1-Up Studio

1-Up Studio Inc. (1-UPスタジオ株式会社) (stylized as "1-UP STUDIO"), formerly Brownie Brown Inc., (株式会社ブラウニー・ブラウン) is a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. It was founded on June 30, 2000 by Square alumni Shinichi Kameoka and Kouji Tsuda, who worked on the Mana series. The studio developed games for both Nintendo and Square Enix, including Magical Vacation and Sword of Mana.

On February 1, 2013, the company announced that due to their recent co-development efforts with Nintendo, they were undergoing a change in internal structure. As a result, the company took on its current name. At the same time, Kameoka left to form a new studio, Brownies.

Since the 2010s, the company has mainly worked as a support studio to Nintendo EPD, with its staff mainly consisting of artists, game designers, and programmers.[3]

History

1-Up was founded on June 30, 2000 as Brownie Brown, and consisted of many 2D artists formerly of Square. Founders Shinichi Kameoka and Kouji Tsuda had previously worked on the Mana series on the Game Boy and Super NES platforms.[4] They left Square due to "differing ideals." The studio's name came from the Brownies, fairies of Scottish folklore said to be hardworking and friendly, which Kameoka believed fit the team's style (a Brownie is featured in the studio's logo).[5] He elaborated that he wanted to make Game Boy Advance games, leading to the creation of Brownie Brown.[6]

The company's first original creation was the Japan-only Magical Vacation for the Game Boy Advance, which was released in 2001. Another popular title developed by Brownie Brown was Sword of Mana, which was created for and published by Square Enix. Thought to be a new title in the Seiken Densetsu series, it was actually an enhanced remake of the first game in the series, Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (known as Mystic Quest in Europe and Final Fantasy Adventure in North America).

The company has also been credited with the development of Mother 3 in a collaborative effort with Shigesato Itoi and HAL Laboratory for the Game Boy Advance, and Magical Starsign (Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align in Japan) for the Nintendo DS. Brownie Brown expressed interest in a Nintendo DS port of Mother 3 if Nintendo asked them to make it, and that they would like it to be enjoyed by fans abroad.[7]

While the company only developed games for Nintendo's handheld consoles up to this point, the company had previously announced a title for the GameCube, named Gofuku, which was scheduled for release in 2005 and announced alongside Magical Starsign.[8][9]

The company later released Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS, developed alongside Mistwalker,[10] and entered into the downloadable games market in 2009 with A Kappa's Trail, a DSiWare game.[11] Brownie Brown also worked on the DS title Livly Garden, based on a browser game from So-net Entertainment, released in Japan on January 28, 2010,[12] and aided in the development of two Level-5 titles, Professor Layton's London Life, a bonus game included with Professor Layton and the Last Specter, and Fantasy Life, for the DS and 3DS respectively.[13]

On February 1, 2013, the company announced on their original official website that, as a result of their recent development cooperation efforts with Nintendo, Brownie Brown had undergone changes in internal structure, which included officially changing its name to 1-Up Studio and becoming a support studio for Nintendo.[6][14] Upon the changes, Kameoka left 1-Up Studio to found Brownies, seeking to make original games.[6][15] In the same year, Yoshiaki Koizumi became part of the board of directors of the company as one of its directors.[16]

In 2020, the company moved its headquarters to the new Nintendo Tokyo Office building at Kanda Square, Tokyo with Nintendo EPD Tokyo, Nintendo PTD Tokyo, HAL Laboratory Head Office and Tokyo R&D Center, and Game Freak.[17]

Games developed or co-developed

External links

• Official website