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ICO Proto
Ico was in development for about 4
years. In the first stages of development Ueda created an animation
in Lightwave in order to get a feel for the final game and better
convey his vision to the team. In this animation Yorda was the one
to have horns rather than Ico and looked rather different in
general, as can be observed in the video of Ico's demo reel, in
particular the scenes of Ico looking down on Yorda on the couch and
Yorda's hand examining Ico's face. In the final game Ico was given
horns instead in order to be more easily identified onscreen.
Originally planned for a release on the PlayStation, development
started in earnest in 1998 with a team initially composed mostly of
people from outside the game industry. Game design was guided by
three key notions: to make a game that would be different from
others in the genre; that would feature an aesthetic style that
would be consistently artistic; and that would play out in an
imaginary yet realistic setting. This was primarily achieved by
subtracting common gameplay elements, such as the HUD, leaving only
what is essential. Another method was using key frame animation
instead of the more common motion capture technique.
Development switched to the PlayStation 2 in late 1999, which gave
the team a more powerful platform to better achieve their original
goals. Elements present around this time included a storyline trying
to get Yorda back to her room, rather than an all-out escape from
the castle and enemies that resembled the horned warriors seen at
the beginning of the final game, rather than the shadowy wraiths.
Despite these and some other differences, stylistically the game
remained faithful to the original vision presented in the video, as
well as always maintaining the core gameplay elements that center
around puzzle solving.
[info from
Wikipedia] |
