Virtual Heroes Hires EA, Silent Hill Veteran Sato

NC-based interactive learning developer Virtual Heroes has announced the hiring of Takayoshi Sato, a ten-year industry veteran most recently a producer with Electronic Arts as director of visual development on projects such as GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Sato, previously featured on Gamasutra, joined Konami a decade ago where he worked on 2D art for Sexy Parodius. He later went on to manage graphics production for Konami's Silent Hill and provide CGI direction, story development and visual team leadership on Silent Hill 2. Sato will work with Virtual Heroes artists, engineers and game designers to create new designs for the company, including the creation of photorealistic, “Dynamic Virtual Human Characters.” The company recently signed a license agreement with Epic to use Unreal Engine 3 for serious game development projects. “Sato’s artistic vision and leadership will play an integral role as we continue to create collaborative interactive learning solutions for the federal systems, healthcare and commercial training markets," said Jerry Heneghan, Virtual Heroes founder and CEO. “Serious games may sound rigid, but in fact there are more creative outlets within this segment of the game industry because there is no set format to follow and less dependency on the ‘cool’ factor,” explained Sato. “Serious games can be really interesting because you know the purpose of the project – it’s to save lives, to train for an emergency, inspire and educate. “It is especially exciting for me because the field of serious games is still in its infant stage, and leaders like Virtual Heroes will drive innovation in the industry. It is also gives me the opportunity to deliver a portfolio of art that provides real learning experiences and powerful messages, combined with Hollywood-quality entertainment appeal,” he added.