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An annotated photo of Team ICO in February 2002, shortly before the PAL release of ICO.

Team ICO is a video game development team for Sony Computer Entertainment, led by Fumito Ueda. Since their founding in 1997, they have only released three games - ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian - but they have gained an increasing amount of attention and respect with each passing year.

Their games are characterized by a very small but endearing and memorable cast, minimalist but strong storytelling, atmospheric use of bloom and HDR lighting, a soundtrack that plays only during cutscenes or battles, fictional spoken languages, a distinctive art style, and strong animation.

At the time of their work on ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, they were part of SCE Japan Studio's Product Development Department #1. Since then, Fumito Ueda left Sony in 2014 to start his own studio GenDESIGN, the group responsible for releasing The Last Guardian.

Games developed[]

IcoCover PAL Ico TemplateLogo
First released: September 30, 2001

Ico, a young boy born with a pair of horns, is sent by his people into a remote fortress to starve within a cold tomb. When fate intervenes and Ico breaks free of his prison, he soon finds a young girl with the power to open the castle's many gates. The two must work together against not only the crumbling castle's puzzles and traps, but also the wrath of its minions and monarch.

Read more about: Ico, Yorda, and the Queen • The castle and its minions • Yorda's language and abilities • The game's soundtrack and novelization
SotCcoverPAL SotC TemplateLogo
First released: October 18, 2005

In a lonely, barren land at the ends of the earth, a wanderer travels on horseback to an immense shrine in the hopes of resurrecting a young woman. Dormin, a disembodied voice residing in the Shrine's great hall, strikes a deal with him: slay the sixteen colossi that reside in the lands, and the woman will live again. Though he is being pursued and is warned that his actions may come at a great price, the wanderer is determined to uphold his end of the dark bargain.

Read more about: Wander, Agro, Mono, and Dormin • The colossi • The Lands and landmarks • The soundtrack • The game's marketing campaign
TLGprotagonist TLGtemplatelogo
First released: December 6, 2016

In the midst of an extensive ruin, a boy finds an unlikely ally in a giant, griffin-like creature whom he calls Trico. The two will face many obstacles on their journey, in the environment itself, in the mysterious knights, and beasts who stand in their way.

Read more about: The boy, Trico, and their enemies • The world

List of members[]

Although the game's team and creators are refered to as "Team ICO", the majority of the developers for each work do not return for the next one. The only developers who worked on all three titles were the director Fumito Ueda, the lead programmer Hajime Sugiyama, executive producer Jinji Horagai, the game scripter Junichi Hosono, and executive producer & supervisor Yasuhide Kobayashi.

What follows is a list of all known members of Team ICO and GenDESIGN, listed in alphabetical order. See the following links for the complete credits for ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, respectively.

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Name Worked on Description
ICO SotC TLG
Ahira Sato Yes Yes No Supervisor
Akinori Maeda No No Yes Program Manager
Arata Nakajima No No Yes Motion Programmer
Atsuhi Morioka Yes No No Background Artist
Atsuhiko Terada No Yes Yes Field Design (SotC), Technical Artist (TLG)
Atsuko Fukuyama Yes Yes No Character Animator
Chihiro Kanno No No Yes Game Designer
Chika Fukui Yes No No Character Designer
Chikara Ueno Yes No No Background Artist
Daisuke Uchikawa No Yes Yes Character Animator
Felicien Nozieres  No No Yes Environment Artist
Fumiaki Hara Yes No No System Programmer
Fumito Ueda Yes Yes Yes Director, lead game/character designer and animator
Fumiya Takeno Yes Yes No Supervisor
Hajime Sugiyama Yes Yes Yes Lead Programmer
Hidehisa Harada  No No Yes Motion Programmer
Hironobu Nakano No Yes Yes Effects Artist
Hitoshi Ishikawa No No Yes Physics Programmer
Hitoshi Niwa No Yes Yes Character Artist
Jinji Horagai Yes Yes Yes System Programmer, Yorda AI Programmer, Executive Producer (TLG)
Jun Tsubuku No Yes No Field Collision
Junichi Hosono Yes Yes Yes Planning & Game Script
Kaihei Hayano Yes No No Background Artist
Katsuhiko Abe Yes Yes No Background Artist, Field Designer
Kayoko Sato No Yes No Field Designer
Kazuhiro Numata Yes Yes No Background Artist, Character Designer, Field Designer
Kazutomo Sasaki No Yes No Animal System Programmer
Kei Kuwabara Yes No No Planner (designer of Yorda's language)
Keiichi Kitahara Yes No No Sound Effects
Keiichiro Ishihara No No Yes AI Programmer
Keita Usami No No Yes Animator
Kenji Kaido Yes Yes No Line Producer, Project Manager
Kibi Wakisaka No Yes No Field Designer
Koichiro Wada No No Yes Environment Artist
Koji Hasegawa No Yes No Field Designer
Makoto Izawa No No Yes Visual Programmer
Makoto Yamaguchi No Yes No Planning & Sound Testing
Masaaki Kaneko Yes No No Sound Effects Designer
Masanobu Tanaka No Yes Yes Character and Technical Animator
Masanori Kajita No Yes No Field Designer
Masashi Kudo No Yes Yes Planning & Game Script
Masatsuka Saeki Yes Yes No Supervisor
Mikiko Takeda Yes No No Background Artist
Mitsuhiro Shimooki Yes Yes No Background Artist, Character Designer, Field Designer
Mizuho Yonemoto No No Yes AI Programmer
Mizuki Muramatsu Yes No No Character Animation (Shadows, Ico)
Nanako Omura Yes Yes No Background Artist, Field Designer
Nao Yamasaki No Yes No Field Collision
Naofumi Ito No No Yes Technical Animator
Naoki Hirai No No Yes Motion Programmer
Rie Tamura No No Yes Associate Producer
Rory Little No Yes No Character Animator
Rui Guerreiro No No Yes Character Artist
Ryoma Matsuya No No Yes Technical Animator
Shinya Ishikawa No No Yes Motion Programmer
Shotaro Omori Yes No No Character and Objects Programmer, Yorda AI Programmer
Shuhei Yoshida No No Yes Supervisor
Shuinan Sukawa No No Yes Animator
Shunpei Suzuki No Yes Yes Character Designer/Artist
Sousuke Honda No Yes No Character Animator
Taijurou Hachiya Yes No No Background Artist
Takashi Izutani No Yes No Planning & Game Script
Takashi Kawashima No Yes No Field Collision
Takeharu Tanimura No No Yes Motion Programmer
Takeshi Ambe Yes No No Character Animation (Ico, Yorda, the Queen)
Takeshi Asano No Yes No Planning & Camera Testing
Takeshi Nakagawa No Yes Yes System Programmer
Takeshi Ochiai No Yes No Field Designer
Takeshi Okazawa No Yes Yes Field Designer (SotC), Environment Artist (TLG)
Takuya Seki Yes Yes No Visual/Engine/GUI Programmer
Tatsuhiko Tachibe No Yes No Character Animator
Tatsushi Kuriyama No No Yes Environment Artist
Teppei Ikeda No Yes No Camera Programmer
Tomikazu Kirita No Yes No Supervisor
Tomohisa Oda No No Yes Environment Artist
Tomohito Ito No No Yes Physics Programmer
Toshihiro Ito Yes Yes No Character/Objects/Tools Programmer
Toshihiro Kamei No No Yes Technical Animator
Tsubasa Ito No No Yes Sound Designer
Tsunehiko Shibata No No Yes Camera Programmer
Tsutomu Kouno Yes No No Game Planner, Background Artist
Yasuhide Kobayashi Yes Yes Yes Executive Producer (ICO, SotC), Supervisor (TLG)
Yasutaka Asakura No No Yes Producer
Yasutoshi Mori No No Yes Tools Programmer
Yoshifusa Hayama No No Yes Executive Producer
Yosuke Shingai No No Yes Game Designer
Yuta Kimura No Yes Yes Technical Artist

Official Art and Guidebooks[]

In addition to releasing the games, official art & guidebooks were released separately to further the players’ experience. These books contain concept artwork created during the many stages of a game’s development, as well as a featured interview with the team. As with the ICO Official Guide BookThe Shadow of the Colossus official Artbook and Guidebook was never released outside of Japan. Players have thus made page scans and complete translations of the books so that foreign viewers may also appreciate them. GlitterBerri’s Game Translations is a notable and rather splendid example of a guidebook translation. The Last Guardian: An Extraordinary Story however, was released to a worldwide audience, much to fans’ excitement.

Original Soundtracks[]

One of the most memorable aspects of each TeamICO game is its music. Where most videogame soundtracks play in every location and level, the music of Ueda’s Trilogy was utilized carefully so that it might make the greatest contribution. Music only plays during cinematics or through an in-game battle sequence and, even then there are long stretches of silence.

Composer Michiru Ōshima was responsible for the creation of ICO's soundtrack, 'Melody in the Mist.' Of the three scores, this is the most atmospheric in nature, only two tracks (Castle in the Mist and You Were There) pulling player’s focus from the visuals. It seems Ōshima’s aim was not to compose a centerpiece but, to delicately round out the other aspects of the game. Track four pleasantly utilizes the mandolin, ukulele and guitar for the game’s main theme.

Kō Ōtani's score 'Roar of the Earth for Shadow of the Colossus is more dynamically tied to the game's story, sometimes pulling back to let the visuals take the light while, at other occasions demanding the player’s full attention. (The contrast between Commandment and Premonition of Revival is a good example.) Unlike 'Melody in the Mist', 'Roar of the Earth' is predominately orchestral, only containing a handful of cues where a flute synthesizer takes the lead. A unique feature of this score is its use of the Bouzouki in tracks such as Prologue and The Farthest Land.

Takeshi Furukawa's score for The Last Guardian, brings everything together by taking the Trilogy full circle. Completely orchestral and featuring a boys choir, Furukawa’s compositions are the most traditional of the three scores, sounding akin to music made for motion pictures. Epic yet delicate, soaring yet weighty, this soundtrack powerfully conveys Guardian‘s haunting narrative without overstating emotion (see End Titles Suite). The dulcimer brings finesse to both moments of danger and refuge.

Film Adaptations[]

Main article: Shadow of the Colossus (Film)

In April 2009, it was announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment would be making a film version of Shadow of the Colossus, with Kevin Misher (The Scorpion King, The Interpreter) set to produce. As of May 2012, Seth Lochhead (Hanna) was chosen to write the screenplay, and in September 2014, Andrés Muschietti (Mama) was announced as the film's director. Barbara Muschietti, sister of Andrés Muschietti, will co-produce alongside Kevin Misher. Fumito Ueda will act as a consultant for the project.

Currently, there are no plans to make ICO or The Last Guardian into film.


SotCFullTemplate
The Game Shadow of the Colossus ( Demo  · Pal Release  · Shadow of the Colossus HD  · PS4)
Characters Wander  · Agro  · Mono  · Dormin  · Lord Emon  · Guards  · Shadows
The Colossi I  · II  · III  · IV  · V · VI  · VII  · VIII  · IX  · X  · XI  · XII  · XIII  · XIV  · XV  · XVI
Unused Colossi ( Devil  · Evis  · Griffin  · Phoenix  · Roc  · Saru  · Sirius  · Spider  · Worm  · Yamori A  · Buffalo  · Quetzalcoatl)
Magic Sigil  · Hard Mode
Colossus Arenas Temple  · Proto  · Arena  · Kirin's Hill  · Canyon · Canossa  · Lakeside  · Underground  · Geyser  · Gravewind  · Leo's Cave  · Poseidon's Lake  · Desert  · Ruins  · Parthenon  · Sanctuary
Unused Arenas ( Badlands  · Cave  · Crater  · Devil's Plain  · Dune  · Hillock  · I1  · Labyrinth  · Sluice  · Stonehenge  · Valley )
The Forbidden Lands Shadow creaturesSave shrinesFruit treesWhite-tailed lizards

The Shrine of Worship
Umbral GladeStone Arch GorgeDried MarshNorthern SpanDesert FortressMisty FallsRavine EntranceHalf-moon CanyonWestern PlainRound Stone HillLair to the WestStone Bridge CliffCliff PathLair on the MesaWestern CapeArch Bridge PlainBlasted LandsAutumn ForestEastern BluffValley PlainSouthwestern CapeSouthern PlainGreen CapeThe Broken Seal

Soundtrack Roar of the Earth
Walkthrough Time AttackGolden Coins
Other media Nico  · Official artbook/guidebook  · Collectible figurines  · Film adaptation
Giantology campaign
Hoaxes Jebal-Barez skeletonTamil Nadu tsunami giantSulu Sea eel statuePolarneft conspiracySayre family vacation
Characters Eric BelsonCasper ShillingEd GuylerArkady SimkinBoris AtlasovAndrew and Ellie Sayre
Media Giantology podcasts (FirstInterview with Arkady SimkinThirdFourth) • IPICP memo
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