Miki YUKINOURA / 雪ノ浦美樹 / M. Yuki

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Games
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Related companies:
Square

Profile

Miki Yukinoura was one of the very first developers to join Square, working as a graphic designer on the company’s first game, The Death Trap, for which she also contributed to the scenario. She started there in the spring of 1984, probably on a part-time basis, while still a student.
After her marriage, Yukinoura became head of Square’s planning department and wrote the script for Alpha (1986), a game on which graphic designer Kazuko Shibuya made her debut. It was also at this time that she invited her friend Nobuo Uematsu to work for Square, who thus began his career in the video game industry with Cruise Chaser Blassty. In 1987, she made her first known game as planner and producer with Apple Town Monogatari, the Famicom Disk System adaptation of Little Computer People. Apple Town Monogatari is presumably the first game directed by a woman at Square. Yukinoura also worked as a planner and writer on Cleopatra no Mahō, released a few monthes later on FDS.
The last known game she worked on – Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School – was released the same year on FDS.

Sources:
Technopolis #44 – March 1986
Technopolis #50 – September 1986
Comptiq January 1987
LOGiN January 1987
Interview with Nobuo Uematsu published by Entertainment station in 2018
Kazuko Shibuya on Twitter: 1, 2

Games (in alphabetical order)

Alpha / アルファ (PC-88, PC-98, X1, FM-7 – 1986)
Script, Manual Edit (Source: in-game credits)

Apple Town Monogatari / アップルタウン物語 (FDS – April 1987)
Planner, producer (Source: LOGiN January 1987)

Cleopatra no Mahō / クレオパトラの魔宝 (FDS – July 1987)
Planner (Source: mentioned by her colleague Takashi Tokita in an interview featured in Untold History of Japanese Game Developers vol.3, p192)
Scenario (Source: in-game credits (as M. Yuki) + mentioned in an interview with Nobuo Uematsu)

Cruise Chaser Blassty / クルーズチェイサー ブラスティー (1986)
Graphics (Source: Challenge Pasocom – AVG & RPG 2 p45)

Dragon Slayer / ドラゴンスレイヤー (PC-98 – 1985)
Manual (Source: in-game credits)

Genesis: Beyond the Revelation / ジェネシス (PC-88, PC-98)
Graphic design, manual design (Source: in-game credits)

Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School / 中山美穂のトキメキハイスクール (FDS – 1987)
(Source: in-game credits)

The Death Trap / デス・トラップ (PC-88 – 1984)
Graphic design, scenario (Source: in-game credits (as Yuki M. Kikusui for the scenario)

Will: The Death Trap II / ウィル デス・トラップⅡ (PC-88, PC-98, X1, FM-7 – 1985)
special thanks (Source: in-game credits)

Photos