is a Japanese video game producer, programmer, writer, and creative director. Often credited as IGA, he began his career by joining Konami in 1990 as a programmer. Over the next ten years, he moved into a senior role within the company, working on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a programmer, writer, and assistant director. He later served as the lead producer on the Castlevania series, starting with Castlevania Chronicles in 1999 and ending with Castlevania: Harmony of Despair in 2011. During his time with Konami, he was also involved in other titles, such as Nano Breaker and Tokimeki Memorial. In 2014, Igarashi left Konami to later become the co-founder of Artplay who in June 2019 released Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to the Castlevania Series. Early life Koji Igarashi was born in the Fukushima Prefecture on 17 March 1968. His father was a lumberjack. Igarashi had an interest in becoming a carpenter and later to be an artist. As a teenager, he would explore the nearby Komine Castle with a camcorder. His first experience with video games was Atari's tennis game Pong at age 10, and an arcade game Crazy Climber two years later led him to want to design games. He taught himself the computer program languages BASIC and assembly language, and designed amateur games. While attending university, he received a job offer from the company Grafika, which he had to turn down as he did not wish to work there. He accepted the next job offer, which was at Konami. Career Konami After graduating from college, Igarashi began working at Konami. His first project was working as a programmer for a simulation game for the Educational Software department. The game would be a business simulation, and the team took inspiration from the Fire Emblem series, but after 12 months the game was cancelled. He moved to the Consumer division and worked on enemy programming for the PC Engine version of Detana!! Twinbee. He worked as a programmer and was tasked with writing the story for Tokimeki Memorial, a dating sim for the PC Engine's Super CD-ROM² System. His girlfriend at the time, later wife, was an employee at Konami working on Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. She gave him advice on how to write the story to Tokimeki Memorial, and he would play Rondo of Blood during breaks. Igarashi informed his boss that he had