Project O

Harvest Moon creator, Yasuhiro Wada, has revealed to CVG that Project O, a secret Wii game currently in development, will be a single-player life-sim set in Europe.

He went on to reveal other juicy nuggets of info on the title: "Project O is a brand new game being developed by 'seven samurai' of the gaming world," he reveals, referring to the seven members of the currently tiny development team working on the game whose previously worked on Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games.

The new game, which seems to still be in conceptual stages, incorporates life-sim gameplay which Wada compared to Sim City or Sim World. "However, in Sim World the player takes on the role of God, but in Project O the gamer plays among the people and creates the world around them from ground-level, not as god," he explains.

The game will feature a plot based on one main character - whom he declined to talk about - and is set in a past era in Europe. Building relationships with a community of people will form a key part of the game - similar to Harvest Moon.

Wada explained that "the player will select one person" to perform a task, "and he will go off and talk to several other people, who will then start to change the world around the player." It sounds like Wada and his team of "samurai" developers are cooking up some interesting AI for the game.

No Wi-Fi or multiplayer features are planned, but the player will be able to download new content via the Wii's wireless online capabilities.

You can expect to see Project O to release some time next year under a different name.

Check back on CVG tomorrow for the full interview, in which Wada discusses the making of the Harvest Moon series, his main influences in game design and why the DS dominates the PSP.

www.CVG.com

Downloadable content, that makes me happy.

Like Harvest Moon only with humans?

Consider me interested.

Set in Europe?

That's like saying it's set in the Universe.

Dissapointing...

er project zero? ha i know it's a working title or whatever but that game would actually work well on wii. Very frightening game

er project zero? ha i know it's a working title or whatever but that game would actually work well on wii. Very frightening game

I think is more like Project "O" not 0 (zero).

The concept seems rather interesting and IGN called the team making this game "Dream Team"!

Sounds good to me, I love Harvest Moon to bits so this is intriguing.

Haha, the name just jogged my memory. Remember the phantom Game Zero which was apparently being made by Zoonami as the greatest game the world ever did see? I wonder if they're still making it

Project O Update

The producer and art directors share a few new insights.

 

May 24, 2007 - Remember Project O? You know, Marvelous Interactive's original Wii game that drew attention at its announcement a couple of months back due to some of the players involved, including Hideo Minaba (art director on Final Fantasy XII), Kazuyuki Kurashima (designer of Moon and Endnesia), Youichi Kawaguchi (main programmer on Dragon Quest VIII) and Yoshirou Kimura (Moon, Chulip)? The mysterious game is back in the news again following an interview with Kimura, producer, Minaba, character designer, and Kurashima, monster designer, the latest issue of Famitsu.

 

The three first began by offering details on how the project came about. It all started, according to Minaba, when Kimura asked him for advice on what kind of art style should make it into the game. Kurashima recalled being called into a Watami (a Japanese restaurant chain) in Tokyo's Shinjuku district; apparently, this was Minaba's doing. And so began design work on Project O, with initial discussions centering on art and character designs.

 

We'd make our way to the Shinjuku Watami to scan the floors for any clues or forgotten pieces of art, but it turns out that there are quite a few Watami's in the Shinjuku area.

 

Following this initial work, the project was interrupted as Kurashima found himself in the hospital. He spent a month in a bed, he disclosed to the magazine, although he's feeling better now . In fact, the week following his release from the hospital, he apparently began creating rough sketches of the game's monsters.

 

Minaba and Kurashima provided a couple of pieces of artwork to the magazine. Kurashima's monster designs are a bit out of the ordinary. There's a chicken standing upright and flexing its muscles, an insane-looking bipedal cow, a tiny creature with a giant turnip on its head (or maybe that is the head!), and a volcano with what appears to be a single hand at rest beside it. Minaba's artwork shows a crowd of these creatures in a market beside a wooden structure that seems to be under construction.

 

"There are people who make things, and people who destroy things," commented Minaba of his artwork. Kimura continued, "Development and destruction are the keys to this games. In town, there are groups of people. Outside of town, there are groups of monsters. Development and destruction continues to take place, but it's all done via AI. I can't say anything clearer yet, though."

 

Kurashima provided the one small bit of solid info in the entire interview. We can look forward to over 60 creature forms, although he admitted that he's made rough sketches for only 50 of them at this point. He's going for a European essence with the art, which Kimura commented resembles something out of a European short animation.

 

While the three interviewees didn't give too much information on their project, Famitsu's summary of the game has us intrigued. The magazine describes the game as one part life simulation, where you view the action from afar and characters carry out their lives according to AI routines, and one part adventure game, where you follow the storyline of the main character from a closer perspective.

 

Two updates and Famitsu, and still only vague hints at what we can expect. Project O isn't due for Japanese release until 2008, but we presume Marvelous will start giving solid details before then. We'd suggest checking back close to the September Tokyo Game Show, where Nintendo and the Wii are expected to have a big presence.

I dont get why more people arent interested in this. Its like The Sims and Sim City combined at the same time! It must be poor explanations from the developers.

This could be a big one!

I dont get why more people arent interested in this. Its like The Sims and Sim City combined at the same time! It must be poor explanations from the developers.

 

This could be a big one!

I'm more interested in more Harvest Moon info but this sounds really cool.

Almost like Black and White.

I dont get why more people arent interested in this. Its like The Sims and Sim City combined at the same time! It must be poor explanations from the developers.

 

This could be a big one!

Yet a lot are into Sadness :P

Must of missed this before, sounds very interesting. I'm sensing a lot of harvest moon influence, in which case should make this great. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Scans

Project O: What I go for when with my gf

This is looking pretty frekkin' sweet! Bipedal cows!

I just read on GAF that tomorrow on wednesday the first characters and screenshots will "leak" from the thursday issue of Famitsu.

Seems to be a very promising game after the first artwork and the names involved.

This is the first i've heard of this game, sounds rather cool though.

and yes system_error, i read that aload of details about the game is incoming as well!