Katamari Damacy's Creator on His Joyous New AR Game

The game designer explains how his work will change your home into a brand-new “Takahashi World”.

By Daniel Robson

Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi has a new augmented reality (AR) app. Released on November 2nd, Woorld turns your room into Takahashi’s crazy world instantly.

IGN Japan's Daniel Robson recently spoke to him about this unique project.

IGN: Woorld is effectively a launch game for a new platform and related hardware. How did this project come about?

Keita Takahashi.

Keita Takahashi: Woorld is a launch title for Tango, an AR platform that runs on Android. Last year, a member of the Tango project invited Funomena, the studio I’m now working with on Wattam, to make use of Tango to create a new game. He saw Wattam in E3 2015, so maybe he became interested in our work after that. Well, after some twists and turns, I finally decided to take up his offer.

IGN: What inspired the idea for the game itself?

Keita Takahashi: I just thought that it would be fun to use AR technology to decorate a room. You know, interior design involves a considerable amount of money and effort. I thought it might be cool to do it through AR in a fun and creative way. However, many objects in Woorld – like pyramids, clouds and suns – are unavailable in the real world, so it does not help with actual design so much.

So reminiscent of Takahashi's other projects.

IGN: Does the world you create live on each time you close and reopen the app, or do you start from scratch each time?

Keita Takahashi: The game has a save function, so you can just restart it from the last point.

IGN: What influence does Woorld’s play style and art style take from your previous games?

Keita Takahashi: I wonder. I am working on Woorld very super-seriously, so I guess it shares that in common with my previous games.

IGN: What were the challenges of making a game for an advanced AR platform and implementing the mapping features?

Keita Takahashi: It’s still a developing technology. The mapping sensor is not perfect, and the GPU for generating a polygon mesh to fit the room’s shape is not very smart. For instance, when I tried to map a window on a sunny day, it was too bright to do it properly. Mapping of a pure white ceiling or floor with an even surface is also troublesome. There are still lots of small bugs, and to fix them or hide them up will be a tough engineering job. I had to create all objects and 2D parts by myself, which was really tough. I only had six months, and to make things even harder, I was working on Wattam at the same time.

I want to go to there... and now I can!

IGN: Does this tech offer new kinds of games that you couldn’t have made before?

Keita Takahashi: I would say yes, though I am not sure if I want to develop such a game again. Moving purely to the beat of tech developments is not good.

IGN: Could you tell us something about other projects you are working on?

Keita Takahashi: I am working on Wattam. Yes, still. I’m definitely still working on it. I hope that we can announce something about it next year. At the same time, we are preparing an update for Woorld. I am also involved in development of a completely different game, which should be interesting too.

Daniel Robson is Chief Editor of IGN Japan and you can find him on Twitter @nomoredaniels.

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