Suda51 recruits Harvest Moon creator

Suda51 has enticed two top talents over to his Grasshopper Manufacture outfit.

Former Marvelous Entertainment president and Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada will be Grasshopper's new chief operating officer.

Yoshiro Kimura, director of fantastic Wii RTS Little King's Story, has signed on as creative director.

In an interview with Japanese gaming mag Famitsu, translated by 1up, Suda said, "We haven't released a single [original] title in the past year, which is something that caused a lot of regret in my mind.

"Having these two people join Grasshopper will make us a more sturdily-organized company, and it'll improve our development, technical, and release skills."

No word on exactly what the duo will be working on but Suda hinted at a family-friendly title.

"We've been known for specialising in action games," he said, "but I'm positive this will help drive us to explore other genres as well. One of my goals is to make a game for all ages, and I think we've got the foundation for that now."

Wada and Kimura aren't the only recent high profile recruits at Grasshopper. In February, Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka announced he had started at the company.

All this extra manpower will no doubt come as a relief to Suda. He's a busy man right now. The No More Heroes/Killer7 creator is working on Shadows of the Damned for EA with Shinji Mikami, XBLA/PSN shooter Sine Mora with Digital Reality and survival horror Codename D for Kinect.