Previous Messages
	* * * * PROJECT DIRECTOR / Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi Hello to everyone kind enough to visit the AC04 website. My name is Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi. I am the Project Director on AC04. Currently the team and I are all working to exhaustion, trying to complete AC04. As part of the AC04 team, my aim is to create a game in which the player can become an Ace Pilot. It's one thing to be labeled an Ace Pilot by the computer, but in this game you will actually feel like an Ace Pilot. Each element of the game is planned out in order to achieve this. I want the player to feel that they have been drawn into the game world not as a character in a game, but as an actual Ace Pilot.		A 20mm shell! I have all kinds of things...

Hard at work. I need more vitamins...

* * * * ART DIRECTOR / Kazutoki Kono Hello! My name is Kazutoki Kono. I am the Art Director on AC04. The Tokyo Game Show has just finished, so I thought I would share all the AC04 news with everyone. We are now at a crucial stage of development and all the staff is united and trying their best to improve the quality of AC04 even further, so your support is very much appreciated. The theme of AC04 is "contrast". I have tried to incorporate contrast into the graphics in AC04, using light and shadow, hard and soft, heavy and light etc. Other themes such as air and ground, normal and abnormal, military and civilian etc. are also present. I have tried to stress the themes of "contrast" as much as possible. I hope that you enjoy AC04.

* * * * LEAD PROGRAMMER / Katsuhiro Ishii Hello everyone. My name is Katsuhiro Ishii. I am the Lead programmer on AC04. This latest Ace Combat game is for the PS2. As it is still relatively new hardware, I must consider what can be done with the hardware, how to go about doing it, what things we can improve from the previous games in the series etc. After repeated trial and error, I have been able to fix an image of how AC04 should be, and have been working towards that goal. We have reached the stage where pre-orders are now being taken, and a playable demonstration version of the game was also displayed at the Tokyo Game Show. To those who played the demo, what did you think? With the PlayStation2 development manual by my side, and playing with my favorite F-14 miniature model, I have been hard at work programming every day. As a 3D-flight/shooting game, I have tried to recreate faithfully the feeling of flying freely through the air. I will try to improve this feeling as much as I can in the time I have before AC04 goes on sale, and am trying my best to make AC04 as perfect and fun as possible. Please wait just a little more.

Self-Defense Force coffee cans

My workstation

* * * * SOUND DIRECTOR / Tetsukazu Nakanishi Konnichiwa! My name is Tetsukazu Nakanishi, and I am the Sound Director on AC04. I also worked on two previous versions of Ace Combat. There were many things that I wanted to try previously, but couldn't. Now that AC04 is being developed on PS2, there are many, many things that I want to pack into this game. I have concentrated on making the background music flow much like a movie soundtrack, complementing the excellent visuals and improved backgrounds. I have also put a lot of effort into the sound effects. With the cooperation of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, I have been able to record actual explosions and other effects for use in AC04. I believe I can deliver levels of realism and excitement that have not been seen before. �@

* * * * GRAPHIC ARTIST / Takaharu Suzuki Hello, my name is Takaharu Suzuki. I am the Graphic Artist on AC04. I have been working on the Ace Combat series since Ace Combat 2. I designed the cover of AC2 and the "Photosphere" book that was included with AC3. I am responsible for the design of this website. This was my first challenge at designing a website. It was difficult to design this page to account for the differences between the different browsers. I plan to update the AC04 site until the end of this year. I hope everyone is looking forward to AC04, as we are all doing our best to make it the best game that we can.

My favorite paper stand

My favorite "Mobile Gear"

* * * * PROJECT MANAGER / Atsushi Shiozawa Hi, I am Atsushi Shiozawa, the Project Manager for AC04. The whole team is working extremely hard to include the features that you gamers want to see, hear and experience in AC04. We originally created a list of features we wanted to include in AC04, however, we have been unable to include every feature on our list. Some of the content that we couldn't include we decided to display on this site. This should serve as an interesting introduction to the world of AC04. Also included in the staff section of the website are miscellaneous photos of personal items used in production of AC04.

* * * * GRAPHIC TOOL PROGRAMMER / Achira Tsuyoshi Hi all, my name is Achira, and I am the Tech guy on the Ace 4 project. Well, summer is now approaching, and things are extremely hectic here in the AC04 office. To create Ace 04, I had to customize various types of high-end modeling software and tools, which were necessary to encode the huge amounts of graphic data used in the game. It was quite a challenge, but it was really worth it, as the results speak for themselves. I am also really looking forward to getting my hands on a finished copy of Ace 04, as this is the type of game that you would expect from Namco, with stunning graphics and a huge world.

I made this modeling tool just for fun...

It may look a little odd, but this P90 looks like the real thing.

* * * * LEAD ARTIST / Masahito Kanno Hi, my name is Kanno. I am in charge of the backgrounds seen in Ace 04. I have received a lot of positive feedback regarding the screen shots posted on the AC04 website- thank you very much. We are all working hard to make the background visuals the most realistic looking that we can. The level of reality in the graphics is unprecedented. Although the world of AC04 is fictional, the high level of detail gives the player the impression that they are flying in a real location. I hope you enjoy your flight!

* * * LATEST MESSAGES

Top / Information / World / Staff / Download