Fumito Ueda was born in 1970 in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Ueda showed an interest in animation and movement from a young age and was also a keen art student who hoped to make a living one day as a classical artist. Ueda graduated form the Osaka University of Arts in 1993 and in 1995 decided to pursue a career in the games industry.
Ueda got his start at the late Kenji Eno's WARP studio working as an animator on Enemy Zero for the Sega Saturn. After finishing work on Enemy Zero, Ueda joined Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan Studio and began work on what would eventually become ICO. After the completion of ICO, Ueda and his small team, better known as Team ICO started working on a follow up originally titled NICO that would later morph in Shadow of the Colossus.
During the years following 2011 Ueda worked on the much anticipated The Last Guardian. Development for the game however, which was anticipated as a release for the PS3, was subject to numerous delays. As progress stalled on The Last Guardian, Ueda joined up with Bossa Studios which is known for social gaming. The Last Guardian was released at the end of 2016 as a PS4 exclusive title.
Not only spearheading all of Team ICO's projects as the director, Ueda has also contributed to his games in the capacity of animator, character designer and gameplay designer.
All of the games on which he has directed have a very distinctive style, which Ueda himself describes as "design by subtraction". Sparse landscapes, over-saturated lighting and minimalist story lines give his games a very unique feel.
His thoughts regarding plot in video games are that ideas for a gameplay mechanics should be made first, then complimented by a game's story.
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