be writing out something as unwieldy as

Kadokawa Corp/Degica Games/Enterbrain

five times in my credits.

None of this is particularly interesting but it IS context for how I learned what very little I know about Yoji Ojima and I'm wondering if y'all can help me learn more or find this anywhere near as interesting as I do. I will probably mirror this thread on the "official" rpg maker webzone because I think they might know better there.

So, anyway, the Degica Games website attributes RPG Maker MV to the following:

"© 2015 KADOKAWA CORPORATION./YOJI OJIMA"

Yoji Ojima, I thought, where have I seen that name before? It feels weird seeing it listed next to Kadokawa. I didn't realize this until this year but Kadokawa corp is actually pretty huge. I checked out a few new anime series this year I really liked and a couple of them were produced by Kadokawa.

On my own, I managed to work out where I'd seen the name before. He's the creator of the (generally pretty solid) "community basic" plugins that come with the current(ish) version of MV. So this is some guy that worked on the code base for MV, clearly, but did he like...MAKE RPG Maker MV essentially BY HIMSELF? That's what the Copyright Kadokawa/Yoji Ojima seemed to imply. Either that or he Intrigued, I plugged his name into the google machine.

AND GOT A HILARIOUS MEME VIDEO THAT TOTALLY FOOLED ME

author=Sidewinder
You know the guy in the video is speaking Spanish, right?

Considering I SPEAK spanish I really freaking should have, but no. I failed. All I heard was them speaking "foreign" the first time around, and the second time around I was like "hmm, that doesn't sound like Japanese" but in my defense it is extra hard to recognize a language when the speakers are laughing uncontrollably.

I admit in general I was pretty gullible here. It was just that a) that video is like the only result when you get when you Google him in english (the kanji tip is a good one, Avee, although at the time I didn't have his name in kanji, just english) and b)...to be honest, like, as a meme video it worked really well because everything being said in the video is what I've kind of always thought (or feared?) the makers of RPG Maker think about us.

I also thought that he looked Hispanic but I've seen Japanese men with similar skin tone and features. I'm going to edit my OP and then swoop back around to edit this post.

author=Archeia_Nessiah
Yoji Ojima is the creator of RPG Maker. He does not own KADOKAWA. That video is just a parody based on a meme. And yes, he's a solo programmer.

Edit: the creator of RPG Maker period? Like going all the way back to RPG Maker 2000 RPG Maker 95 (I often forget that one exists because I was 6 when it came out, my first one was 2k and I often lapse into thinking that's where the series started)? Did this guy actually CODE all of them? That's pretty amazing. Also, creator as in it was his idea?

Nessy, I feel like you're the closest of anyone to being in a position of being able to answer, since you're the grand high poobah of RPG Maker web and I'd imagine part of that job involves liaising with the Japanese community and Kadokawa/Degica itself. If I'm hearing you right and this guy is the creator of RPG Maker, he is probably the single biggest (albeit indirect) influence on my life outside of my immediate family. And that's crazy. Not how much of my life is RPG Maker--that's crazy in its own way--but that I'm ONLY JUST NOW learning the name of someone whose software I have put countless tens of thousands of hours into using for the past 17-18 years.

EDIT: actually, when you consider that w/o his software I would never have played A Blurred Line, Hero's Realm, Iron Gaia, Sunset Over Imdahl, The Way, Three The Hard Way, etc. etc. ad nauseum we can go ahead and get rid of the "probably".

1) Why on God's green Earth is this the very first time I'm hearing the man's name?
2) Does he interact with the community ever? English-speaking or otherwise.

Thanx for the info! (You are very well informed.)

That's still incredibly impressive and it's still really weird that I didn't hear of a man who's had such a huge indirect impact on my entire adult life until 20 years after I started using his software tool to create countless games.