Legendary creator of the Final Fantasy video game series, Hironobu Sakaguchi gave a guest lecture at Professor Jason Leigh’s Video Game Development class today to discuss the development of his latest project Terra Battle and to also announce that it had reached two million downloads. When asked where he gets his creative ideas from, the shy game designer said: “surfing and taking long showers.”
Professor Leigh’s class is being taught in the CyberCANOE, which enabled students at University of Hawaiʻi West Oahu to work on game projects with their counterparts in the Information and Computer Sciences department, and the Academy for Creative Media (ACM) at Mānoa.
Designed by Professor Leigh, the CyberCANOE was funded by Chris Lee – founding director and creator of ACM, who previously produced movies such as Superman Returns, and Final Fantasy Spirits Within. The class was also joined today by former Senator Carol Fukunaga who watched with enthusiasm at how the students’ responded to their legendary speaker.