• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

ICO PSX Prototype Footage From genDESIGN

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


This is an early development video of "ICO" for PlayStation 2, which was released on December 6, 2001.

ICO" for PlayStation 2 released on December 6, 2001. It was made around 1998 to share the image of the work to the development team.
It was made around 1998 to share the image of the work with the development team. The staff, including Ueda, had no idea what kind of game "ICO" would be.
When we were groping in the dark, this image brought us to the light.
This video was a breakthrough for the team.
It was a breakthrough for the team. There are some flaws in the video and sound, such as scanning lines and noise, as well as debugging indications.
However, we have not made any corrections or edits so that you can feel the atmosphere of that time.
There are some flaws in the images and sound, such as scanning lines and noise, as well as debug displays.
Main features of the video
A combination of CG and footage from the first generation PlayStation.
The production environment is SoftImage for motion and Lightwave3D for modeling.
SoftImage for motion, Lightwave3D for modeling - Yorda's image is different from the full version
Ico's horn is different from the original version.
About the music
At that time (late 1990s), it was not necessary to use dedicated music for the game, but popular music.
At that time (late 1990s), it was rare to use popular music, or even existing music
I happened to be directing "ICO. I happened to find a CD in the desk of Fumito Ueda, the director and game designer of "ICO".
The music was selected from a CD that happened to be on the desk of Fumito Ueda, who directs "ICO" and designs the game.
There were two songs that became turning points, and in this video, we use Momus'
In this video, I used Momus' "Summer Holiday 1999". The other is Simon & Garfunkel.
The other song is Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Faire," which was developed for the transition from the original PlayStation
The other song is "Scarborough Faire" by Simon & Garfunkel, which was used for the first presentation
It was used in the first presentation video after the transition from the original PlayStation to PlayStation 2. Both of them were a great match for the video we were developing.
We were fortunate enough to be able to use it in the final version.
We were fortunate enough to have Michiru Oshima write the music for the full version.
And for the full version, we were fortunate enough to have Michiru Oshima take charge of the music, and she created many great songs for us. Among them, "ICO-You were there
You were there" is an irreplaceable piece of music that has shaped "ICO".
 

Aenima

Member
I had seen some footage of the PS1 version before, but this video has alot more footage. Game looked pretty impressive for a PS1 game, but glad they pushed it back for PS2.

I remember playing it for the 1st time in a friends house, then my friend ripped the game and gave me a copy. I finishe it on my PS2, loved it so much that i bought an original copy and finished it again. After that became huge fan of Fumitu Ueda games.
 

Handel

Member
It's amazing what they managed to get out of the PS1, but I doubt Ico would be even half as influential and iconic as it is if they had released it on there rather than moving development to the PS2. I'm thankful for the Sony of old for believing in Ico enough to keep funding it through some troubled development, they understood that even if the game wasn't likely to have great sales it is worth putting out arthouse games for the prestige they bring.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
God I miss the pioneering days of video games .. specifically nes - PlayStation before everything turned into homogenized focus grouped consultant laden BS.
 

FingerBang

Member
Wow, this is beautiful. Yes, the PS2 version looks much better, no doubts, but it's impressive what they could achieve in the 32 bit era. The limitations of the old consoles really forced the developers to be more creative.
 

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Ico was already a game that sat in bargain bins for years, a PSX version would have been ET level trash.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
looks good but the ps2 version is ico-nic
Get Out Of Here Keegan Michael Key GIF by Saturday Night Live


----------+

I remember getting this for PS2 soon after it came out and. I was blown away. Such an amazing game.
 

stranno

Member
I would like to see Black and White running on Playstation as well.

It's hard to believe that the old footage is legit, looks more like the PC version at minimum configuration.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Can I just get a confirmation from a child of Nippon that you pronounce Ico as "E-ko" right? I said Eye-ko for a long time but I'm sure I read somewhere it was actually really "E-ko" but I never confirmed it.
 

CamHostage

Member
Can I just get a confirmation from a child of Nippon that you pronounce Ico as "E-ko" right? I said Eye-ko for a long time but I'm sure I read somewhere it was actually really "E-ko" but I never confirmed it.

I can't source it unfortunately, but a contact I had at Sony back in the day specified the pronunciation was "e-KO"... Me and that guy are probably the only people on the planet who say it that way, however.
 
Interesting they uploaded a video randomly after three years of the channel being inactive. Still very curious as to what Ueda is up to next. I've loved everything he has done thus far and am looking forward to whatever is next.
 
Last edited:

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Interesting they uploaded a video randomly after three years of the channel being inactive. Still very curious as to what Ueda is up to next. I've loved everything he has done thus far and am looking forward to whatever is next.
Maybe a cash-in on the recent Miyazaki interview about ICO design elements inspiring him for the Souls series of games.

Fun fact about the ICO prototype. It originally started on the PS1, but could not fully realize their vision.

 
Can I just get a confirmation from a child of Nippon that you pronounce Ico as "E-ko" right? I said Eye-ko for a long time but I'm sure I read somewhere it was actually really "E-ko" but I never confirmed it.
I heard Ueda himself refer to it as "eye-co" once in a video so that's what I go by
 

CamHostage

Member
Nah, you can add me to the list too.
I heard Ueda himself refer to it as "eye-co" once in a video so that's what I go by

Found Ueda saying it himself (in a vintage Milke 1UP interview.) We could solve this for the world, finally... or, we could not watch, and let the mystery remain in the ether?



(One case we will never solve the "Ninja Gaiden" mystery... and even though "Gaiden" is a Japanese word that has a correct pronunciation, that does not close the discussion! The fact that Tecmo US just glommed onto a random Japanese word because "Ryukenden" was too hard to say in America, this asserts firmly IMO that the only correct way to say it is whichever we chose to say it on our playgrounds...)
 
Last edited:

Kuranghi

Member
Found Ueda saying it himself (in a vintage Milke 1UP interview.) We could solve this for the world, finally... or, we could not watch, and let the mystery remain in the ether?



(One case we will never solve the "Ninja Gaiden" mystery... and even though "Gaiden" is a Japanese word that has a correct pronunciation, that does not close the discussion! The fact that Tecmo US just glommed onto a random Japanese word because "Ryukenden" was too hard to say in America asserts firmly IMO that the only correct way to say it is however we chose to say it on our playgrounds...)


Nice one. I think either is fine but I'll go with Ee-ko due to that and how japanese generally pronounce i.

This here is why I decided I would say Bo-ko-blin instead of bo-koblin:




It should be obvious given the variations are "<something>-blin" anyway and that there are boko-blins, stalko-blins, mini-blins and big-blins across the series. Otherwise surely the latter two would be called mini/big-koblins instead.
 
Last edited:

CamHostage

Member
Clearly a prototype running on some kind of development workstation.

Perhaps/probably an Silicon Graphics Onyx one.

I think you're confusing the "in-game" footage from the sequences (the clean-rendered "finished" shots) which were probably going to be FMV?

There's a mix of footage in that clip: some interstitial/cutscene stuff (which was clearly CG; I'm not sure if they would have left it CG or if they intended to try some of it in-engine on PS1?) and some mock-gameplay stuff (which was also CG) as well as some animation tests of the character models interacting with placeholder geometry. This all would have been built on a powerful desktop at the time well beyond a PlayStation console's hardware (even the PS1 dev kit, which had more RAM than the retail units,) and even if the character model tests were using roughly what they were designing for in-game use, they would look and run much better on the workstation; the FMV stuff obviously uses environments and complex motions/lighting impossible to render in-game on PS1. But then, there is also work-in-progress gameplay running "in-engine" with some of the functional character interactions and level environments, and those even show the telltale signs of PS1 hardware in the texture shimmer and polygon propagating (although these limitations could have been an issue on other hardware of the time too, depending on what they were using to develop the project.) I'm pretty sure there's genuine PS1 development footage mixed in there.

The final PS2 game had enough power that it could look a lot better even in realtime than the CG work Team Ico was producing, none of it needed to be pre-rendered. (Of course, the overall design also was much improved anyway from this sort of modern-meets-archaic look in the early days to become the iconic look we're familiar with in Ueda projects.)
 
Last edited:

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Looks very good for a PS1 game, although most of it isn't actual gameplay of course.

They should remake this. I have the PS3 remaster, but I don't think I really want to dig that thing out of storage.
 
Last edited:

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Looks very good for a PS1 game, although most of it isn't actual gameplay of course.

They should remake this. I have the PS3 remaster, but I don't think I really want to dig that thing out of storage.
Didn't they do a PS4 rerelease or whatever? Could of sworn I have it on my PS4.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Looks very good for a PS1 game, although most of it isn't actual gameplay of course.

They should remake this. I have the PS3 remaster, but I don't think I really want to dig that thing out of storage.
As good looking as SotC remake was, I would prefer a remaster that limits the artistic retouches. I would much rather have actually either a 4K remaster or a up-rendered (imagine getting 4 GS rendering in parallel and merging the outputs GSCube like) PS2 HD Classic on PS4 and play it in BC mode. They got Primal to work, they should be able to get ICO…
 

McCheese

Member
The art-style and textures work really well on the PSX, surprised at how viable it looks.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think you're confusing the "in-game" footage from the sequences (the clean-rendered "finished" shots) which were probably going to be FMV?

There's a mix of footage in that clip: some interstitial/cutscene stuff (which was clearly CG; I'm not sure if they would have left it CG or if they intended to try some of it in-engine on PS1?) and some mock-gameplay stuff (which was also CG) as well as some animation tests of the character models interacting with placeholder geometry. This all would have been built on a powerful desktop at the time well beyond a PlayStation console's hardware (even the PS1 dev kit, which had more RAM than the retail units,) and even if the character model tests were using roughly what they were designing for in-game use, they would look and run much better on the workstation; the FMV stuff obviously uses environments and complex motions/lighting impossible to render in-game on PS1. But then, there is also work-in-progress gameplay running "in-engine" with some of the functional character interactions and level environments, and those even show the telltale signs of PS1 hardware in the texture shimmer and polygon propagating (although these limitations could have been an issue on other hardware of the time too, depending on what they were using to develop the project.) I'm pretty sure there's genuine PS1 development footage mixed in there.

The final PS2 game had enough power that it could look a lot better even in realtime than the CG work Team Ico was producing, none of it needed to be pre-rendered. (Of course, the overall design also was much improved anyway from this sort of modern-meets-archaic look in the early days to become the iconic look we're familiar with in Ueda projects.)
I'm not confusing those, as one of them is real-time the other is not.

Some rooms and animation demonstrations of that video, seem higher res than usually rendered on Psone, and quite clean both in regards to texture warping and polygon warping.

On closer inspection of other released videos, this seems more like it's running on a PSone than these:



Lower apparent resolution and lower framerate and more Psone quirks here and there. That one I can believe, but I don't get the same feeling from most of the footage on the newly released one.


I'm not saying that some of the assets weren't meant/doable for PSone (I have a hunch all they ever had were a handful of rooms), it's the rendering resolution and framerate that seems off.


Also, not on the video on this thread, but others, namely the one I just posted, there's this scene, completely out of the Psone scope, but running realtime somewhere as evident by the debug menu with camera setings; which is why I was mentioning Silicon Graphics workstations.


8xloxY2.jpg


Either that or something else.
 
Top Bottom