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Takashi Tezuka is Shigeru Miyamoto's right-hand man and second in command in the Entertainment Analysis & Development division. He began producing and co-producing EAD titles in 1997. Tezuka has been the main designer alongside Miyamoto since the Research & Development 4 division was created in 1984. He has worked closely on the Yoshi and Animal Crossing series but has dabbled in the majority of titles manifested within the walls of Nintendo Co., Ltd. Shigeru Miyamoto's promotion and new responsibilities have made Tezuka the more active head at EAD.

Mr. Tezuka served as producer during the development of Animal Crossing and Pikmin 2 for Nintendo GameCube. These titles have proven to be a huge success in attracting new audiences. The birth of these non-linear, untraditional games started during the Nintendo 64 generation. Tezuka and Miyamoto each took a small chunk of EAD designers to experiment with new types of games possible on the unreleased Nintendo 64DD. The 64DD was a planned add-on peripheral for the Nintendo 64 that provided several new features like 64MB rewritable discs, multiple disc reading, 4MB ram expansion, internal clock, and internet access. Miyamoto and Tezuka wanted to showcase these new features by creating completely new types of games that would best take advantage of this innovative hardware. Miyamoto’s team began a project titled Mario Artist. Tezuka’s team began a game called Animal Forest.

Animal Forest (known as Animal Crossing in North America) was conceived by Tezuka as a communication game. The development team envisioned creating a game without a clear goal that allowed the player a change of pace from most other genres. A player in Animal Forest was asked to deliver things, write letters, talk to neighbors, catch fish, collect bugs, plant trees, shovel snow, pay bills, tidy up the house, among many other non-linear activities. Animal Forest was unique in encouraging sporadic play sessions throughout a long period of time. The success of Animal Forest on Nintendo 64 and GameCube inspired president Satoru Iwata and Nintendo chairman Atsushi Asada in their discussions about the large consumer base being ignored due to the industry trend of only developing sequels or new titles that were more complicated versions of games already released. These discussions ultimately led to the creation of Wii and Nintendo DS.

Animal Forest proved Iwata and Asada correct. The series' true success came with the advent of Wi-Fi and the Nintendo DS (Tezuka assisted with several of the initial Nintendo DS tech demos that were on display during the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo). Casual gamers and hardcore gamers found Animal Crossing on the go with Wi-Fi a must have title, making it one of the best-selling Nintendo DS games in Japan. It now sits on a sales pedestal alongside series such as Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest.

The Animal Crossing series will take its next spin on the Wii. That said, Tezuka realizes that sequels are not enough. He has instructed his teams to come up with the next game to ignite the imaginations of those who play games daily as well as those who've never touched a controller before.

Tezuka was born November 17, 1960, in the Osaka Prefecture and is a graduate of the Design Department of Osaka University of Arts.

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