designing ico

The Method of Developing ICO:

They began to accomplish this using a method they referred to as "subtracting design:" every element of the game that took away from its reality was removed. Instead of having a varied cast of enemies with unique strengths and weaknesses, for instance, there would be only one enemy type; instead of a castle, its environs, and nearby settlements, there would only be the castle and an escape from it. They also used unconventional hiring techniques: to put together a team capable of realizing Ueda's vision, they hired mostly outside of the industry to put together an initial staff of two programmers, four artists, and one designer in addition to Ueda and Kaido.

For masochists, here is the non-printer-friendly, graphic-and-ad-heavy regular version of the article.