The elusive director of Shadow of the Colossus explains how the "harmony" of technology, mechanics, and design enables the creation of his landmark games.
"When I started working on Ico, I didn't set out to make such an emotional game; it just happened naturally. Whether or not I aim to make something emotional, it inevitably becomes so."
- Fumito Ueda on his development aesthetic in a new interview.
While the Edge interview of the The Last Guardian, Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus director is forced to avoid the topic of his long-delayed game, he does explain his design ethos clearly.
According to Ueda, the hand-holding mechanic in Ico evolved naturally from a desire to create a game where multiple characters touched each other, instead of fought -- while "taking into consideration the hardware specification at that time and the skills of the team."
This lead naturally to clinging to the large enemies in Shadow of the Colossus, says Ueda, and ultimately The Last Guardian: "... rather than invent a new mechanic, we started production of The Last Guardian to make use of the mechanics we had created so far. To create a system that lets you hold hands or grab onto a gigantic creature and move around, we had to fuse technology, mechanics, and design in the closest harmony possible."
Rather than shying away from this fusion, Ueda embraces it: "Video games and technology are inextricable from one another. It will be like that for the next few years at least," he observes.
In the interview, he also speaks briefly about his ambitions beyond The Last Guardian (which he says he's mostly finished with), including games that capitalize on VR and touch devices, as well as a zombie game.
The full interview, full of insights and observations from the elusive creator, is available at Edge.
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