You do know who Fumito Ueda is, no? He’s the guy that happens to be behind titles such as Shadow of The Colossus and other games like The Last Guardian. Well, as it stands now, Ueda is looking to bring gamers a new title while looking for a publisher.
Way back in 2017 we reported that Ueda was seeking to fix long development times, technical issues and other problems that may ebb gamers the wrong way by adopting new “tools” and working with different “game engines” to make the best game as efficient as possible.
In other words, with all of the new game engines already established and in existence, Ueda wants to bring something new to the table, and make development and gameplay much easier unlike before. I should note that he wants to avoid another decade long development cycle as seen with The Last Guardian.
A year later (2018), we also covered how Ueda spent time thinking over publishing offers for his upcoming project with GenDesign, but aims to flesh out prototyping before signing on with a publisher.
To fund or compensate time wasted looking for a publisher, GenDesign partnered up with Kowloon Nights, which is a company that backs small projects in a “hands-off way” and allows for developers to maintain IP and sequel rights.
In addition to the above, Kowloon Nights general budget for participants ranges between $500,000 and $5 million and includes ten projects, with Ueda and GenDesign’s upcoming game as part of the fold.
It is worth noting that GenDesign’s game is the only one of the ten that is receiving starter funds instead of it being funded entirely.
According to website mp1st.com, GenDesign and Ueda have confirmed that the team has been working on this project over the past year and that the team is currently wrapping up its prototype phase:
“The extensive prototyping period was worthwhile and we are making very good progress. I believe this project will showcase both unexpected and familiar elements in one.”
The publication site closes out by ruminating on which publisher GenDesign and Ueda will settle for; more importantly, though, are you a fan of Ueda’s work and if so which publisher should the new studio work with moving forward?