Katsuhiro Harada Discusses the Tekken Series, Live Events, and More | Game Maker’s Notebook Podcast

Shuhei Yoshida chats with longtime producer of the TEKKEN series, Katsuhiro Harada. Together they discuss Harada-san’s journey from working at a Namco arcade to joining the development team for TEKKEN; how the series has evolved to target a global audience; the importance of live events to the growth of the fighting game community; and his thoughts on the future of the genre and game development in general. Podcast Links: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: RSS: Website: Podcast Playlist: Follow us: 0:00 Introduction 2:16 Interview Start 3:47 From Working in Arcades to Tekken 12:04 Working as a Producer for Tekken 14:21 Doing Motion Capture for the Characters 15:43 American Fighting Game Tournaments and becoming the face of Tekken 20:34 Transitioning from Arcades to Home Consoles 27:17 Character Identity for a Global Fanbase 33:18 Introducing Online Versus Mode 37:18 9 Years Between Tekken 7 and 8 42:20 Casual and Hardcore Fighting Game Communities 47:02 Arcade Quest Mode and Game Tutorials 51:30 Developing Ghost Battle System 59:33 The Rise of Esports and Regional Communities 1:03:56 The Future of Fighting Games 1:11:59 Thoughts on Young Developers 1:16:33 Harada-san’s Goals for Supporting the Future of Games