In a recent interview with Game*Spark, Okami and Bayonetta creator Kamiya Hideki talked about the activities of his new game company Clovers. Kamiya left PlatinumGames in 2023, citing a growing dissatisfaction with the company’s changing working environment as his main reason. After spending a year “unemployed,” the game designer finally unveiled his new home – Clovers. While Clovers’ first project happens to be a much-requested sequel to Okami, this doesn’t mean that the studio will be favoring development of sequels from now on.
When asked about Clovers’ attitude towards existing vs. new IPs, the company’s CEO Kento Koyama (who founded the studio with Kamiya), comments, “We have a clear stance on this, and it’s to not shut out any possibilities when it comes to making games.” He goes on to explain that the team’s goal is to put out entertaining games, regardless of whether this involves creating a brand-new IP, making a sequel, or a spiritual successor to an existing IP. “Basically, we’re not limiting ourselves in any way in terms of our approach to making interesting games.”
Kamiya doubles down on the sentiment, commenting “To us, the only thing that matters is whether the project is interesting or not.” This means that if Clovers sees the potential to, as Kamiya puts it “clover-ize” an existing IP in a worthwhile way, they will do it. On the other hand, the possibility of the studio drafting up original proposals and making something new is not off the table either. “The bottom line is that it all comes down to whether we are inspired,” Kamiya says.
Although their first title happened to be a sequel to Capcom’s Okami, both Koyama and Kamiya emphasize that they don’t want Clovers to be misunderstood as a company that will focus on developing sequels in the future.
On a related note, Kamiya also mentions that although he holds the titles of Studio Head and Chief Game Designer, this does not mean that all of Clover’s projects will be centered around him and his ideas. Instead, he hopes to see other fun projects happening in parallel as he works on his own, much like how things worked during his time at Capcom.
At the moment, Clovers has around 25 team members, and is currently in the process of recruiting new talent as they work on Okami’s development.
