is a Japanese game designer and artist, his most notable titles being ''

Katamari Damacy () is a third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in March 2004 and in North America in September 2004. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to pitch the game to Namco' ...

'' and its sequel, ''

We Love Katamari ''We Love Katamari'' is a 2005 third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the 2004 sleeper hit ''Katamari Damacy''. The player controls a diminutive character named the Princ ...

''. The original ''Katamari'' game was a surprise hit and was praised for its quirkiness, originality, and charm. Takahashi is married to pianist and composer Asuka Sakai, who has worked with Takahashi on various projects.

Career

In an interview, Takahashi announced that he hopes to eventually move on from video games, with an ambition of designing a

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

for children. On October 28, 2009, the

Nottingham City Council Nottingham City Council is the local authority for the unitary authority of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It consists of 55 councillors, representing a total of 20 wards, elected every four years. The council is led by David Mellen, of ...

announced during the Gamecity festival that Takahashi was spending a month in the city working on designs for the play area at Woodthorpe Grange. In 2012, Takahashi revealed to an audience that the Nottingham project had been indefinitely postponed, due to budget concerns. He and his wife, Asuka Sakai, formed the company uvula in October 2010 to support his freelance game design career, as well as his playground designs. In July 2011, it was announced that he was joining Tiny Speck's Vancouver team, working on ''

Glitch A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...

''. After the game shuttered in December 2012, he moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In early 2019, the Telfair Museum ran an exhibition at the Jepson Center entitled "Keita Takahashi: Zooming Out", featuring various elements of Takahashi's work. Takahashi worked on designing the exhibits, which included a playable version of the game '' A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈'' with a custom controller. In July 2022, Takahashi announced a new game project.

Works

References

External links

uvula's official websiteInterview with Keita Takahashi on Gamasutra.comInterview with Keita Takahashi on 1up.com
* 1975 births Living people Katamari Japanese expatriates in Canada Japanese expatriates in the United States Japanese video game designers Namco {{videogame-bio-stub