Kenji Eno

Kenji Eno (飯野賢治, May 5, 1970 – February 20, 2013) was a Japanese video game designer and musician. He entered the game industry at the small development studio Interlink where he worked in the sound department. The first game he was involved with was the Famicom title Ultraman Club 2: Kaettekita Ultraman Club (1990) where he was a planner. When the company became too big, he left. In 1989 he had already formed the independent Japanese development studio EIM Ltd. where he created SD Hero Soukessen: Taose! Aku no Gundam (1990). He was also the sound director on the Famicom version of Altered Beast (1990).

After that he worked on an unreleased Superman game for Sunsoft. Because the design did not fit the license, it was eventually cancelled and he created the superhero game Sun Man instead. That one too was never finished, but working prototypes are available online. Released titles from that period are Time Zone (1991), Panic Restaurant (1992) and Casino Kid II (1993 - sound programming and music composition). The market forced him to create games with licensed characters, but he was not convinced of the potential and eventually closed down the studio.

He spent two years doing consulting work. At an event he convinced a president to invest in a new company, which led to the foundation of Warp Inc.. There, with a small team, he first approached The 3DO Company and created the following games: Totsugeki Kikan! Megadasu!! (1994 - also appears to be known as Totsugeki Karakuri Megadasu!!), Trip'd (1995), D (1995), Oyaji Hunter Mahjong (1995), Short Warp (1996), Enemy Zero (1997), Real Sound: The Wind's Regret (1997) and D-2 (1999).

Moving on from the 3DO to the PlayStation, because of a dispute over D with Sony (see trivia item), his company started to make games for the SEGA Saturn. D-2 was his last game.

Eventually the company was renamed Superwarp and intended to enter the IT business, but that never took off. From then, Eno worked in web design, ringtones, vending machines, and other technologies until he announced his return in 2006, having started a new development company, From Yellow To Orange.

Kenji Eno passed away on the 20th of February, 2013 at the age of 42 due to heart failure.