Thursday, June 12, 2025

Akira Kitamura Launches Patreon Series: Mega Man History Essays and More

Mega Man creator Akira Kitamura has launched his official Patreon, "Kitamura's Blueprints", where he’ll be sharing new articles twice a month in both English and Japanese. These entries will delve into the complete story behind the creation of Mega Man, as well as his personal philosophy on game design.

The first post—available for free—is part of the “Creating Mega Man” essay series. In Chapter 1, Kitamura reveals how a chance encounter with a certain individual helped shape the foundation of Mega Man 1's gameplay. Each post will feature brand-new artwork illustrated by Kitamura himself, starting with a fitting inaugural piece of Mega Man shaking hands with Astro Boy. Another free entry, part of his game theory essays, explores the tension between creative ambition and industry realities, how original ideas arise through experience and persistence—an issue that remains highly relevant in today’s industry.

Both essay series are definitely worth checking out. If you can, consider supporting the project—Kitamura’s been working hard behind the scenes to bring this to life for fans and anyone curious about game design.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. He didn't talk about that. The artwork is a reference to how in awe he was when he saw the Capcom vs. Osamu Tezuka Characters with Mega Man and Astro Boy in the middle shaking hands.

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  2. Stuff like this is always fun to read about. I am curious if he'll delve into if he owns megaman, if Capcom owns megaman, or if it's joint owned like strider. Also curious how he went from the classic stuff to the x stuff and so on if he had a hand in it.

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    1. I doubt he owns the character, since he’s never mentioned in credits past Mega Man 3. I imagine if he did, it’d be like in Marvel movies where it says “Spider-Man created by Stan Lee” and what have you. And he had nothing to do with any games past 3.

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    2. Capcom owns Mega Man. He is not even the sole creator of Mega Man. He is responsible for the ruff idea of it, boy robot etc...

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    3. Strider was in collaboration with publisher Moto Kikaku. Akira Kitamura was an employee under Capcom. There is nothing to dive into.

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    4. If he was, Cocoron would have been an apocryphal Mega Man 3 instead of, well, Cocoron. It's 100% owned by Capcom.

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  3. Hey that’s neat. Love BTS stuff like this.

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