Working Designs

United States Founded 1986 Website

Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, it was known best to fans as the long-time exclusive North American publisher of the Lunar series. The company was one of the few game publishers that attempted to bridge the cultural gap between the Japanese and American video game industries during the 1990s with an eclectic selection of releases from various genres, and was also one of the earliest American publishers to make use of the CD-ROM format for full, spoken English dialogue in their titles at a time when voice acting was not a common feature in most mainstream games. On December 12, 2005, Victor Ireland, President of Working Designs, announced via the company's message board that it was closing its doors. He later started a new company called Gaijinworks.

Working Designs at a Glance

Working Designs operated as an American publisher from 1990 until 2000 before closing its doors in December 2005. The company released 12 games on PlayPile, all under the publisher label with no titles listed as developer work. Their catalog focused heavily on localizing Japanese content for North America, with a strong emphasis on the role-playing genre which accounts for seven of their twelve releases. They also published adventure, strategy, arcade, shooter, platform, simulator, and tactical games to round out their list. The publisher reached players across many different systems including PlayStation, Sega CD, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Sega Saturn, PlayStation 2, Turbografx-16/PC Engine CD, PlayStation Vita, Wii, and TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. The majority of their output occurred during the 1990s with ten games released in that decade. Only two titles appeared in the 2000s before the company shut down. Working Designs was one of the first American publishers to use CD-ROM technology for full spoken English dialogue when voice acting was not common in most mainstream games. They are best known as the long-time exclusive North American publisher of the Lunar series. Quality trends show a consistent record of high ratings. The average IGDB rating across their seven rated titles is 82.7 out of 100. Every single rated game falls into the great category of 80 or higher, with no good, mixed, or poor titles in the data. Top-rated games include Lunar: Eternal Blue from 1994 which holds a score of 90/100. Vanguard Bandits from 1998 scored 84.2/100 and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete also from 1998 reached 83.2/100. Other notable high scores include Lunar: The Silver Star at 81.6/100 and Parasol Stars at 80/100. Recent releases before the closure included Gungriffon Blaze and Silpheed: The Lost Planet, both in October and September of 2000 respectively, each holding an 80/100 rating. Victor Ireland announced the company's closure via their message board after which he started a new company called Gaijinworks.

Total Games

82.7

Avg Rating

1990

First Release

2000

Latest Release