In 1996, Keiichi Yano co-founded the production company, iNiS, and began development of video games.
His first project was the early music video game, Gitaroo Man for which he acted as lead programmer.
The game enjoyed only moderate sales, however it received critical accolades and became a well-known cult classic.
The Ouendan games have been criticized as unintelligible to Western markets due to its emphasis on Japanese Ōendan culture, however despite this Yano has created Western-targeted localizations such as the Blues Brothers-influenced Elite Beat Agents.
He has also worked on such projects as the Japanese localization of the Western Sudeki and even an arcade prototype for a Gundam Pilot Academy from Banpresto.