GA SHOCKER!!! Katamari: "Half-baked idea"

M

Mr. Lemming

Member
The December 2004 issue of Game Developer has a post-mortem of Katamari written by game director, Keita Takahashi. These articles are my favorite part of the magazine and this one is no different. The origins of Katamari are discussed, along with the rationale behind several design decisions. Yu Miyake, the sound director, also discusses the music behind the game. Apparently that is him humming on the title screen.

Things that went right:

Researching Scale
No Powerups
Controlling the Rolling
Peaceful, Easy Feeling
Audible Experience

Things that went Wrong:

Tipping the scale
Falling Apart
The Camera and the Queasy
Not Getting Oblong
Time Limits

"We are living in a strange world when I see that this "half-baked idea" is being praised as something totally new. I'm not trying to be humble, but it would be great if the favorable reviews of this game motivated other people to create something new, without focusing on the bottom line for once."
 
Yeah, one of the guys I know from over at Gamasutra showed me the article a couple days ago. Really cool stuff. The cover is super cute, too, lemme find a pic if I can...nope, shoot, the cover on their website is still the November issue.

Anyway, it's the Oji rolling up the Game Developer logo. Very fun.

DFS.
 
Mr. Lemming said:
The December 2004 issue of Game Developer has a post-mortem of Katamari written by game director, Keita Takahashi. These articles are my favorite part of the magazine and this one is no different. The origins of Katamari are discussed, along with the rationale behind several design decisions. Yu Miyake, the sound director, also discusses the music behind the game. Apparently that is him humming on the title screen.

Things that went right:

Researching Scale
No Powerups
Controlling the Rolling
Peaceful, Easy Feeling
Audible Experience

Things that went Wrong:

Tipping the scale
Falling Apart
The Camera and the Queasy
Not Getting Oblong
Time Limits

"We are living in a strange world when I see that this "half-baked idea" is being praised as something totally new. I'm not trying to be humble, but it would be great if the favorable reviews of this game motivated other people to create something new, without focusing on the bottom line for once."
Click to expand...
Those are probably the things they will aim to fix in KD 2.
 
Did anyone really say it was a "new" idea, though? I've heard comparisons between Super Monkey Ball and the like. I thought the message behind the reviews was that it was light-hearted, simple, and fun. Which does make it unique these days, but hardly new... I dunno, still love the game, even if the guy who made it thinks it's crap.
 
Soul4ger said:
Did anyone really say it was a "new" idea, though? I've heard comparisons between Super Monkey Ball and the like. I thought the message behind the reviews was that it was light-hearted, simple, and fun. Which does make it unique these days, but hardly new... I dunno, still love the game, even if the guy who made it thinks it's crap.
Click to expand...

I don't think you could compare it to Monkey Ball, really. They both involve "rolling" something, but the actual goals of the game are entirely different.

Oh, is there anyway to get ahold of this article (ie - someplace to buy this magazine)?
 
dark10x said:
I don't think you could compare it to Monkey Ball, really. They both involve "rolling" something, but the actual goals of the game are entirely different.
Click to expand...

The goals are different, and you don't "tilt" the stage in KD like you do in SMB, but I think the general concept, rolling the ball around a staged littered with obstacles, is at its core the same. It also provides an easy reference for people. My point, by the way, wasn't that that's what I thought, but I've seen and heard the parallels drawn.
 
dark10x said:
I don't think you could compare it to Monkey Ball, really. They both involve "rolling" something, but the actual goals of the game are entirely different.

Oh, is there anyway to get ahold of this article (ie - someplace to buy this magazine)?
Click to expand...

It's a tough one to find on stands. I don't know if I've ever seen it, although you could try a big bookstore or someplace with a scholarly/technical bent. Their official website...

http://www.gdmag.com/homepage.htm

...sells back issues and subscriptions, so you could try there.

DFS.
 
Well,

Champagne was invented by accident :D

(assuming Nicholas Cage wasn't just talking out his arse in The Rock :lol)

eastercontinental.jpg

How about a glass of fine champagne?
 
I do see it related to Super Monkey Ball and in a wider view pinball and home amusement games such as the classic knob-controlled wooden labyrinth to cheap plastic wrist games with metal balls. I call it the "Rolling" genre and it's one of my favorites. I'll include any game where the player controls a rolling spheroid figuring it all started with Marble Madness(my all-time fav Arcade game) and loosely includes platform games like the Metroid and Sonic Series. Billy Hatcher could've been a contender but the mechanic became boring due to poor environment design. It shows up all the time in my most beloved videogame moments from the Bumper Balls of Mario Party to Goron rolling in LOZ:MM.

Ok, so it's not really robust enough to be a full-fledged genre, but there is lots more that can be done: MORE destruction - I need to roll and EXPLODE!, BOUNCE and STICK and ROLL for diverse environmental traversal, and MULTIPLAYER complex physics fests to name a few. ROLL OUT!
 
Weird - just got home from work, checked my mailbox, and logged on to make this thread.

kd_gdmag.jpg


More brief than some of GDmag's usual postmortems, but informative nonetheless, and I dug the KD team group photo.
 
brandonnn said:
More brief than some of GDmag's usual postmortems.
Click to expand...

It is, but its more of a postmortem on the game rather than a postmortem on the project, which many of the usual ones fall into. Instead of going Good: Tools, Teamwork Bad: Scheduling, Not enough time for testing, its game specific stuff.
 
Since we're sort of on the topic...

How is Game Developer as a magazine? Good reading? I remember reading an issue about a year and half ago, but don't remember that much.
 
Zero said:
Since we're sort of on the topic...

How is Game Developer as a magazine? Good reading? I remember reading an issue about a year and half ago, but don't remember that much.
Click to expand...

I enjoy it, but it is on the short side, which wouldn't be so bad if the magazine didn't cost as much as it does. A good portion of the magazine focuses on the technical aspects of game development (coding, modeling, animation, etc). Most people seem to enjoy the postmortem section the most.
 
Bwahaha @ topic.

And to see everyone doing the usual gravy stroke over it to a unison of moans.
 
I enjoy it, but it is on the short side, which wouldn't be so bad if the magazine didn't cost as much as it does.
Click to expand...

If you are a developer you get subscriptions for free :P

(edit: fixed the most awkwardly worded sentence ever)
 
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