In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the game’s launch in Japan, genDESIGN has shared some early development footage from ICO. Originating from around 1998, the early gameplay shows us what ICO looked like in its early stages — a fascinating look into gaming history.
The video, strangely set to “Summer Holiday 1999” by Momus, appears to show both in-engine gameplay and pre-rendered cutscenes. Team ICO pulled the footage from when the game was still in development for the original PlayStation; that’s obvious enough from just looking at it, as the graphics for both the gameplay and story have that PS1 look to it. ICO fans will certainly enjoy this special treat as they celebrate the game’s anniversary.
Check out the ICO development footage below, courtesy of genDESIGN on YouTube:
What this ICO development footage tells us
Team ICO, the original developers who went defunct in 2011 following director Yumito Ueda’s departure from Sony, produced this video to share progress within the development team. According to the video’s description, this video was critical in helping the team get development back on track.
The team used SoftImage and Lightwave 3D for the video’s animations and models. Notably, the character Yorda looks markedly different than in the final version.
Since the footage only features licensed music as the score, we don’t know how this build of the game sounds. It’s very likely that this development footage was captured before ICO composer Michiru Oshima began composing the game’s soundtrack. Possibly, sound effects weren’t even added in yet.
Obviously, since this is running on weaker hardware than the PlayStation 2, this build doesn’t quite have the visual fidelity of the finished product. Still, Team ICO’s vision for this incredible, unique piece of gaming is already on display. Even in its early form, the magic that makes ICO work is clear from this development footage.
