- Namco's Keita Takahashi designer of Katamari Damacy in a recent gamasutra article.interviewer: How do you get your bosses to let you do what you want?
Keita Takahashi: I don't think it's anything special. I just write down my ideas on paper, present it to them, and if they don't really understand, I say, “Well, you'll understand if I make it.” Then I make part of it, and they understand. But I don't really have any kind of marketing plan when I put this stuff together, I just propose what I think might be fun or exciting. I don't really have a good knowledge of what will sell. All I can really do is make it and see what happens!
Each January I have the privilege of sitting down with groups of my students to hear them present their final mobile game proposals for the Games Development module.
Students are free to express their ideas however they think best, from paper prototypes to functional Flash, Java or Processing demos - and we always get some really interesting and thought
provoking results.Some pitches drew on the unique features of mobile devices, like Martin Blackburn's Mobile Processing demo of a mobile chase game in which one player tries to stay within bluetooth range of another. Others, like Peter Walker's gambling & gangsters game 'Mobs' focused on how to develop compelling narrative and addictive game assets with a limited screen size.
James Roberts discussed a long-term social big game in which players must contract digital viruses through bluetooth proximity to develop anti-bodies and survive. This game had the added twist that players could plug in their phones to charge as a way of halting their scientist character's deterioration - "Can I make it to the plug socket in the library from here while keeping my character alive?".
Finally, Ben Dare proposed a quirky tale of a misunderstood man in a mask battling his way around the city (with peaceful weapons - a pea shooter and a megaphone). The initial spark of inspiration came from GIMP - the free digital creative tool he was using.
