Gaming Industry - Consumer Products

I have had the pleasure of conceptualizing, planning, directing, and sometimes designing many Merchandise and Limited Edition products.

For our Merchandise, I analyze the current audience, the types of products available already, and if they're in Japan or the USA. I have a process I go through to try to narrow down the best options for the company and which will bring in the most revenue or fan focused marketing.

Limited Editions were my primary focus within the NISA Online Store and this is where I would take the best of the products in Japan and apply those goods and goals toward the American market, while still keeping the overall costs on budget. I make sure that the price is appealing price, and hit our targeted sell through.

Through out this process, I would provide direction to the designers, sometimes design myself, provide advice to the operations team members to ensure all details were delivered on time and within the expected costs. I often would be the key negotiator when timelines needed adjustment or unforeseeable issues occur.

I love roles like this!

I have the privilege to have worked with the following companies to either make Video Game Limited Editions or Merchandise:

Nippon Ichi Software
Nihon Falcom
Spike chunsoft
FURYU Corporation
GAME FREAK Inc.
Koei Tecmo Games
AQUAPLUS
Vanillaware
City Connection LTD.

IzanagiGames
Natsume
Chara-Ani
YummyYummyTummy, Inc.
KADOKAWA CORPORATION
NIGORO
GRANZELLA
Atelier Mimina
Limited Run Games

Lil Plush Series

My Role: Concept of plush, quote negotiation, design direction between internal designers and also with the vendor, budget approvals, promotion on store, sell through execution, and coordination with Europe Store counterpart.

This is the current best selling Merchandise Series in NISA Online store as of 2023.

Eight have been designed and released as of October 2023!

Two more designs will be released later in 2024 from the Trails through Daybreak series.

I participated in about 75% of the design phase for these two plushies before I left NIS America in November 2023.

Limited Editions

I have been involved in the planning for the Limited Editions since late 2016. Below are a few highlights of Limited Editions that I lead the plan (Pick the items in the collection), direct quote negotiations, quality control, promotion, and sales.

What is a Limited Edition, and what does this consist of?

A Limited Edition is a collection of components that would appeal to physical collectors. These collections are made to be desirable by new and old fans of the game series.

Normally these collections consist of artbooks, physical soundtracks, specialty boxes, and unique items used to highlight the details that are the most important to the game this collection is for.

These Limited Editions are a one time print.

Some of my personal favorites of the Limited Editions are highlighted in the images here:

Some of these Limited Edition components below used the design files I created from scratch. My design files were used for production.

I have often pursued additional art or collaboration with the licensors we work with to make sure that we maximize the value of this collection.

This title's original Limited Edition release in Japan was the game, softcover artbook, 1-Disc soundtrack in a paper sleeve, and collector's box. However, reviewing the fanbase's reactions and history of feedback from earlier releases of this series, I was able to gain permission to change some items and source more art for this collection.

The US Limited Edition I revised and released now contains: Game, Hardcover Artbook, 1-Disc w/ Jewel case, (New) Cloth poster, (new) two Acrylic Stands, (new) 5 Art card set, and collector's box.

The Art cards were especially important as they feature art that was interrupted by the spine in the artbook, or not fully seen on the collector's box.

Custom Artwork for Limited Edition Components

I had the fortune of being able to get custom drawings done by the game lead artist for the NISA Limited Editions.

Collaborations for Special Limited Edition goods

Metal Earth x R-Type Final 2

In the R-Type Final 2 Limited Edition, I was able to work with the company Fascinations (Also known more commonly by their brand: Metal Earth), to make an exclusive model of the classic Main ship from their game series, the R-9A Arrowhead ship.

Thanks to their awesome team as well, we were able to collaborate on marketing as well to hit a larger audience.

See the model on the Metal Earth Site here.

SteelBook® x Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

I worked closely with Scanavo, to bring SteelBook®s to the Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA collection for the first time in my employer's history. This paved the way to bring many more SteelBook®s to future Limited Edition titles.

You can see it featured here on the Steelbook Website.

Merchandise

Beyond the Lil' Plush series, I have created the following ideas and executed the following:

Link to a Gif online

Prinny USB was a personal project, where I directed all aspects of this project. The fanny bag is actually a USB that can inserted into the penguin model.

We have reordered him 3 times and have sold out each time.

Design is based on Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny's main character Zed.

Pin is removeable from the Acrylic Stand to allow the user to display in other pin locations if preferred.

I created and developed the random Pin Chest product.

Each Pin comes with 5 common pins and 2 "Rare" or "Ultra Rare" Pins inside.

This is based on a game series where the player is given a randomly generated dungeon that is very unforgiving at times. This item re-created the gamble that the players endured while completing the game.

Roly Prinny Plush - Blue and Pink Versions

These two Prinny plushies have a personal place in my heart as they were my first merchandise item I developed from scratch. I designed all parts attached to this Prinny as well. Both versions were released in 2015 and were received strongly for its "round", "grenade-like shape", and cute design.

My employer later reordered more of the blue Prinny design in 2017, and has sold out since then.

I also drew the line art for these T-shirts we printed for our Annual T-shirt series "Red Moon Day"

This design was done to mimic the cover for the game Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA as that was the main game my employer was promoting that year.

The one on the right was used for spreading awareness of the need of Blood donations for the Red Cross during the initial outbreak of COVID 19. We raised over 10k in donations!

At PAX East 2020 for the first time, we joined in the Pinny Arcade Activity that is a key driving factor for who attend PAX East 2020. As we wanted to show off the most recent Prinny game that was released, I was able to help direct our design team to use this emblem and push it with the glitter effects. This Pin sold out shortly after the expo and has been requested by fans since then.

Came up with the idea and designed the Prinny beach ball used as a giveaway by my employer at Anime Expo 2013.

With each holiday sale on my employer's Online Store, customers would be given a giveaway with each purchase. These have varied over the years, however I did design a unique papercraft for the store to give out for the Holiday Sale of 2015. This was also available for purchase!