Hiroshi Ono (artist)

Ono was hired at Namco in 1979, and one of his first tasks was to help improve the logo and bezel art for Galaxian. As he became more involved with other projects, such as Tank Battalion and Warp & Warp, he also began working on the pixel art used within the game itself in addition to the physical game cabinet art. Many of Namco's arcade games during the golden age of arcade video games through the early 1980s featured his pixel art, including Galaga, Dig Dug, and Mappy.^[1] He helped to contribute art and columns to a Namco fan newsletter NG, where another Namco employee gave him the moniker "Mr. Dotman", which he readily accepted for the rest of his life. Shigeru Yokoyama, the creator of Galaga, called him "an authority on pixel design" for arcade games.^[2] He was called The Wizard of Dot Art.^[3]

Between 1989 and 2000, Ono was transferred to Namco's electro-mechanical game division, where he continued to design art and layout for the game cabinets, such as Golly! Ghost!. He was then transferred to Namco's new mobile game division established in 2000, which allowed him to return to creating pixel art.^[1] He continued in this role even after the merger of Bandai and Namco into Bandai Namco in 2005. As mobile devices evolved beyond only pixel art, he left the company in 2013 so as to progress his work independently. As a freelance artist, he was hired by third-party studios to help develop pixel art for mobile and other types of games, including for those published through Bandai Namco, such as The Idolmaster and Tales of... series.^[1]

Ono remained active until 2020 when he reported that a mysterious illness destroyed his mobility,^[1] and his home was burgled of some of his early Namco works,^[4] so he reduced his freelance work.^[2]

In 2021, a successful Kickstarter was launched to create a documentary on his career.^[5]

He died on October 16, 2021,^[2] from suspected autoimmune hepatitis.^[3][6]