Okabe started taking electric organ lessons as a child, covering contemporary pop and film music.

[5] He left Namco in 2001 to become a fully independent freelancer; while he feels that the game industry served as an outlet for him to create music, he wanted more freedom to work on non-game projects.

In addition to further work on game projects and remixes, he also composed and arranged a number of songs for various artists, such as Ryuichi Kawamura.

However, being freelance resulted in him losing a lot of social trust, such as being unable to change residence or sign up for a credit card.

[6] Although it originally consisted of just Okabe, he would later be joined by ex-Namco composers such as Satoru Kōsaki, who also wanted to work on non-game projects.

[8] The team were given creative freedom, while working under Yoko Taro's direction, who attended the same university as Okabe and was a 3D graphics designer at Namco.