Kenji Eno founded independent game development company WARP in 1994.

Known as an innovator, disrupter and a rebel within the video game industry during the mid-1990s. Kenji fashioned himself as a rockstar and sought to challenge the rigid culture and dynamics of the Japanese video game industry by putting more emphasis on the creators behind the games.

Kenji would also gain infamy for punching a Sony representative for vastly under shipping copies of his game, sneaking in mature graphic violence in a Teen rated game by tricking the Entertainment Software Rating Board and once again embarrassing Sony at their own press event. Announcing his company WARP’S latest game will no longer be available for the Playstation and will then be a Sega exclusive. Even morphing a Sony Playstation logo into a Sega Saturn logo as a bold statement.

This is Kenji Eno

• Kenji Eno and Hideo Kojima for Sega Saturn Magazine

Digital Actress

Laura, a concept developed by Eno was a fictional CG model that starred in 3 of his games as a separate character with a different story and setting. Just as an actor would star in multiple films of a director. Kenji would coin her a “Digital Actress”. Laura would even go on to model the front cover of High Fashion Magazine in Japan.

•  High Fashion Magazine August 1999 issue (no. 268)

• Laura modeling clothes by Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto  High Fashion Magazine August 1999 issue (no. 268)

Laura would first appear in D (1995)

D Taking place in 1997, Laura Harris investigates a hospital after learning her father went on a mass murdering spree and barricaded himself inside. The hospital morphs into a castle upon her arrival, which she must explore to find her father.

D being the first major release by Eno’s company WARP, Kenji wanted the game to be strikingly different from other horror titles of the time. So unbeknownst to even his design team at WARP, Kenji decided to add graphic scenes of violence and cannibalism but feared his publisher would require it to be heavily censored.

To get around this Kenji submitted a clean version for publisher approval and swapped out the clean version for the uncensored version before sending to manufactures. Kenji Eno would trick the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) to receive a Teen rating and D still became a commercial and critical success in Japan.

Kenji was no stranger to controversy.

With D being a hit for the Panasonic 3DO and Sega Saturn it was time for it to be ported to the Sony Playstation which was more popular in North America. Hype was building for the Playstation release of D and WARP’S sales team gathered 100,000 pre orders.

But because Sony had given their other titles manufacturing priority, Sony told Kenji they only manufactured 40,000 units. This angered Kenji, and he would later find out that truthfully they had only manufactured 28,000 units.

Kenji being an independent developer was highly upset for losing out on almost 70,000 sales due to Sony not printing enough copies.

Kenji would have a conversation about this with a representative of Sony.

“So I was talking to a guy at Sony, and this was toward the end of the year, and I said, “OK, I’m going to go to [Japanese electronics retailer] Bic Camera, and if I don’t see my game there, I’m going to punch you.” and they said, “No don’t worry about it. It’s going to be there.” And I went to Bic Camera and didn’t find it, so I actually did punch this guy — so that should tell you how mad I was. Interesting, interesting. I was originally creating Real Sound for Sony because, originally, I liked Sony. All of the electronics in my house were Sony branded. That’s the irony.”

2008 1UP Interview with Kenji Eno

Real Sound: A Video Game for the Visually Impaired

Kenji wasn’t all about kicking ass and taking names. He was also a very thoughtful person.

Kenji would be the first to design a video game that was fully accessible to the blind. Kenji initially said he wanted Real Sound: Kaze no Regret to be for the Sony Playstation. But Kenji decided to give exclusive rights to Sega when they came to agreement Sega would donate 1,000 Sega Saturns to 1,000 blind people in order for them to experience the game.

“I had a chance to visit people who are visually disabled, and I learned that there are blind people who play action games. Of course, [blind people are] not able to have the full experience, and they’re kind of trying to force themselves to be able to play, but they’re making the effort. So I thought that if you turn off the monitor, both of you are just hearing the game. So after you finish the game, you can have an equal conversation about it with a blind person. That’s an inspiration behind [Real Sound: Kaze no Regret] as well.”

2008 1UP Interview with Kenji Eno

Sony: The Enemy Zero

Now working on a new game starring his digital actress Laura, Sony wanted to extend an olive branch for under shipping D.

Sony wanted to negotiate for Kenji’s newest game Enemy Zero to be a Playstation exclusive. Kenji would agree and unveiled the new trailer for Enemy Zero at an industry only Sony exhibition.

Sony executives were excited for the trailer, until the shocking end. After displaying the new cutting edge graphics, a Playstation logo appears but then… it morphs into a SEGA logo. One of Sony’s biggest competitors at the time.

Shocking the executives Kenji would announce his newest game will be a Sega Saturn exclusive embarrassing Sony at their very own expo.

With the popularity and support of the Sega Saturn outside of Japan decreasing Enemy Zero would only go on to be a modest commercial success for WARP.

The creative and dynamic game mechanics of Enemy Zero frustrated some but intrigued many. After Real Sound: Kaze No Regret Kenji would experiment more with putting emphasis on sound in his game design. With Enemy Zero being a horror game in which you are stalked by invisible aliens on a spaceship and your only means to avoiding or killing them is to rely on sound.

End of an Era

Kenji burned his last bridge with Sony and stayed loyal to Sega through thick and thin, he would release the final game in his Laura trilogy D2 on the Sega Dreamcast.

The Overall design of D2 was a mixed bag of ideas. Combining elements of survival horror like Resident Evil, Role playing game elements like Final Fantasy, on rail’s shooting like Time Crises and long cinematic cut scenes similar to Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid.

But Kenji’s D2 the final game in the Laura trilogy would underperform in sales. The Sega Dreamcast would later discontinue on March 31st 2001 with Sega completely exiting the video game console market. Losing the 6th generation console wars to Sony’s Playstation 2. Prompting Kenji Eno to retire from gaming.

New Beginnings

But being a natural creative Kenji would move on to make his new Design and communications company FYTO: From Yellow to Orange.

With his new agency he would create advertisements, design hotels, restaurants and even develop technology for cell phones to purchase vending machine products, which was extremely innovative for the early 2000’s.

Return to Game Design

Kenji announced his return to game design in 2008 with the release of You me and the Cubes for the Nintendo Wii. Which would be his final game on a major console.

Kenji Eno would tragically pass away on February 20th, 2013 due to heart failure at the young age of 42. He leaves behind a legacy of creativity, innovation, fearlessness and rebellion. Creating space for game designers to be considered just as cool as any rockstar or film director, for people to think outside the box and to not let things like corporate entities dictate or get in the way of the creative process and to be truly determined to express your vision.

Kenji Eno’s Legacy Lives On.