Ico, and Design by Subtraction

Among designers, few modern games are held in such high regard as the PS2 cult classic, Ico. Let's figure out what has made this quiet and reserved game so hugely influential.

The influential Ico

Find out more

1UP: "Shadow Talk"

1UP: "The Method of Developing Ico"

Tale of Tales: "Fumito Ueda GDC Talk Transcript of Slides"

Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance)

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Capybara Games, 2011)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo, 1991)
Braid (Number None, 2008)
Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985)
Ico (Team Ico, 2001)
Papo & Yo (Minority, 2012)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Starbreeze Studios, 2013)
Journey (thatgamecompany, 2012)
Rime (Tequila Works, 2017)
The Last of Us (Naughty Dog, 2013)
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal, 2008)
Halo 4 (343 Industries, 2012)
Dark Souls (From Software, 2011)
Limbo (Playdead, 2010)
Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga, 2013)
Another World (Delphine Software, 1991)
Flashback (Delphine Software, 1992)
Prince of Persia (Broderbund, 1989)
Chrono Trigger (Square, 1995)
Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico, 2005)
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal, 2010)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North, 2013)
Dying Light (Techland, 2015)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Kojima Productions, 2015)
Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios, 2015)
Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft Montreal, 2011)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Neversoft, 2002)
Fez (Polytron Corporation, 2012)

Music used in this episode

Under a Tree (Sword & Sworcery LP)
The Ballad of the Space Babies (Sword & Sworcery LP)
Little Furnace (Sword & Sworcery LP)
Dark Flute (Sword & Sworcery LP)
Com64 (Sword & Sworcery LP)

Sword & Sworcery LP - The Ballad of the Space Babies (C) Jim Guthrie

Clip credits

"Warrior in the City of Light Part 13" - Curlsbel90

"Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition 60 fps test" - Birm

"Unreleased ICO PS1 Beta gameplay" - lockyixbt

"Assassins Creed Revelations: Den Defence" - CircularGaming

[NakeyJakey]

Played Ico in junior high, loved it. Didn't know why till recently. Love your videos, love your delivery, love video games. What mic are you using? The sound mix sounds amazing. I recently started my channel, and if you have any quick tips on presentation...y stuff that would be super helpful. Keep up the fantastic work - a fan.

[HasegawaRayven]

I remember playing Ico a long while ago. I distinctly remember, after having first run around with Yorda for a little while, I realized that running full speed everywhere while holding her hand kind of jerks her around by the arm awkwardly, and found myself trying to move Ico slower during those portions. I didn't do it on purpose, I just caught myself trying to be nice to a collection of pixels on a screen.

Of course, during an attack, I had no such compulsion, and it felt much more natural trying to drag Yorda out of danger.

I suggest trying it, if you're still playing Ico. Do a run just going at Yorda's pace. It's very relaxing.

[cafe]

Tomb Raider inspired Uncharted and Uncharted inspired Tomb Raider. Alone in the Dark inspired Resident Evil and...
Well, you know the drill, videogames are weird indeed.

Great video.

[ThunderRazorYT]

Excellent note for game designers, but also a good lesson for game players. I don't agree with telling people what or what not to like, but it's good to keep in mind that cramming a game full of side content might seem like bang for you buck when it really is just diluting the main mechanic or experience. Many simplistic games are deemed childish, but I find some of the best games are simplistic because it allowed the developers to fully craft the core of the game.

[PauLtus_B]

I see tons of games now getting promoted as a "gigantic open world with hundreds of hours of gameplay".
I prefer this.

[skygreentangerine]

who else here for blackthornprod game jam 3

[MellowGaming]

Just the act of holding hands in ICO makes all the difference to me. It's a connection you make with Yorda and because there is that button to press to instigate it you feel like you're not playing the game right at the times you don't have that button pressed. like something is missing from your gameplay.

Also, I get real frustrated with gamers that just want everything in their games and refuse to buy a game just because it doesn't have a bullet point someone else's game had. Saw it recently with assault Android Cactus and people saying they refuse to buy it because it had no online multiplayer. Even announcing it as if the developers had committed a crime be not including it. The game is superb, but no online and thus, apparently, it's inferior to all other games. This is probably why we'll rarely see reductive design in the big name games. They're too scared of losing that sale.

[robertmoorhead]

What I thought was really neat (and Colossus did this too with it's save shrines) was that the benches were vaguely shaped like the PS2 Memory cards. Just a little touch, but it always stuck with me.

[paulstaker]

And my friends berate the new Doom for not being an epic RPG with an abundance of upgrades, quests and emotional stories that lasts 100+ hours.

[bladesuk]

i think it's one of the reasons why portal is still held up as a paragon of gaming perfection: everything in there supported the core experience, and it was short and sweet so it never outstayed its welcome. to be fair, the minimalist focus argument could apply to nearly any sphere of artistry - games, literature, tv shows, movies, you name it. focus on what makes it good, and pare the rest away.

[CPhoenix]

Your intro makes it sound like you’ve just been crying. Do you need a hug?

[frealms]

You know, almost feels like sorcery seeing this amazing video in the midst of all the debacles over Star Citizen. Congratulations on another amazing video, sir, it was a pleasure watching it and stopping to think again on how polluted games are becoming with modes over modes and mechanics tackled on for more "gameplay" and "value".

[Larry]

You need to check out Sands of Time if you want to see a Prince of Persia game that is really influenced by ICO.

But it is bizarre for a series so beloved and influential, Sony have been so reluctant with The Last Guardian. with it in limbo for years, it was only mass demand (and alleged threat of Microsoft offering to pick it up behind closed doors) that they're even finishing it.

[EduSodap]

Thanks for this video, it's very insightful as a game designer. But what I was thinking as the video progressed, was that video games journalism and criticism/discussion, should be about this and not about 60FPS or hd resolutions or whatever

[RuthwikRao]

Limbo was what hit me hard. There was no music, no HUD, no health bar, no leveling, no upgrades, no points, no color (a deliberate design approach) and no unnecessary stuff obfuscating the core gameplay. There were still places where you got achievements but they weren't even part of the goal. Everything was put into black and white with the character receiving as little development as possible which was also something Super Meat Boy embraced - The character didn't develop. Instead, the environment got more and more challenging. The characters did develop in a narrative sense, yes but they stayed the same throughout gameplay wise. You couldn't jump higher as you progressed, you didn't get super fast boots to escape the hordes of obstacles. As a result, the gameplay remained uniform throughout. I could play the tutorial of SMB and just jump directly into the last level of the game and still be able to finish it. Heck, Limbo just went with the simplest and most intuitive control pattern, so you didn't even need a tutorial even though it might have been provided. That to me was where everything fell into place. The developers worried not about all the bells and whistles and let the design itself shape the entire game. Limbo wasn't the first one doing it, of course. But it did do it efficiently. Not many can pull it off.

[dawnknightx]

The only time I've played this game, is when my girlfriend was Yorda and the way we played the game was very interesting. She could actually give me a lot more complex instructions and we could better coordinate attacks. She had a lot of fun and so now I'm making a game where you basically play as Yorda. Though we aren't using the tone of ICO. It was great and I liked it, but I think nowadays it's a tad overused and leaves less of an impression than say a game like Kid Icarus: Uprising.

I think Design by Subtraction is a great philosophy. While I for one wouldn't want every game to be quiet and minimalist, I think ditching video game conventions and even asking "why do I have this in the game?" is important. At the very least, asking this question can let you replace bad systems and mechanics with new and good ones.

[U.Inferno]

I remember Extra Credits talking about something similar called Minimum Viable Product.
That is it's shooting for the least amount of attributes in a game, and still have the game have it's essence.
They say it should be used for any game creation because it gets rid of all the distractions to fine tuning and making the core fun before building onto. "If a game isn't is it's not because it didn't have crafting, or an open world or many different play styles, it wasn't fun, because the basic basic absolute basic gameplay isn't good."
They used creating a game like Mario as an example. "Take away everything from Mario until you have nothing. How do you create a game like that.
Well First we need a movement button, and a jump button to get over obstacles and maybe an enemy. And take away the graphics too. For now, Mario can be a black square. Then fine tune everything here until it is fun.
Repeat this process every time you add a new mechanic, because then it would be easier to find what's wrong."

[alexandrocollings]

your videos are so calming and amazing I love them could you maybe make some about the tony hawk games

[CommanderZx]

It is definitely getting silly with the modern open world titles that have so much irrelevant crap stuck in there. Why is Batman doing all this other irrelevant stuff when he's supposed to be on some tight deadline to save people. Although the Assassin's Creed games are the worst at this, as the vast majority of their filler has got nothing to do with even being an assassin.

[LeftyPlaat]

I saw the title and knew its meaning instantly because it was something learned in Architecture school. For one semester I had a professor ask me every week when showing her the new iteration of my design; "its better, but the plan needs to be more pure." It took awhile to get what she meant. I had learned you find a concept and everything you do flows from it. but I was doing it in one way. You explain here that one gets have a bunch of elements and you then pick the ones that make the concept stronger, instead of making strong elements by overlaying a concept onto them. (design by addition). Both are valid, but it depends I want you're trying to do. A garden or library can be minimal, housing or offices can be complex and a muddy concept for the sake of having an engaging, livable space.