Official PlayStation Magazine - 04.2020

59

I ERVIEW

A

Q

0

THE OPM I E

OPM: Wattam is your first game on this
generation of home consoles. Do you
feel like there’s more freedom to
explore ideas as technology becomes
more powerful?
KT: Of course more high spec machines
would be good for me. Even Wattam,
which looks so simple and cute graphics,
but our engineers worked so hard to
optimise it to keep 30fps. I know our
optimisations were not enough to keep it

30fps at all situations, unfortunately.

It’s a kinda complicated system more^

than you and also we expected. So I

would say I’m happy about more

powerful and efficient technology, and

we will be able to get stable and decent^

performance without extra works.

But also I know there are other things

on the Earth which [are] called novels and

manga. I know they can surprise or

touching us so many times. And

surprisingly they are made by just

letters and drawings, but no particle^

effects, no sound effects, and no

interaction. That’s just stories and

pictures, which doesn’t require any

futuristic technologies...

Your question is “Do you feel like

there’s more freedom to explore ideas as

the technology becomes more powerful?”

My answer is maybe or maybe not, it

depends on the game.

The works

The games in

Keita Takahashi’s

catalogue that you

should know

Katamari

Damacy

(2004) Director

Along with its 2005

sequel, We Love

Katamari, this was

all about the Prince’s

quest to repopulate

space with stars on behalf of his quirky

father, the King Of All Cosmos. You did

this by rolling balls all over Japan,

accumulating larger and larger items,

until you go from forming a tiny one in

a kitchen to rolling up entire houses.

Wattam

(2019) Designer

In Wattam you

play as the Mayor

of nowhere, who

gradually welcomes

more and more

friends – all of them anthropomorphised

everyday objects – to the seasonally

themed islands. Some of them speak

different languages, but they connect

through their actions, such as blowing

themselves up with the Kaboom bomb

the Mayor keeps under his bowler hat

(which is all harmless fun).

Noby Noby Boy

(2009) Director,

designer

Where Katamari was

all about getting

bigger, Noby Noby

Boy was all about

getting longer. The playable Boy could

stretch his body to fantastic lengths,

with the goal being to stretch as much

as possible. It was a play on the

Japanese word ‘nobi’ meaning ‘stretch’

and ‘nobinobi’ meaning ‘carefree’ – as

you do plenty of both.