Aya Kyogoku

Aya Kyogoku (京極あや, born c. 1981) is a Japanese video game director and producer, who oversees the development of the, as the current manager of (EPD) Group No. 5. Kyogoku directed  and.

Kyogoku joined Nintendo in September 2003 as a scriptwriter for The Legend of Zelda series prior to working on Animal Crossing. Her first entry in the was  in 2008, where she undertook the role of sequence director.

Since, Kyogoku has been in charge of development of the , and has been involved in the development of every title since. With Kyogoku as director, both and  broke sales records for the series, with the latter selling nearly as many copies as all titles in the  combined.

Biography
Aya Kyogoku was born circa 1981 in,. She began her career in the video game industry in 2000 working at, as an assistant planner and director. After joining Nintendo in September 2003, Kyogoku served as scriptwriter for The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the latter of which earning her a in 2007.

Work on the
Kyogoku first began working on the in 2008 with  as a sequence director, where she was responsible for scriptwriting and character dialogue. After working on, Kyogoku was promoted to oversee development of the entire.



Alongside Isao Moro, Kygoku jointly directed between 2008 and 2012. Kyogoku made history as the first female director at and led to the introduction of a team made up of "half men and half women" for, a revolutionary first for Nintendo's internal development teams.

Regarding the development of, the new direction of the series sought to challenge the "conventions of Animal Crossing", which Kyogoku states was in direct response to the underwhelming commercial and critical performance of. "It was clear the series had challenges we needed to overcome," she explained.

Kyogoku states the development team closely examined long-held gameplay conventions from previous titles and, and series fatigue, when considering the core of the  and "what players found enjoyment in and kept them coming back for long stretches of time."

In 2015, Kyogoku produced Animal Crossing spin-off title with Hisashi Nogami, and served as director of. Kyogoku candidly stated that the development of both and  began solely for the purpose of producing  amiibo, "We were confident that if there [were Animal Crossing amiibo], it would be really cute. Honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing amiibo. We wanted the company to make them, so that's why we made a game that works with them." In 2016, Kyogoku served as producer of.

As of 2019, development had began on the next main-series Animal Crossing title, which Kyogoku was the sole director of. At this time, Kyogoku had also been promoted to manager of Group No. 5, a position previously held by Hisashi Nogami. Kyogoku provided commentary for the first gameplay demonstration for at E3 2019. was released in 2020, becoming the best-selling game in the, and the second best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch. Kyogoku attributed the success of and the  as a whole to "its ability to make each instalment different enough from the last, while also retaining the core appeal of the series."

The Legend of Zelda series

 * 2004: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures – Scriptwriter
 * 2006: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – Scriptwriter


 * 2008: – Sequence director
 * 2012: – Director (with Isao Moro)
 * 2013: Animal Crossing Plaza – Producer
 * 2015: – Producer (with Hisashi Nogami)
 * 2015: – Director
 * 2016: - Producer (with Hisashi Nogami)
 * 2017: – Supervisor (with Hisashi Nogami)
 * 2020: – Director

Super Smash Bros. series

 * 2018: – Original game supervisor