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Katamari Creator Getting Out Of Games
The BBC reports that Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi sees himself in a different field in 10 years. From the article: "'I would like to create a playground for children,' he said. 'A normal playground is flat but I want an undulating one, with bumps.' At first glance, this seems a strange ambition for a game designer. But Mr Takahashi has a degree in sculpture and Katamari is all about a tactile world. And he believes children should spend more time in the physical world and less time wrapped up in the virtual world of games."
The video game business is a harsh one. I don't blame him, if I didn't love programming, I'd probably just get into art.
Plus I hear he's been through a great deal of crap with his sequel. The industry is quite cut-throat.
This doesn't really come as a surprise, considering Takahashi has said numerous times that he doesn't even really like video games that much.
Nonetheless, it's kind of disappointing to see Takahashi, someone who came out of literally nowhere to deliver something completely unique to the industry, leaving it.
A Katamari-based playground would be awesome. I'd totally play on it, though I think I might be too old for it. :)
It's only an insult if it's not true.
That's too bad... Maybe we can convince him to do both? Katamari was addicting, the one time I played it.
Getting out of games in 10 years? Wow, stop the presses. I love the sensationalized headline approach.
/. story" award. What is there really to discuss? Dammit, don't bother answering that, I'm only hurting my own cause.
On a side note, this story seems like an early candidate for the "least number of responses to a
I didn't get to actually meet him, but I was prigiledged to see a quick glimpse of him close-up at GDC this year. He seems like a really down to earth guy who was not at all expecting the level of fame that he's aquired for himself with katamari. And yes, the real side of video games is... ugly. It's a shame that the nice people who want to change the world for the better through their art have to put up with the ugly "business" side of it. At least he got to get a small part his vision out to the world in the form of Katamari.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
I've played hundreds of games, from the Atari 2600 days through to today, and it'd depressing for me to notice that my opinion of video games is largely the same as his.
There's just not that much interesting out there. I even come to agree with him on his synopsis of Nintendo games, which is about as positive as I've heard from him. He said, of Mario and Zelda, that they're good and fun, well-made, but you probably won't be surprised by them.
Here's what I consider to be the great tragedy here. This is a man who is so obviously equipped to be one of the greatest game designers we've ever known. Out of the gates he created Katamari Damacy! And video games are, arguably, the creative field with the most potential.
But all that potential is, most of the time, wasted.
five more sequals?
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
"envisioning himself in a different field in 10 years" != "getting out of games". The headline made it seem like he quit his job...sheesh. A better headline would have been "Katamari creator thinks it's possible he may not be making games forever...or maybe he will...we dont know. Who do you think we are that we would know everything? Jeez." It IS a bit long, but accurate...and it addresses any complaints people might have.
Wow... There's like 12 comments here.
And on a side note, that's going to be the coolest playground ever made.
Who said he'd never do a sequel to Katamari.
I mean, kudos to him for making an awesome game, but I wouldn't expect him to stick to his guns.
On the whole "3D Playgroung" idea of his, I'm pretty sure I saw an advertisement for some neat undulating play surfaces about a year ago or so that his idea reminds me of
It damn well better have hamster balls for the little kids to katamari around in, then!
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
He has made comments along these lines before. Probably already posted on Slashdot before. Hell there are probably already comments on this article pointing this out before me.
Not that his design powers can make kids any stickier than they already are, but I'd be worried. Entropy would be high.
So how is he supposed to be getting out of the games industry?
By Royal Rainbow?
Undulating play surfaces sounds like an orthopedic specialists wet dream. This is just another example of a nerd not understanding user interface design.