Who created Pac-Man?

Who created Pac-Man? Toru Iwatani created Pac-Man.

Iwatani was a designer at Namco who led the development of the original arcade game, released in Japan in 1980. He began working on Pac-Man in early 1979 with a small team, during a period when arcades were dominated by space, combat, and sports-themed games. He wanted to make a colorful, approachable game that could appeal to a wider audience, including women and younger players.

The character's design was influenced by the image of a pizza with one slice removed, although Iwatani also connected it with the rounded Japanese character for “mouth.” The game's Japanese title was Puck Man, derived from paku-paku, an expression associated with gobbling food. For the North American release, Namco changed the name to Pac-Man to reduce the risk of vandalism to arcade cabinets.

Iwatani created the game's central concept and directed its design, but Pac-Man was a team production. Shigeo Funaki and Shigeichi Ishimura worked on programming, Toshio Kai composed the music and sound, and Hiroshi Ono created much of the visual artwork. Iwatani is therefore correctly recognized as Pac-Man's creator and designer.