Treasure is a Japanese software development company, focusing on console video games, founded by former employees of Konami in 1992.

History

Before Foundation

The core founding members came from various development teams within Konami Tokyo; the most notable being the teams behind the Arcade and NES Bucky O'Hare games. The team behind the Arcade version included: Hiroshi Iuchi, primary background artist and director of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga; Norio Hanzawa (aka NON), primary music composer; and Tetsuhiko Kikuchi (aka Han), primary character designer. The team behind the NES version included: Masato Maegawa, CEO and founder; Kaname Shindoh, graphic designer; Hideyuki Suganami, programmer; and Kouichi Kimura, graphic designer.

Contrary to popular belief, no significant employees were involved in the development of Contra: Hard Corps, Super Castlevania IV, or Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose. However, one to three identifiable employees were involved in the following Konami games:

After Foundation

Treasure is known for intense action games, with a lot of creative work put into the gameplay. Their design aesthetic usually involves taking a normal genre, adding something new to the players basic play mechanics or controls, and trying to add as much new and varied elements into the level design as possible. They are also known for their boss levels, which are almost always the focus of the game, and on older systems featured larged multijointed sprite bosses (using a technique where each arm or apendage was a still picture that was rotated for movement instead of the entire boss being one picture).

In 1998 they released Radiant Silvergun for the arcade and for the Sega Saturn. It is almost universally considered the greatest overhead shooter of all time by people who have played it. It was released only limitedly in Japan, and prices for it today remain very high for a video game of that era.