Keita Takahashi's GameCity presentation

Keita's GameCity presentation pretty much redefined "weird and wonderful". I loved it.

He began by apologising for having agreed to do a keynote, because he's shy and doesn't do well in public, and he followed by putting on gentle sounds of water and birds tweeting, "to calm us". Then, using a combination of Edgies and Desktastic (this is why macs pwn windows/powerpoint for presentations), he took us through a number of stories: how his favourite Havaiana flipflops broke at the thong, which is a bad omen. "Maybe my plane will crash".

...how a house-elf had taken over his computer.

...how far his mansion in Tokyo (his apartment building) was from the Broadway Media Centre in Nottingham.

...how he'd played the multiplayer networked game called "collecting the Miffy stickers from food products to win a bowl and cup set" (the "End Boss").

...how no-one likes trucks because they are loud and smelly, but maybe people would like them if they were cuter? Although he thinks not.

 

...how his downstairs neighbours were loud and annoying, so he had planted some plants which he hoped would grow down to their balcony and cut out their light, which might start a confrontation. This was my favourite one. The hilarious gentleness of the supposedly aggressive move.

And then the Nobi-Nobi Boy. This might translate to Freely Boy, but also to Free and Easy Boy or maybe even Postponed Boy.   I'm looking forward to seeing what actually comes out on the packaging; I suspect they might even stick with Nobi-Nobi Boy in US/EU, in the end.

Nobi-Nobi Boy is in development, so there were no game objectives, and no obvious levelling up mechanics. "Do you need objectives?", asked Keita of the audience. The audience shuffled a "We don't know! Maybe?" sort of noise. Keita laughed and looked nervous - or pretended to. There's a lot of Nobi-Nobi Boy still under wraps, "confidential", so I bet we haven't seen the half of it, and while he may make out that he's just playing, and isn't sure where the game is going, I have a feeling he does really.

 

He's a very playful man.

(All photos taken from gruntzooki's Flickrstream)

Comments

[Joel]

Thanks for a wonderful introduction to Takahashi's presentation, it was the simple soft touch it needed, showing how loved and inspiring the game has been rather than the disection of gameplay that it could have been. Fitted the mood really well :D

It was wonderful to see the game flow infront of our eyes, as well as his simple point of 'look around you'.

[Elsa]

It was an amazing presentation, very playful and like his games totally different to the 'norm'. I hadn't realised you were going to be doing the introduction, which was awesome. Two heroes for the price of one. Thank you.

[Alice]

Aww.. thanks ! Blushing now.

[Merman]

Really enjoyed all the presentation, from Alice's intro (love the Katamari hat) to the bit about growing a plant to annoy a neighbour through to the glimpse of Nobi Nobi Boy.

[Andrew]

Neat writeup, and I did enjoy the introduction which you went through Katamari Damacy's cultural heritage. Thumbs up on you and Keita!

I'll try and get the video out eventually, although the Nottingham Evening Post ( http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=252985&command=newPage ) got a quick one of the prototype in action, it's fun seeing the talk from end to end (I wish you had put up the picture of the "End Boss Bunny" :D ).

[rach]

thanks for a great write-up, meant i could just link yours rather than having to write my own! your pics are much better than my rubbish camera phone ones too ;) not sure how to get trackback to work so here is a link to my blogpost: http://omegazoid.blogspot.com/2007/11/game-city-and-other-such-fun.html

was ace to meet you too, i'll echo what elsa said :) and much love for the craft stuff in the intro too!

p.s. if elsa is still reading - get in touch, i forgot to get your email address! :)