The beginning of Wattam introduces us to the Mayor, the main character that we will control throughout the game. However, it doesn't start too well for him. After a catastrophe that has separated everyone, the poor have been left completely alone and sad. It is then when he meets a small stone with which he befriends, and later on another larger stone, and then the Sun, and the plants, and a host of objects turned into cute characters. The Mayor smiles again.
And that is the philosophy that permeates each of the works of Keita Takahashi, one of the most interesting video game designers of the last two decades. Make people laugh through fun, original, friendly and kind-hearted games. Wattam It is perhaps the most evident of all in terms of its premise on the ties that we strengthen through the game, but that very marked identity is evident in any of his works.
As he himself explained in an interview with The Japan TimesIt all started when I was a student of Sculpture at the Musashino University of Fine Arts. There, he once decided to sculpt a goat-shaped vase. If you tried to fill it with water, it would come out of each of its udders. When he showed the final result to his teacher and his classmates, they burst out laughing. That's when Takahashi learned that his works they had to make others laugh.
In fact, despite having studied it, he never wanted to dedicate himself to sculpture. Although it is certainly an artistic expression like any other, Takahashi was concerned that the only relationship we could develop with his works was observation. He wanted them to have a purpose, a more interactive nature. As a result of that motivation, in 1999 he joined Namco to work in the video game world.
Katamari Damacy, a historical first feature
After a few years collaborating on various projects as a concept artist, Takahashi embarked on the development of his own game on the advice of Mitsutoshi Ozaki, one of his superiors at Namco. It seemed to him that his idea was different and daring compared to what used to be seen in the middle, and from there was born the great Katamari Damacy, released in 2004 for PS2. A title that showed that it is not necessary to follow the fashions to be a complete success for critics and audiences.
The premise in itself is cutting. The King of the Cosmos has made all the stars of the universe disappear in a drunken night, so he has commissioned us, his son, to reestablish them and correct their error. How? Rolling a strange ball called Katamari that is going to get bigger and bigger like a snowball.
With the special peculiarity that, for this to happen, we have to pass it over all kinds of objects and beings so that these stick to it so it can grow. Small things first, like bugs or pencils; then trees or even buildings. Each completed Katamari will be launched into the sky as a new star.
In short, a madness that absolutely no one saw coming. Playing it was (and is, because it was recently remastered) incredibly fun, seeing how that ball is filling up with all kinds of crazy things. Takahashi was inspired by the objects of everyday life to make this game, he wanted to give prominence to those mundane things that we use day after day and that we never stop to think about, showing a much more fun side of all of them. Deliveries of Katamari They house thousands of objects, and each one of them has a humorous description, even the smallest thing you can think of.
To infinity and beyond with Noby Noby Boy
His next work, without counting any of the sequels of Katamari Damacy, It was Noby Noby Boy, a small downloadable title released for PS3 in 2009. Following in the wake of his previous work, here we find another game that has nothing to do with anything we have played before. We are Boy, a kind of pink worm that is made up of two parts: the front and the rear. By controlling both we can stretch to unthinkable lengths and interact with the crazy objects and characters that populate each of the levels. That's it, that's the goal.
Well, actually there is one more. The more we stretch and make the goat, the more points we will get, which we can donate to another character called Girl. This is stretching throughout the Solar System, and depending on the points you receive you can go further. The grace is that the points of players from all over the world are accumulated through the internet
In fact, in 2015 managed to reach his goal. After six years of progress, Girl received enough points to go around the entire Solar System and reach the Sun, her final goal. It was at that moment when we were able to say that "we had passed" Noby Noby Boy. Although that feature is no longer available, it was a great demonstration of the spirit of the game: working together based on having fun, to mess around and experiment with its possibilities. Just having a good time you already felt that you were contributing. In short, a great way to appeal to the collective game, to union with others through the purest (and bizarre) entertainment. Something that I would later develop in Wattam.
Wattam is his most mature (and fun) job
After leaving Namco, Takahashi went to live in Vancouver to participate in the development of Glitch, an online browser game directed by Stewart Butterfield. Unfortunately it was not very successful and they were forced to cserver crash one year after launch. Tiny Speck, the studio behind its development, took advantage of Glitch's foundation to create the Slack workplace communication app, and later the company would be renamed Slack Technologies.
Although the project could be considered a failure, that experience was decisive for Takahashi's development as an artist. Having lived in Japan, was surprised for the cultural mix so abundant that he could see in Vancouver. There, people from all kinds of different backgrounds and cultures related to each other, collaborating with each other as equals.
That was the seed that would end up sprouting Wattam
Wattam It is a peculiar sandbox in which every action has an absurd reaction capable of causing laughter. The character of La Boca can eat almost everyone else and expel them converted into a poop, which then have the possibility of getting into the Toilet (which is also a character) to leave transformed into golden poo. In the process, everyone laughs and has a blast. Also, to move forward we have to shake hands and dance in chorus during certain scenes. A whole song to the purest children's fun (not surprisingly, it was also inspired by how their children play to create it) that culminates in a beautiful message about friendship and forgiveness.
Create avant-garde with smiles and good humor
Takahashi is an artist who prefers to create games that show the kindest and most positive side of the world. It is his particular way of fighting all the negativity and the unfortunate events that populate the news every day. At the same time, it also seeks to distance itself from the most abundant trends in video games; his concepts are not only original, but are also completely devoid of violence on purpose.
This breaking of conventions does not come out of nowhere. The same has admitted more than once does not play video gamesHe simply likes to do them because he believes they have great potential. However, he considers that this is very wasted, with lots of titles that always follow the patterns of the great references. His entire career as a designer has been defined by that fight against the mainstream.
When asked in GamesIndsutry If he believed that it had been successful, he replied that he does not know. His games, while famous, cannot be compared to the billionaire hit of bombs like Gta or Fortnite. He constantly finds himself fighting against himself and his expectations, since despite his colorful and noble ideas, he does not see himself as an optimistic person. He does not think that his work will change the video game, but at least we know first hand that he has achieved provoke smiles everywhere and make many people happy, as proposed in the university. For that alone, their games are incredibly valuable.
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