Those of Subtraction and Touch

Articles in this chapter

1. 1.
   Inside Keita Takahashi's Philosophy — The Mechanic of Adding No Mechanics

   2026-08-22 · Kizuki · 12 min

   A study of Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy, built only from his own words. In late 2025 he said himself that his new game to a T "didn't sell well," and moved his family back to Japan. Yet back in 2009 he was already saying he felt unsuited to the games industry. This is a reading of why he kept making things anyway, assembled by laying twenty years of his statements side by side.

2. 2.
   Inside Fumito Ueda's Philosophy — Subtracting Toward Emotional Space

   2026-07-09 · Kizuki · 10 min

   A reading of Fumito Ueda, creator of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, drawn from four of his own interviews. What did the man behind "design by subtraction" actually remove, and what was he trying to keep? His philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas, and influences, grounded only in his own words.

3. 3.
   Inside Asher Vollmer's Philosophy — loading years of depth into a single swipe

   2026-07-26 · Kizuki · 10 min

   A study of Asher Vollmer, creator of Threes!, built only from his own words: the longevity design that stretches 'simple to learn, impossible to master' across years, his obsession with keeping placeholder art pretty, the cloning episode where he blamed himself for not going free and then recovered his pride, and the efficiency-versus-rest dilemma. It closes with Kizuki's reading.

4. 4.
   La philosophie de Zach Gage — reconstruire les jeux que l'on connaît déjà

   2026-07-07 · Kizuki · 12 min

   Une étude de Zach Gage (SpellTower, Really Bad Chess, Good Sudoku, Puzzmo), fondée exclusivement sur ses propres entretiens : sa philosophie de conception qui consiste à reconstruire des classiques que tout le monde connaît ; les « trois regards » hérités du graphisme et les prototypes que l'on manipule à la main ; son habitude de se jeter dans des genres qu'il n'aime pas ; son éthique de refus de l'engagement infini et sa gestion du hasard ; et jusqu'à ses sources d'influence — le journal de sa mère, Spelunky, et Sid Meier comme repoussoir. Pour finir, un seul paragraphe d'opinion personnelle le présente comme un « artiste conceptuel sorti de la galerie ».

5. 5.
   Inside Scott Kim's Philosophy — making the right answer belong to the solver

   2026-08-03 · Kizuki · 11 min

   A study of Scott Kim — ambigram artist and designer of Bejeweled 2's puzzle mode — built only from what he has written and said in public. The asymmetry hidden in his two-line definition. His design rules: build a good toy first, and never let the controls be the difficulty. The defeats he keeps describing in mathematics education, and his turn from stick to carrot. The dilemma he names himself: how to put the thrill of competition back into a solitary act. Closing with Kizuki's own reading.

6. 6.
   Inside Martin Gardner's Philosophy — Turning What He Didn't Know Into Care for the Reader

   2026-09-07 · Kizuki · 8 min

   A philosophy graduate with no mathematics degree wrote a puzzle column for 25 years and carried everything from pentominoes to the Game of Life out into the world. He kept saying he was "strictly a journalist." Reading across his interviews and autobiography for Martin Gardner's philosophy, obsessions, regrets, dilemmas and influences.

7. 7.
   Inside Kim Swift's Philosophy — Manipulating the Player Into Feeling Clever

   2026-07-12 · Kizuki · 8 min

   "After people play our game, I want them to feel clever." That is how Kim Swift describes designing Portal. She is a designer who bet not on hard puzzle walls but on invisible guidance — steering the player's eye and feelings without them noticing. Her philosophy, obsessions, failures (a boss fight that died three times), dilemmas and influences, read through her own interviews and a GDC postmortem.

8. 8.
   Inside Dave Grossman's Philosophy — Let the Player Be the Clever One

   2026-09-03 · Kizuki · 9 min

   "Your job is not to make yourself feel clever, it's to make the player feel clever." Dave Grossman has said it for thirty years — and rather than leave it a slogan, he sat his mother-in-law down with his own game and published every place she got stuck. A reading of his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences across seven sources.

9. 9.
   Inside Ron Gilbert's Philosophy — Never Waste the Player's Time

   2026-07-11 · Kizuki · 8 min

   "What makes most games tough to play is that the puzzles are arbitrary and unconnected." Ron Gilbert wrote that in 1989 while designing Monkey Island. This is a study of the man widely regarded as the finest thinker on adventure-game puzzle design — his philosophy, his obsessions (the Puzzle Dependency Chart), his failures (Maniac Mansion), his dilemmas and his influences — read through his own essays, blog and interviews.

10. 10.
    Inside Ken Wong's Philosophy — a whole world inside one frame

    2026-08-04 · Kizuki · 9 min

    A study of Ken Wong — lead designer of Monument Valley and creator of Florence — built only from what he has said in public. Starting production on the assumption that "70, 80, 90 percent" of the work will be thrown away. The "little worlds" rule that no puzzle information leaves the screen. Illusions built like magic tricks. His admission that the team lacked the vocabulary to discuss music, and the anxiety during Florence about wasting someone else's money. The line he drew for himself on representation. And his 2019 restatement that his most famous game is not a puzzle game at all. Ends with Kizuki's own reading.

11. 11.
    Inside Toru Iwatani's Philosophy — Build a Maze, Then Hide That It Is One

    2026-08-21 · Kizuki · 11 min

    A study of Toru Iwatani, the designer who planned Pac-Man (1980), built only from his own lectures and interviews. He made a maze game and then drew the maze walls as thin outlines so players would not notice it was a maze. He says to think by subtraction, he gave the same account of difficulty pacing in 1986 and in 2015, and in 2011 he scolded the industry for a flood of very simple games. A man who built the outer limit of simplicity criticising simplicity: this is an attempt to line that apparent contradiction up and read it.