Shinya Kumazaki

is a Japanese video game director, game designer, HAL Laboratory employee, and painter who is the current general director of the Kirby series and voice of King Dedede.

Biography Early life Born in the Gifu Prefecture in 1979, Kumazaki studied at the Kanazawa College of Art and the Suidobata Fine Arts Academy.

Early work at HAL Laboratory Kumazaki first joined HAL Laboratory in 2002, where some of his early roles included debugging the game Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land and artist for Kirby Air Ride (for the levels) and Kirby Canvas Curse (for the battle with the final boss Drawcia). His first game as director came in 2008 as the Nintendo DS remake Kirby Super Star Ultra where the original game was further expanded to include four additional sub-games.

As director In 2010, he was working on the built-in software for the then-new Nintendo 3DS system when he was roped into the development team of the then unfinished Kirby Wii game; under his supervision the development team eventually managed to incorporate elements from the three unfinished concepts for the project and the game was finally released as Kirby's Return to Dream Land.

Since then, Kumazaki has helmed the role of Director and later, General Director for various main Kirby platformers, including Kirby's Dream Collection 20th anniversary compilation (2012), Kirby: Triple Deluxe (2014), Kirby: Planet Robobot (2016) and Kirby Star Allies (2018). In addition, he has worked on the drafts of the box comics of the BoxBoy! series games since 2016 and is the voice actor of King Dedede of the Kirby series, a callback to Masahiro Sakurai’s role as voice actor of King Dedede in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

As general director of the Kirby series games, Kumazaki considers "devices, maps, and tough boss battles" the essential components of quality action games.

Kumazaki also maintains his own personal blog and a public Instagram profile. In his free time Kumazaki creates digital paintings of cosmic horror art, commonly depicting original subjects with occasional renditions of Kirby bosses.

Works YearTitleRole(s) 2002 Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land Communication debugging 2003 Kirby Air RideArtist 2005 Kirby Canvas Curse 2008 Kirby Super Star Ultra Director 2011 Kirby's Return to Dream Land Director, voice actor (King Dedede) 2012 Kirby's Dream CollectionCo-director 2014 Kirby: Triple Deluxe Director, voice actor (King Dedede, Shadow Dedede) Kirby Fighters Deluxe Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe 2016 BoxBoxBoy! Box comics - drafts Kirby: Planet Robobot General director, voice actor (Dedede Clones) 2017 Bye-Bye BoxBoy! Box comics - drafts Team Kirby Clash Deluxe General director, voice actor (King D-Mind) Kirby's Blowout Blast General director, voice actor (King Dedede) Kirby Battle Royale2018 Kirby Star Allies General director, voice actor (King Dedede, Void Termina) 2019 Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn Character supervisor BoxBoy! + BoxGirl! Box comics - drafts Super Kirby Clash General director, voice actor (King D-Mind), ending song lyrics 2020 Kirby Fighters 2 General director, voice actor (King Dedede) 2022 Kirby and the Forgotten Land General director, voice actor (King Dedede), theme song lyrics Kirby's Dream Buffet General director2023Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe General director, voice actor (King Dedede)2025Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed WorldGeneral director, voice actor (King Dedede), theme song lyricsKirby Air RidersSupervisor