Downwell Creator Joins Nintendo

Downwell, the fast-paced vertical platformer that focuses on falling, was a huge hit when it released on iOS, PC, and consoles over the last few years. Now, the developer behind the game has joined Nintendo, according to his Twitter.

Ojiro Fumoto, a graduate from Tokyo University of the Arts with a concentration in opera singing, started developing Downwell in 2014. The game was an Independent Games Festival finalist and nominated for The Game Awards for Best Mobile/Handheld Game. Fumoto was also one of the developers named to work on games for the UFO 50 collection published by Spelunky developer Mossmouth.

Fumoto happily tweeted this morning in Japanese a very simple "I got a job at Nintendo! I'll do my best!" when run through translation tools. It is not known where within Nintendo Fumoto will be working, but he has expressed excitement at developing a game as part of a team.

We have reached out to Mossmouth to inquire into Fumoto's involvement with the game now and will update the story when we hear back from them.

 

Our Take
Downwell was a genuinely fantastic game and I lost hours to playing it. I can't imagine Fumoto is starting off at Nintendo heading his own project, but he's definitely a rising star within the company based on how Downwell was received.