When asked who his target audience for his games was, Takahashi answered that he was. “I make games that I feel satisfied with, so I’d like people to play them if they want to,” he replied. “I guess I probably should make games while thinking about the target audience, but I’ll work on that in my next life.”
Well damn, this man is BASED
I’m interested in trying everything the man does, Katamari is such a gem. Probably the best game in the “genre” of replayable stage-based games.
The soundtrack alone is still a must-play for me.
This one seems like it’s going to have a similarly great soundtrack.
I want to wad you up into my life
He made some weird worm game for PS3, I recall. I’m not sure it did very well. I think he got burnt out on katamari.
The worm one was Noby Noby Boy.
I think it’s interesting to note here that he was the Director of the first two Katamaris, Director/Designer of Noby Noby Boy, but from there on out is just a designer. I think it shows that not only does he want to work with other people but that he doesn’t necessarily want full creative control as much as he values the input from others in creative ideas.
Which also makes it a little frustrating that all the games are still marketed as “From the Creator of Katamari Damacy!” while it seems like he’s just another designer on a team and he’s happy with that. More like the businesses use him as a marketing gimmick, maybe?
That list is crazy, so many niche platforms and limited availability:
- Glitch was a failed Flash based MMO, that launched as a production release, was pulled back into beta 2 months later and then closed in late 2012. During this second beta they seemed to host a virtual death cult. Its messaging framework was later rebranded as Slack
- Tenya Wanya Teens was designed to tour as an art piece last exhibited in 2014
- Alphabet was bundled with Experimental Game Pack 01, a promo for LA Game Space a failed incubator/exhibition space the broke up in 2018
- Woorld was a mixed reality game developed for Google Tango, a tech that hasn’t seen support on a new device since 2017
- Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure was developed for the Playdate and was featured in Season 1. This is still available, in fact it is a pack-in title with the Playdate.
I’ve just wish listed Wattam, its his only still available non-Katamari title that runs on a mainstream platform.
Either that or he got tired of Bandai’s meddling with Namco.
I played so much of that game soo many times when I first got it.
I hope it succeeds. A positive game about diversity and inclusion in this economy.
A dev recognizing the value of diversity. Nice.
I am so hyped for this weird game!
Centering a service animal is dope!
I’ve never heard of the game designer mentioned in the article or of Katamari, just wanted to mention that it must be nice having that kind of creative freedom.
His latest game doesn’t look like it’s for me, but the concept sounds original.
