Project O Update
The producer and art directors share a few new insights.
by Anoop Gantayat
May 24, 2007 - Remember Project O? You know, Marvelous Interactive´s original Wii game that drew attention at its announcement a couple of months back due to some of the players involved, including Hideo Minaba (art director on Final Fantasy XII), Kazuyuki Kurashima (designer of Moon and Endnesia), Youichi Kawaguchi (main programmer on Dragon Quest VIII) and Yoshirou Kimura (Moon, Chulip)? The mysterious game is back in the news again following an interview with Kimura, producer, Minaba, character designer, and Kurashima, monster designer, the latest issue of Famitsu.
The three first began by offering details on how the project came about. It all started, according to Minaba, when Kimura asked him for advice on what kind of art style should make it into the game. Kurashima recalled being called into a Watami (a Japanese restaurant chain) in Tokyo´s Shinjuku district; apparently, this was Minaba´s doing. And so began design work on Project O, with initial discussions centering on art and character designs.
We´d make our way to the Shinjuku Watami to scan the floors for any clues or forgotten pieces of art, but it turns out that there are quite a few Watami´s in the Shinjuku area.
Following this initial work, the project was interrupted as Kurashima found himself in the hospital. He spent a month in a bed, he disclosed to the magazine, although he´s feeling better now . In fact, the week following his release from the hospital, he apparently began creating rough sketches of the game´s monsters.
Minaba and Kurashima provided a couple of pieces of artwork to the magazine. Kurashima´s monster designs are a bit out of the ordinary. There´s a chicken standing upright and flexing its muscles, an insane-looking bipedal cow, a tiny creature with a giant turnip on its head (or maybe that is the head!), and a volcano with what appears to be a single hand at rest beside it. Minaba´s artwork shows a crowd of these creatures in a market beside a wooden structure that seems to be under construction.
"There are people who make things, and people who destroy things," commented Minaba of his artwork. Kimura continued, "Development and destruction are the keys to this games. In town, there are groups of people. Outside of town, there are groups of monsters. Development and destruction continues to take place, but it´s all done via AI. I can´t say anything clearer yet, though."
Kurashima provided the one small bit of solid info in the entire interview. We can look forward to over 60 creature forms, although he admitted that he´s made rough sketches for only 50 of them at this point. He´s going for a European essence with the art, which Kimura commented resembles something out of a European short animation.
While the three interviewees didn´t give too much information on their project, Famitsu´s summary of the game has us intrigued. The magazine describes the game as one part life simulation, where you view the action from afar and characters carry out their lives according to AI routines, and one part adventure game, where you follow the storyline of the main character from a closer perspective.
Two updates and Famitsu, and still only vague hints at what we can expect. Project O isn´t due for Japanese release until 2008, but we presume Marvelous will start giving solid details before then. We´d suggest checking back close to the September Tokyo Game Show, where Nintendo and the Wii are expected to have a big presence.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/791/791523p1.html
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