On the final day of GDC 2007, a talk was held by the singular Suda 51, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture inc. and lead designer of Killer 7 and the upcoming No More Heroes. Entitled "Punk's Not Dead", it was a talk focusing on his design philosophy and what Japanese designers need to do if they want people to keep playing their games.
Speaking through a translator, Suda began by giving some background information on himself. He was born in "a cold place" called NaganoCity in the Nagano Prefecture. At the age of 18 he moved to Tokyo and entered the game industry at age 23. He is currently 39 giving him about 16 years of industry experience at this point.
He first worked at Human Entertainment – contributing to such titles as Super Fire ProWrestling Special – before leaving to start his own company in 1998, which turned out to be only one year before Human Entertainment closed down. "Companies that aren't doing well tend to not pay you on time, so I thought, 'this might be bad'".
