Michio Okamura

Okamura in 2002

Occupation| Video game artist
Employer| Blizzard Entertainment
Known for| Artwork for Diablo

Michio Okamura is a computer game developer and artist. He was the lead artist for the popular computer game Diablo, and senior artist on Diablo II. He designed many of the game's characters, including the title character. He is currently the art director for Rumble Entertainment.

## Biography

[edit]

Okamura began his artistic career as a comic book artist on Reggie Byers' Shuriken, as well as Comico's adaptations of Robotech. Afterwards he joined Condor Inc. as an artist working on the Sega Genesis title Justice League Task Force.[1][2] At the time, Okamura did not have experience using the computer, so he drew most of the art on Justice League Task Force by hand.[1]

He worked at Blizzard North on the Diablo franchise for over a decade. He was the Lead Artist for the first version of Diablo and created the concept design for the majority of the characters and monsters in the game, including Diablo himself.[2]

On Diablo II, Okamura was a Senior Artist, and created character and monster concept designs, including the second incarnation of Diablo.

After Diablo II, Okamura worked as an Art Director establishing the pipeline and creative direction for several internal projects, and then joined Castaway Entertainment in 2004. In 2005, he founded and was president of Hyboreal Games with former Blizzard North employees Eric Sexton and Steven Woo.[3][4] Hyboreal changed its name to U.I. Pacific, Okamura was the Creative Director. Okamura is currently working as an art director for Rumble Entertainment.[5][6]

## Works

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* Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
* Diablo II (2000), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
* Diablo (1997), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
* Justice League Task Force (1995), Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Craddock, David L. (2013-09-16). "The perfect storm: How Blizzard North channeled chaos to design the original Diablo". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
2. ^ a b Bailey, Kat (2015-12-24). "In Their Own Words: An Oral History of Diablo II With David Brevik, Max Schaefer, and Erich Schaefer". USgamer. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
3. ^ Carless, Simon (2005-11-28). "Gamasutra - The Art & Business of Making Games". www.gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
4. ^ Loughrey, Paul (2005-11-29). "Blizzard North veterans form another independent studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
5. ^ "The Rumble Team". www.rumblegames.com. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
6. ^ "Michio Okamura". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2019-10-25.

## External links

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* Michio Okamura at IMDb
* Michio Okamura at MobyGames
* Official website for Hyboreal Games (archived)
* Official website for U.I. Pacific (archived)

* v
* t
* e

Blizzard Entertainment

A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard

Diablo|

* Diablo (1997)
* Diablo II (2000)
* Resurrected
* Diablo III (2012)
* Diablo Immortal (2022)
* Diablo IV (2023)

Overwatch|

* Overwatch (2016)
* Overwatch 2 (2023)

StarCraft|

* StarCraft (1998)
* Remastered
* StarCraft II (2010)

Warcraft|

* Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994)
* Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995)
* Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002)
* Reforged
* World of Warcraft (2004)
* Hearthstone (2014)
* Warcraft Rumble (2023)

Other games|

* RPM Racing (1991)
* The Lost Vikings (1992)
* Rock n' Roll Racing (1993)
* The Death and Return of Superman (1994)
* Blackthorne (1994)
* Justice League Task Force (1995)
* The Lost Vikings 2 (1997)
* Heroes of the Storm (2015)

Esports|

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People|

* Allen Adham
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* Stieg Hedlund
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* Sam Lantinga
* Chris Metzen
* Michael Morhaime
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* Michio Okamura
* Rob Pardo
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* Greg Street
* Matt Uelmen
* Alyssa Wong
* Patrick Wyatt

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* Battle.net
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* Echoes of War
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