Team ICO

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

Team Ico (name often stylized as Team ICO) is a video game development team for Sony Computer Entertainment, led by Fumito Ueda. They are currently a part of SCE Japan Studio's Product Development Department #1. 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 distinct art style, and strong animation.

Since creating Shadow of the Colossus with TeamICO in 2005, Fumito Ueda left Sony to start his own studio GenDESIGN, the group responsible for releasing The Last Guardian.

Games developed

	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
	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 booming 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
	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, both in the environment itself and 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

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

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
Haijime 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	No	System Programmer, Yorda AI Programmer
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 (Shadow creatures, 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 Book, The 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.