Speakers

Yoshiki Kanou is a veteran Japanese game director with over 25 years of experience in the game industry, currently leading development and operations for the globally acclaimed mobile RPG Fate/Grand Order. Kanou began his career in 2000 at SEGA, where he spent 15 years accumulating development expertise across a wide range of platforms, including home console, arcade, and mobile games. Starting as a software engineer on DreamCast and PlayStation 2 games, he transitioned into game design and director roles, leading high-profile arcade franchises such as OutRun2 SP, After Burner Climax, and the long-running multiplayer action title BORDER BREAK. He possesses extensive expertise spanning programming, system design, quality control, and project management. In 2017, Kanou joined DELiGHTWORKS Inc., initially managing special live projects before stepping into the role of Development Director for Fate/Grand Order in 2018. Leading a large-scale team of over 300 developers, he oversees end-to-end game operations, narrative integration, feature enhancements, level design supervision, and production workflow optimizations. Under his leadership, the development team has successfully built and sustained a high-density "Story-First" development pipeline, aligning complex live-ops mechanics and dynamic visual presentation with rich storytelling. Kanou holds a Master's degree in Information Sciences from Hiroshima City University and is a Certified ScrumMaster. He specializes in bridging technical implementation with creative direction, resolving complex production bottlenecks, and fostering organizational environments where narrative vision thrives.

Presenting:

• Story-First Game Design: How Fate/Grand Order Subordinates Game Systems to Narrative Immersion