is a Japanese
video game designer
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
. Ueda is best known as the director and lead designer of ''
Ico
is an action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released for the PlayStation 2 video game console in 2001 and 2002 in various regions. It was designed and directed by Fumito U ...
'' (2001) and ''
Shadow of the Colossus
''Shadow of the Colossus'' is a 2005 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It takes place in a fantasy setting and follows Wander, a young man who ente ...
'' (2005) while leading
Team Ico
Team Ico was a Japanese video game development studio led by game designer Fumito Ueda. It was part of Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio's Product Development Department #1, and had developed the games ''Ico'' and ''Shadow of the Coloss ...
at
Japan Studio
Japan Studio was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. A first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment), it was best known for the ''Ape Escape'', ''LocoRoco'', '' Patapon'', ''Gravity Ru ...
, and ''
The Last Guardian
''The Last Guardian'' is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and GenDesign and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Players control a boy who befriends a giant half-bird, half-mammal creature, ...
'' (2016) through his own development company GenDesign. His games have achieved cult status and are distinguished by their usage of minimal plot and scenario using
fictional language
Fictional languages are the subset of constructed languages (conlangs) that have been created as part of a fictional setting (e.g. for use in a book, movie, television show, or video game). Typically they are the creation of one individual, while ...
s, and use of overexposed, desaturated light. He has been described by some as an
auteur
An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
of video games.
Biography
Early life
Born in
Tatsuno, Ueda graduated from the
Osaka University of Arts
is a private arts university located in Kanan, Osaka, Kanan, Minamikawachi District, Osaka, Minamikawachi District, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The university was founded in 1945 as , changing its name to in 1957, and then to in 1964. The univers ...
in 1993. In 1995, after trying to make a living as a visual artist, Ueda decided to pursue a career in the
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...
. He joined
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
WARP
Warp, warped or warping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books and comics
* WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher
* ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!''
* Warp (comics), a ...
and worked as an
animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...
on the game ''
Enemy Zero
is a 1996 horror-themed adventure video game for the Sega Saturn, developed by Warp and directed by Kenji Eno. Players assume the role of an astronaut who awakens from cryogenic sleep to find her spaceship overrun by invisible creatures who ar ...
'' for the
Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...
under video game director
Kenji Eno
was a Japanese musician and video game designer. He gained a reputation as a maverick during the mid-1990s for creating unorthodox games like '' Real Sound'' and is perhaps best remembered today for his rebellious marketing techniques. Outside o ...
.
He described his time there as "arduous", as the game was behind schedule and everyone on the project had to work more than normal to meet the release deadline. Eno, who also owned the company, did not think he was that great a digital artist, but handpicked Ueda because of his talent with concepts and design. Ueda worked at the developer for a year and a half.
2000s: Sony
In 1997, Ueda joined
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...
as a
first-party developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
.
In Sony Computer Entertainment's
Japan Studio
Japan Studio was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. A first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment), it was best known for the ''Ape Escape'', ''LocoRoco'', '' Patapon'', ''Gravity Ru ...
, he began work on ''
Ico
is an action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released for the PlayStation 2 video game console in 2001 and 2002 in various regions. It was designed and directed by Fumito U ...
''. After ''Ico'', Ueda and his small team, better known as
Team Ico
Team Ico was a Japanese video game development studio led by game designer Fumito Ueda. It was part of Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio's Product Development Department #1, and had developed the games ''Ico'' and ''Shadow of the Coloss ...
, started working on a game originally titled ''NICO'', but later retitled ''
Shadow of the Colossus
''Shadow of the Colossus'' is a 2005 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It takes place in a fantasy setting and follows Wander, a young man who ente ...
''.
In February 2007, Japanese gaming magazine ''
Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' reported that Ueda and his team were working on a game for the
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
. No details about the unnamed title were revealed. In 2008, in the August edition of ''
PlayStation Magazine'', Sony Worldwide Studios boss
Shuhei Yoshida
is a Japanese businessman and gaming industry veteran. He was the President of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2008 to 2019, before moving onto other SIE-related projects. Yoshida has been a key member of the Play ...
commented that both ''Ico'' and ''Shadow of the Colossus'' took 4 years to develop as a hint that the game was under production, but was not close to release. The game was revealed at
E3 2009
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3 2009) was the 15th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 2, 2009, and ended on June 4, 2009, with 41,000 total attendees.
Majo ...
as ''
The Last Guardian
''The Last Guardian'' is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and GenDesign and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Players control a boy who befriends a giant half-bird, half-mammal creature, ...
'', the trailer for which suggests a saga involving elements of both ''Ico'' and ''Shadow of the Colossus'' wherein a young boy resembling Ico partners up with a colossus-sized companion to complete puzzles. Ueda later confirmed ''The Last Guardian'' to be related to the two previous installments.
In an interview with
G4tv.com
G4 (also known as G4TV) was an American pay television and digital network owned by Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games.
The network was originally owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NBCUniversal Cable division ...
in 2009 he expressed admiration for the method of
cut-scene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
story-telling in Valve's ''
Half-Life 2
''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was published by Valve through its distribution service Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and ...
'', and when questioned directly expressed an interest in making a first person game.
2010s-present: GenDesign
Ueda left Sony in December 2011, although he remained under contract to finish work on ''
The Last Guardian
''The Last Guardian'' is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and GenDesign and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Players control a boy who befriends a giant half-bird, half-mammal creature, ...
''. Around mid-2014, he formed GenDesign (stylized as genDESIGN), made up of former members from Team Ico to help complete development of ''The Last Guardian''. At
E3 2015
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3 2015) was the 21st E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It took place from June 16 to June 18, 2015, with 52,200 total attendees.
Major exhibit ...
, ''The Last Guardian'' was announced for release on October 25, 2016, but was later delayed to December 6, 2016. In September 2018, Ueda revealed that the studio was at the prototyping stage of designing a new game, supported with funding from the investment fund Kowloon Nights. In March 2020,
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, M ...
announced that they would be fully funding development of it, with the two companies splitting profits in half. In 2021, the new game was teased in one of GenDesign's New Year post cards, which features screenshots from Ueda's three previous games and an unidentified screenshot of a person under a mechanical structure, which is thought to be from the new game.
Influences and style
He described himself as a very inquisitive child saying "I enjoyed catching and keeping living things, such as fish or birds. Other than that, I liked both watching and making animation. Basically, I seemed to be interested in things that moved." Among his favorite subjects in school was art. He commented, "If I was not in the games industry, I would want to become a classical artist. Though I regard not only games but also anything that expresses something – be it films, novels or
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
– as forms of art."
Ueda played a lot of
Sega Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...
games, which influenced his work. He was also a fan of the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
computer platformer games ''
Flashback'' and ''
Another World'' during his teenage years.
Other games that influenced his work include ''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...
'', ''
Virtua Fighter
is a series of fighting games created by Sega-AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original ''Virtua Fighter'' was released in October 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential first ''Virtua Fighter'' game ...
'', and ''
Prince of Persia
''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.
The first two games i ...
''. He was also influenced by the work of
Kenji Eno
was a Japanese musician and video game designer. He gained a reputation as a maverick during the mid-1990s for creating unorthodox games like '' Real Sound'' and is perhaps best remembered today for his rebellious marketing techniques. Outside o ...
, and the manga series ''
Galaxy Express 999
is a Japanese manga series. It is written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto, later adapted into a number of anime films and television series. It is set in a spacefaring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer ...
'' (1977–1981).
Ueda's games are considered to have a very distinctive style, which Ueda himself describes as "design by subtraction", with sparse landscapes, oversaturated lighting and minimalist story to give his games a personal and distinctive feel.
Ueda also admitted that, in video games, ideas for a gameplay mechanic should be made first, then complemented by a game's story.
In 2008, ''
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' ranked Ueda as one of their top 100 game creators of all time, saying that his knack for "creating atmospheric puzzle playgrounds with mute or near-mute characters instills a sense of isolation, yet provides an endearing feeling of hope as the protagonists seek simply to find an exodus or redemption from their weather-worn, ornate prisons".
Works
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ueda, Fumito
Japanese video game directors
Japanese video game designers
Living people
Osaka University of Arts alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)