Hey everyone, I’m Daryl Allison, a Sr. Producer relatively new to Capcom. This is my first contribution to the community and I’m looking forward to it being a regular thing. Do what you can do to bug our Community guys, asking for more. Make them park at my desk and demand more from me, and I‒ll do what I can to keep it coming. One of the roles of a Sr. Producer is overseeing the development of a few projects at a time, one of which I‒m fortunate to say is Okami Wii. Basically, I‒m the main guy between the developer, Ready At Dawn, and Capcom. Ultimately, my role on the project is upholding the highest of standards that Okami achieved on the PS2 while bringing it to the Wii, and seeing how much further we can push it while adding the extra touches that the Wii uniquely provides. The Celestial Brush and the Wii Remote were made for each other.

What titles have you worked on in the past? Did you work on the PS2 version of Okami?

Can I say yes and we can all pretend I did? Creating games like Okami is what we all dream of. Okami is one of the many reasons why I joined Capcom and why I‒m honored to be part of this company. (I know, it sounds like my publicist wrote it for me, but seriously, we all know it – we‒re talking about Capcom here!) Typically, having to work on a port is not the most pleasurable experience, but Okami has proven an exception. The game, its story, its characters, and – to me especially – its amazing art style, it’s a joy to be able to have a part in it every day. My career started back in 1995 as a tester. I was lucky enough to do some gameplay tuning on two games, BattleSport and Captain Quazar, which led to an opportunity to join the developer, Cyclone Studios, and lead the design effort for a sleeper hit (for the fans still out there, we like to call it a cult classic) called Uprising. 3DO acquired Cyclone, triggering the whirlwind tour through Uprising’s sequel, a PC game called Gulf War, one stop in the land of those green plastic soldiers (Army Men: Air Combat for the N64), a very, we’ll say maturing, experience on a game called Dragon Rage. I helped out on a few other titles during my time at 3DO before needing a change, to get back to the passion of a talented, small developer like Cyclone Studios was in its early days. I joined Inevitable Entertainment in Austin, TX and eventually made the official transition from Design to Production, helping the studio finish Area 51 for the PS2, Xbox, and PC. That team then fought its 2+ year battle – the front lines of a transition to next-gen consoles – bringing BlackSite: Area 51 to market. I can’t say enough for what it means to now bring all of the skills and experience to a company like Capcom where I know everything needed to make great games is in place, and to be a part of continuing the pedigree of excellence.

And there you have it. Stay tuned for more with Daryl coming up next week. Remember, if you have a burning questions about Okami you want to ask, let us know in the comments!