Goodbye Namco, hello Nottingham: a brief chat with Keita Takahashi

The creator of Noby Noby Boy and Katamari Damacy is leaving the games industry. We had a quick chat with him on the eve of his decision...Sad news for fans of offbeat, candy-coloured Japanese gaming eccentricity. Keita Takahashi, the design genius behind Katamari and Noby Noby Boy, is leaving Namco Bandai. Takahashi has become increasingly disillusioned with the games industry over the last year, and recently gave an interview in which he referred to Namco as a 'so-so company'.Always more interested in the concept of play than in video games per se, the designer is currently helping to construct a playground in Nottingham intended for children, adults and even pets. Just before his exit from Namco, we got some questions to Takahashi about the future of games. Here's what he had to say...What do you think are the most interesting emerging areas of game design at the moment?We see new technologies such as GPS and online capabilities built into gaming designs lately but the basis remains unchanged since the day video gaming was created in my view. Interactivity of the real and virtual worlds still remains the key importance when it comes to game designs. Have you been watching the rise of social games on Facebook? Where do you think this will lead?I remember trying out an application requiring the players to guess country names. I didn't think something this simple could be seen as an application ? that was my first thought. Since then, I remember trying out several other gaming applications but as an overall impression, Facebook largely remains a communication platform in my mind. However, if we are to see the bigger picture of social gaming in general with Facebook inside it, I do feel and see a huge potential there.Quite a lot of games now enable GPS functions, but I can see further trends in mixing aspects of daily life and the use of online communications in the coming days as well. . It seems more developers are exploring 'user-generated content' - EA has just announced its Create game, for example. Is this a good thing for games, handing over design to the players?I think allowing the players to experience aspects of development is an excellent idea. But looking at it from the other side, it might be a case of developers not being able to come up with something interesting and new lately. Were do you think games will be in five years? What do you think we'll be playing - and what on?In many senses, I think nothing will drastically change by then. Do you see technologies like 3D and motion controls evolving and combining - where will these lead?I'm not really interested on the idea so haven't got much to say on the case.A lot of people think that 'cross platform' games will be big - games that you can play on console, then go out and pick them up again on your phone, then on your iPad later. Do you see this as being an important development?As a developer, it's definitely an interesting structure to say the least. But at the end of the day, it is a matter of switching between different hardware so as long as we don't get too carried away in seeing this physical switchover itself as being a unique experience, something new will definitely be coming our way. But on a personally level, I'm not sure if we really need to play videogames in such a continuous manner.Are you interested in the idea of 'gamification' - the theory that every thing is becoming more like a video game, from financial websites, to GPS devices? Will this be important?An interesting idea for sure. Maybe it's even time we left out the word "video" from video games in my view. Video game developers are always thinking of creating something which is enjoyable and repetitively fun. Limiting this to "video" gaming is somewhat a lost opportunity in my view, which is one of the reasons I decided to join the playground project. How are things going with your playground? Has the process been as rewarding as you imagined when you set out?Since the end of last year, the overall progress was rather slower than expected, but visiting Nottingham in June this year and meeting all the key movers of the project has definitely opened up the way for sure.At the same time, seeing some of the people leave who were involved in the project from the early stages was rather sad. But overall, it's been a great experience so far. Everyone I meet on the project is great, especially considering the fact that they have to put up with a foreigner who can barely understand or speaks English properly.As for the progress, the design work for the playground is complete. We are now at a stage of applying the necessary safety requirements and coming up with the funding to complete the project. Although there are bound to be more challenges ahead of us, once everything is complete, I'm confident that an excellent playground will be in place.GamesGame cultureKeith Stuartguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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