Keita Takahashi sits alone, six thousand miles from home, in a damp, vacant house set within the grounds of an autumn forest somewhere in the middle of England. He wears a puffer jacket, huddled next to an electric fire for warmth.
With slow, meticulous movements he wraps a length of string around the short, rounded sword he's fashioned from a bent coat hanger. Aside from an intermittent cough, the house is otherwise empty of all noise.
Pastel sketches are spread out on the table around him, pastoral scenes, all browns, yellows and familiar yet unidentifiable rustic blurs. Clutches of green sticky notes punctuate a white board above. On each square of paper a single word is written in all-caps English. Some are verbs: "VIEW", "RUN", "LIE", ROLL". Others are nouns: "HOLE", "TUBE", "GRASS", "SLOPE", like a checklist for creation written into existence by a monosyllabic god.
We recently played Wattam, but we also got to speak with one of its creators, Keita Takahashi, who is most known for Noby Noby Boy and Katamari Damacy. He spoke to us about poop, his embarrassment over his work, and more.
A developer daring to be different. I hope this game is good. I really enjoyed his Katamari games.
Really weird and super sucks Sony canceled them, especially given their history of patience with even the most niche games. Glad it survived through all that, going the extra mile to support it and grabbed the special edition physical release with the vinyl soudtrack.
It’s almost like he is asking for reassurance regarding poop being funny.
Well, it is. Just in the right quantities.
We recently played Wattam, but we also got to speak with one of its creators, Keita Takahashi, who is most known for Noby Noby Boy and Katamari Damacy. He spoke to us about poop, his embarrassment over his work, and more.
So does this mean Sony's not going to be taking his crap?! This developer definitely has some great creativity and the Katamari are a hoot. I hope we see more in the future.
Well, he certainly seems like a lovely human being. Perhaps a little too humble but I appreciate his lack of ego - not very common in today's gaming climate. Yet another reason why Japanese gaming is my preferred country of origin. The personalities of the people making the games are SO important to the outcome. In the West, devs tend to be either money grubbing corporatists looking to squeeze every dollar possible or they are egotistical narcissists who think it's their job to change the world through their "art". Ugh.
This week Brett Taylor(@BATzerk) creator of Linelight joins Tiny(@Tiny415), Mike(@AssaultSuit) and Aaron (@Ind1fference) to talk about: Linelight, Arcadium, Noby Noby Boy, Peter Panic, Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, Diddy Kong Racing, Cosmic Express, Stardew Valley, Allen Hazelton, Paper Mario Color Splash, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, My Dog Zorro, Extra Life United, Shack News, IDARB, Ultimate Chicken Horse, Overcooked, Brawlhala, Power Rangers, Bryan Cranston, Justice League, Spider-Man Homecoming, Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them, Nightcrawler, Dirty Grandpa, Chappelle, Marvel’s Iron Fist, Mass Effect Andromeda, Snake Pass, Yooka-Laylee, Overwatch, Orisa, Neo Turf Masters, Blaster Master Zero, Horizon Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild, Everything, Rain World, Battle Princess Madelyn, DESYNC, Splatoon 2.0 Test Fire, Has Been Heroes, Pandemonium, N-gage, My and more.
Good article. It is always interesting to me to hear artists talk about what moves them, and what frustrates them about commercialism. As a musician, I have a similar feeling about wanting to do your own thing, and being absolutely bored with the mainstream that I really don't have a clue on why so many people like.
I bought Noby Noby Boy without knowinng anything about the maker of the game, and I always wondered how a wierd little game like that comes about. Hopefully this guy sticks around making more strange little games, but it seems like his concerns about the viability in being able to do that in an ever more global, corporate business are valid.