The Making of The Shadow of the Collossus

March 9th, 2006 · No Comments

A little dry, a little to much focus on the graphics, but this is a great writeup on the making of the PS2 title Shadow of the Collossus.

Goes into detail about shadows, hit maps, fur and rendering using as little horsepower as possible. Clever stuff.

“Shadow Of The Colossus took approximately 3 years to produce. With ICO, it is somewhere between a cartoon shader and photo realistic visuals. At the start of development it was hard to add things, such as the stencil shadow volumes, strengthening the environmental lighting, etc…… but it was a matter of trial and error, and eventually we arrived at the fantastic visuals.”

- Fumito Ueda

I’d have loved to have read more on the background to the game, the idea making process. The game concept is superb, it’s a shame I’ve no PS2, none of my friends have a PS2 either. Ah well.

I keep trying to resist writing a short story in a world similar to the Collossus, where giant spirits walk the marred landscape. I’m not sure how long i will resist. It would be harder to do if I knew the game, as it is I can be inspired by the screenshots and the official website.

The Making of “Shadow Of The Colossus”