Toru Iwatani, 55, is the designer of Pac-Man, the classic video game that virtually kick-started the world market for the video-gaming industry. Released by Namco in Tokyo on May 22, 1980, Pac-Man made history as the first video game that appealed to both genders and to all age groups. Idea-man Iwatani, programmer Shigeo Funaki and sound and music whiz Toshio Kai developed the yellow dot-eating Pac-Man and the four colorful ghosts into such adorable creatures that kids and adults immediately ate them up. Even today, people around the world still love the game. When Google uploaded its Pac-Man Doodle to celebrate its 30th birthday on May 21, an estimated 505 million people played it within 24 hours. Clearly the leader of the "pac," Pac-Man has been mentioned several times in the "Guinness World Records" including being listed as the Most Successful Coin-Operated Game in 2005. Last Thursday, Iwatani attended a special ceremony to pick up his 2005 Guinness World Record certificate at the NLGD Festival of Games in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Since 2007, Iwatani has been a professor in the Department of Games at Tokyo Polytechnic University, where he's playing with the idea of the "win-win" situation and showing students that making people happy is what games and life are all about.

A good game is easy to understand. The player should immediately get the point. When you watch golf for the first time, you know that the ball is supposed to go into the hole. It's the same with Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers or a pinball machine: You know what to do.

Making people laugh must be taken seriously. Since I was a boy, I loved itazura, which means coming up with mischievous ideas. I was always making jack-in-the-boxes to surprise others. I'd glue plastic bugs on long springs so they'd jump out of bags. I'd tie long weeds together so my friends would get their feet stuck in them. I still do anything to get a laugh. Fun first, last and in-between!