Think Like Takahashi: Noby, Katamari, Creativity, And Carpet / Gamasutra
“Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, is more interested in art, life, and his dog, than the work of his creative peers. He’s more interested in going to the museum than going to the Game Developers Conference.And he’s not usually that interested in doing interviews — in fact, Gamasutra never ended up publishing our most recent prior interview with Takahashi, because the editor who conducted it felt his taciturn responses weren’t even worth transcribing.
So we were forced to tackle a tough question when it came to this interview: how to draw this private man, who famously would like to design a playground as much as he’d like to design a video game, out of his shell enough to talk about creativity.
We decided that the best idea might be to inspire him ourselves — and we did that by bringing a packet of markers and a pad of drawing paper, settling down on the floor of the hotel suite Namco Bandai booked for the interview, and start drawing together. “We’re just trying to keep the interview from being boring, since they often are,” we said, by way of explanation.”
The second of the interviews at this year’s GDC that I helped Christian Nutt with, one good reason to read this one is to see the images we sketched with Takahashi. The Q&A is good (if I don’t say so myself) but I think it’s good because of the drawings.
Plus, I feel pretty honoured to say I’ve doodled with the creator of Katamari Damacy!