Always a pleasure to have dinner with Keiichiro Toyama and Fumito Ueda. It’s practically a perennial tradition at this point. Toyama-san is signing a #Slitterhead poster and Ueda-san is signing the rare ‘Guardian of Retail’ Dualshock controller package. 👽 #Tokyo

Paying it forward to the young minds of Aotearoa New Zealand at the Working In The Cloud tech event in Wellington today.

At the Porirua Careers Event, speaking to young minds (off-cam) about their interest in working in the video game industry and what they need to do to succeed. Trying to pass along that knowledge and experience to the future.

Got to spend quality time with composer Hitoshi Sakimoto last week (11 hours of interviews, dinner, and pure vibing). Which one of this prolific composer’s soundtracks is your favorite? Vagrant Story, Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Advance, FFXII, Tactics Ogre, Vanillaware????

Didn’t really expect to see an official Sonic the Hedgehog Lamborghini in the timeline today, but here we are.

Met up with Ken Ishii in Tokyo. Ken is *the* progenitor of Japanese techno and electronic music. He’s as important to Japan’s electronic music history as Yellow Magic Orchestra, and is constantly pushing the envelope where technology and music combine. That said, we’re cooking up something cool.

My friend who works at SEGA helped me get my NiGHTS Into Dreams soundtrack signed by the composer, Tomoko Sasaki, which is something I’ve been wanting to achieve since the game released 29 years ago. Thanks to my friend for making that dream become reality.

Yoko Shimomura, composer of Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve, Street Fighter II, and Kingdom Hearts tagged up this copy of the Super Mario RPG soundtrack for me yesterday. She is such a jovial, energetic person. A real ball of energy. ❤️💛🧡

It’s a genuine pleasure to call Japanese techno legend, Ken Ishii, a friend. I first met and interviewed him in 2006, and here we are nearly 20 years later in Tokyo hatching our latest plans and collaborations. #KenIshii

With Final Fantasy composer, camping enthusiast, UFO connoisseur, pizza maker, and world traveler Nobuo Uematsu, and his conTIKI bandmate (and game and anime voice actress) Rie Tozuka, at his Dog Ear Records studio in Tokyo.

I was one of the first editors to champion the #KingdomHearts series, and series creator Tetsuya Nomura has always appreciated that and given me interviews when he would turn down other website requests at events like E3. I’ve always appreciated him making time thru the years to meet over coffee.

Met the stone-cold legend game designer, Naoto Ohshima, aka creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, Blinx the Cat, NiGHTS Into Dreams, and more at Arzest headquarters in Tokyo. Check out the Sonic he drew on my copy of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Happy to see the news about my dear departed best friend Kenji Eno and the Eno55 project, which collects 55 tracks composed by him, solo, and with his band Norway, coming out via the Eno estate and @lostincult.co.uk in the near future. #KenjiEno #Eno55

Dreaming of a vacation on the beach with my besties. #Sonic #Mario #Tidus #Sora

Jamming with Sonic the Hedgehog sound creator, Jun Senoue at #SEGA HQ in Tokyo.

With legendary game music composer and self-professed computer geek, Hitoshi Sakimoto. He’s composed the soundtracks for Final Fantasy Tactics, Valkyria Chronicles, Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon’s Crown, and so much more. Had a fateful meeting and dinner with him last night.

With longtime friends Simon Cox and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, in Tokyo.

We’re at GDC!