Camelot Software Planning was founded by Shugo Takahashi on April 4, 1994, to develop games for the Sony PlayStation. Shugo and his brother Hiroyuki Takahashi had both been working on games for Sega platforms including the Mega Drive and Game Gear at Sonic! Software Planning—a Sega subsidiary assigned to the Shining series—when they received requests to develop games for the upcoming PlayStation. Shugo left Sonic to found Camelot as an independent studio while Hiroyuki stayed at Sonic to produce Shining Wisdom and Shining the Holy Ark for the Saturn.
Shugo had planned for Camelot's first two games to be RPGs, but as the company only had 16 employees, he determined that it would be impossible to finish both within a year. Hiroyuki suggested that Shugo produce just one RPG and make the other game something simpler to design. These games would turn out to comprise Beyond the Beyond and Everybody's Golf. While production of these titles was underway, Camelot also provided development support to Sonic for Shining Wisdom and Shining the Holy Ark.
By April 1998, Sega had merged its investment in Sonic into Nextech, another Sega subsidiary. Following Sonic's closure, much of the studio's staff moved to Camelot, which was left to complete the development of Shining Force III's three scenarios on its own.
Following the release of Shining Force III, Camelot would go on to develop the Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Golden Sun series for Nintendo platforms.
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