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[HStallion]

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/fumito-uedas-slow-route-to-perfection

Nice little article from Simon Parkin. Not too long and its part history lesson, part analysis of Ueda's design methods and some insight from Parkin. I don't know if we needed another topic on The Last Guardian but this one focuses on Ueda more so than the game itself though it does talk about it. Some select quotes:

When he is working on a new game, he begins by creating a mockup short film, which gives his team an impression of the feelings he wants to elicit but doesn’t get into technical details. “It’s quite different from the other folks pitching game ideas,” he told me. (Blockbuster games, particularly at Japanese studios, are often pitched on paper, in design documents as thick as phonebooks.)

“I was never the kind of sophisticated art student who’d spend their days in museums and galleries,” he said. “Equally, my work never fit the manga tradition. I had to find my place. Video games became the place for me to express my art. It is perhaps the best pairing there could be.”

Sony, for its part, indulges Ueda’s perfectionism. When asked, in 2015, whether the company would like to work with him on another project, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, said, “Everyone would.”

EDIT:

also this:

He also did the Best Games of 2016 list for The Guardian and gave GOTY to TLG.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/simon-parkin-best-video-games-2016-witcher-watch-dogs-2-dishonored-2-the-last-guardian

But the standout game of 2016 will be The Last Guardian, a Japanese-made buddy game about a young boy and a hulking, dog-like creature who together must escape a tumbledown castle. In the pair’s movements the game has all the masterly animation of a Studio Ghibli film, but The Last Guardian’s true power comes from the way in which a story of trust, companionship and restoration (Trico, as the creature is called, has clearly suffered much abuse at the hands of his captors) is told not through cinematic scenes, but through the game’s tactile interactions. If ever there was a story to salve the wounds inflicted by this dark year, this is it.

Edit:

Full transcript of the interview with a ton more details:

http://bit.ly/2hp0Gzy

 

[UrbanRats]

The Guardian gave GOTY to Last Guardian? Conflict of Interest much?

Spoiler

Reading now.

 

[wapplew]

Wow, TLG won GOTY and it's not even out?

 

[HStallion]

The Guardian gave GOTY to Last Guardian? Conflict of Interest much?

Spoiler

Reading now.

Yeah I was trying to figure out some way to play with that but just figured I'd let the article and quote speak for themselves.

 

[Ostinatto]

Wow, TLG won GOTY and it's not even out?

Simon Parkin played the game, he wrote the article.

 

[dracula_x]

also this:

 

[Servbot24]

also this:

Ueda is a goddamn hero.

 

[Grisby]

The Last Guardian|OT| Flinging dirt in my face

Nice read through.

 

[More_Badass]

I didn't know that Ico was originally meant to be a PS1 game. Interesting that Ueda's ambitions have crossed console generations before.

 

[Jawbreaker]

It's my game of the year too, for what it's worth. Managed to beat Dark Souls III, which I didn't think would happen.

 

[HueyFreeman]

The final 31 hours of, for me, an 11 year wait.

 

[lmbotiva]

It will be terrible if this game gets mediocre reviews after all the good word is getting from people that have the game early, i fear some reviewers are gonna go in with the long development cycle on their minds and that's going to affect how they judge the game

 

[Moosichu]

I didn't know that Ico was originally meant to be a PS1 game. Interesting that Ueda's ambitions have crossed console generations before.

Yeah, it had an extremely long development time of... 4 years

Edit: Relative to development times of the time, wouldn't that be roughly the same relative length as TLG?

 

[Ostinatto]

31 hours.

What?

 

[HueyFreeman]

What?

That's when it unlocks on psn

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Parkin gave TLG GotY?!?

I was considering holding off on the game for a bit, but no longer.

 

[bigboss370]

also this:

that is amazing

 

[SolidSnakex]

I didn't know that Ico was originally meant to be a PS1 game. Interesting that Ueda's ambitions have crossed console generations before.

Here it is running on the PSone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANmY2QtZnIM

 

[HStallion]

that is amazing

Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog and Uncharted/TLoU fame has also stated similar things about Ueda's games forever affecting him and how he goes about making games.

 

[Ostinatto]

That's when it unlocks on psn

I thought that was the length of the game xD

 

[HStallion]

I thought that was the length of the game xD

Only if you collect every barrel, lizard tail and climb every tower and jump off of it with Trico after surveying the area and unlocking a part of your minimap.

 

[Loris146]

Here it is running on the PSone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANmY2QtZnIM

How is this possible?

 

[FF Seraphim]

also this:

Ueda is somewhat responsible for us getting the Soul series. Damn that is some crazy butterly wing effect.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I didn't know that Ico was originally meant to be a PS1 game. Interesting that Ueda's ambitions have crossed console generations before.

https://youtu.be/ANmY2QtZnIM coupled with the amazing soundtrack . It looked nice for PSOnd too albeit it was only not much more than a tech demo from that video.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I thought it was common knowledge at this point that Miyazaki entered the games industry because of Ueda's influence on him.

 

[HStallion]

I thought it was common knowledge at this point that Miyazaki entered the games industry because of Ueda's influence on him.

I think it is for people who follow Ueda and loved his prior games but the general audience, even Soulsborne fans might not realize it.

 

[semiconscious]

i've been gaming for 30+ years. this guy's made 2 games in that time, & both are easily in my top 5 of all time. what can i say? he's a fucking master! ...

 

[More_Badass]

Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog and Uncharted/TLoU fame has also stated similar things about Ueda's games forever affecting him and how he goes about making games.

Halo was influenced by Ico as well

“I think there’s a lot of similarity in just the core relationship between the boy in Ico and Princess Yorda, and Chief and Cortana, that bond they have, that need to be there for one another,” Halo 4‘s creative director Josh Holmes told Time on its release last year. “I’ll always be influenced by that game, probably in ways that I don’t even understand, because it’s definitely one of the pinnacle moments in my gaming career.”

And as Kojima and other influential games/devs over the last decade or so

Several game designers, such as Eiji Aonuma, Hideo Kojima, and Jordan Mechner, have cited Ico as having influenced the visual appearance of their games, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, respectively. Marc Laidlaw, scriptwriter for the Half-Life series, commented that, among several other more memorable moments in the game, the point where Yorda attempts to save Ico from falling off the damaged bridge was "a significant event not only for that game, but for the art of game design"

As well as indie titles such as Fez, Pap & Yo, Brothers,

 

[Jawbreaker]

Halo was influenced by Ico as well


And as Kojima and other influential games/devs over the last decade or so


As well as indie titles such as Fez, Pap & Yo, Brothers,

The Prince of Persia influences really went full circle, eh? Haha.

 

[HueyFreeman]

I thought that was the length of the game xD

Haha clarified

 

[convo]

also this:

This is known but a reminder that even though i don't like ico as much as his other game, it's still responsible for a lot of great games coming into this world.

 

[SolidSnakex]

How is this possible?

It kinda wasn't

—When you’ve already got such a clear, pre-established idea for how the visuals will be, I bet it’s easy for the programmers to start wondering, “Ok, but what kind of game is this going to be?”

Ueda: During the PSX development phase, yeah, it was exactly like that. I had the big picture already in my head, so I would tell them it would all work out, but when the project began they really had no idea how it was all supposed to fit together. This also made bugs hard to find, nor were they at liberty to change or add to the design documents themselves.

Ultimately we shifted development of ICO to the PS2, and after that the programming became a bit more systematic, and thankfully things got a lot easier.

—That PS1 version of ICO never ended up getting released, but how far along was it?

Ueda: It actually wasn’t very complete. (laughs)

—Ah, I see. (laughs)

Ueda: There was a presentation deadline coming up, but only the visuals were really ready to be shown, and we didn’t finish half of what we’d set out to do. (laughs) There were some problems that just couldn’t be solved with the Playstation hardware. The girl’s reactions weren’t added in yet either, and that aspect, after all, was more important to me than the visuals.

—Right. It wasn’t about the imagery, as you said.

Ueda: Then again, with ICO I was always saying “it’s not done yet, it’s not done yet!” all the way up to the end. I’m sure that if I showed other people that PS1 version now, they’d think it was pretty far along. (laughs)

http://shmuplations.com/ueda/

 

[Dr_LucienSanchez]

Isn't this pretty significant also?

Sony, for its part, indulges Ueda’s perfectionism. When asked, in 2015, whether the company would like to work with him on another project, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, said, “Everyone would.”

 

[HStallion]

Isn't this pretty significant also?

We have heard this before in interviews with both Shuhei and Ueda. Despite working as a contractor on TLG and starting his own company he stated he liked the new set up with Studio Japan handing the technology end of things leaving Ueda and his team to focus on the design aspect. Shuhei seems like a giant Ueda fan himself and I have no doubt he would love to keep working with Ueda. His games might not sell 5 million copies but they give a little of artistic prestige to Sony that others cannot. Also what other developer would support a game like TLG for nearly a decade over two console generations.

Edit: I'll add it into the OP just in case.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Isn't this pretty significant also?

It's worth highlighting (lord knows I have in past threads regarding Ueda's future projects), but it's old news.

 

[More_Badass]

Isn't this pretty significant also?

Arguably, Ueda is up there with Kojima with how influential his games have been, so seeing how long and strongly Sony has stuck with his projects over the year (Ico moving from PS1 to 2, TLG's lengthy development, etc.), they like having his level of talent making games for Playstation, even if takes years for them to come

 

[Daffy Duck]

I've never followed this game but why did the development of TLG take so long?

 

[HStallion]

I've never followed this game but why did the development of TLG take so long?

The PS3 could never handle it. The trailers we saw were often sped up to an acceptable frame rate but the game itself was a slide show by most accounts.

 

[Jawbreaker]

I've never followed this game but why did the development of TLG take so long?

They had trouble getting it to run on a PS3, so they shifted development over to the PS4 when that became a viable alternative rather than canceling the project.

 

[GIANKRATOS]

Love Ueda, his works are truly inspiring.

 

[jacksepticeye]

One of the true great visionary's in the industry!

 

[dreamfall]

I can't wait for this game - the man is an inspiration, and his projects have defined so much about what I love in this medium. Incredible to hear how he affected Miyazaki also - can't wait to put on a good pair of headphones and pick up the controller to finally play this game!

 

[Salaadin]

Excellent article. Some bits in there that I never heard before.

Ueda stands right next to Kojima and Miyamoto for me. He's one of the greats.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

I didn't know that Hidetaka bit, that's great. Had no idea he worked at Oracle.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I didn't know that Hidetaka bit, that's great. Had no idea he worked at Oracle.

Kind of explains his games .

 

[HStallion]

Kind of explains his games .

Oracle's corporate motto: Prepare to Die

 

[gfxtwin]

I remember many years ago seeing this photo online of Miyomoto (and Aonuma too, if I remember correctly) standing directly in front of the SOTC booth at its e3 debut looking absolutely overjoyed. And there was an article that said he needed to re-think the next zelda game after that year's e3. The next Zelda game was eventually revealed to be Twilight Princess. It was a great, historic photo, wish I could find it again.

On a related note, I'm pretty sure a strong case can be made that a lot of Breath of the Wild's art style is inspired by Team Ico's games.

 

[HStallion]

I remember many years ago seeing this photo online of Miyomoto (and Aonuma too, if I remember correctly) standing directly in front of the SOTC booth at its e3 debut looking absolutely overjoyed. And there was an article that said he needed to re-think the next zelda game after that year's e3. The next Zelda game was eventually revealed to be Twilight Princess. It was a great, historic photo, wish I could find it again.

On a related note, I'm pretty sure a strong case can be made that a lot of Breath of the Wild's art style is inspired by Team Ico's games.

The touch of Studio Ghibli perhaps. I have a feeling Ghibli and Hiyao Miyazaki had an effect on Ueda. He's probably talked about it in an interview somewhere I missed.

 

[Jawbreaker]

The touch of Studio Ghibli perhaps. I have a feeling Ghibli and Hiyao Miyazaki had an effect on Ueda. He's probably talked about it in an interview somewhere I missed.

He has. More specifically, he cited My Neighbor Totoro as an inspiration for The Last Guardian.

 

[gfxtwin]

And pretty sure the paintings of Ul Del Rico influenced his work with Sony. Maybe even the movie adaptation of The Neverending Story, but I dunno, his creative sensibilities are not very similar to that film at all, though quite a few superficial visual things reminiscent of TNS seem to be appropriated, especially in SOTC. But I still feel like his visual style is unique somehow, especially in regards to how he animates and portrays sunlight, architecture, etc in those games.