It's been a while since we're seen or heard much from game designer Fumito Ueda. He's the visionary director behind such classics as Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus, but he hasn't put out a new game since 2016's long-delayed The Last Guardian. While we know that he's working on a brand new project, very few details about his new game has been made public knowledge.
That may have changed quite recently. A greeting card was posted on the website for GenDesign - Ueda's new development studio - wishing us all a happy new year. That's nice and all, but there's a tiny, subtle Easter egg on this card that may be giving us a slight hint of what the company has been working on.
The card shows off screenshots of moments from Ueda's previous three games. There's Ico and Yorda holding hands, Wander carrying the body of Mono, and Trico looking down at the unnamed protagonist of The Last Guardian. But then, off to the very right of this picture within the number 1, is an image we haven't seen before.
It depicts a caped figure - or maybe someone wearing a poncho? - standing in a lake next to some kind of giant rock structure (which could also be part of a new fantastical creature cooked up by Ueda.) Considering that the other images are all from games that Ueda has previously made, it's highly possible that this a teaser image for GenDesign's mysterious new title.
Unfortunately, this image doesn't give us a ton of information about what this new game is. All we can really deduce that it has water, odd shapes, and people who like staring off into the distance dramatically. Although that's more than we had before, so that's something.
Ueda left Team Ico and Sony back in 2011 and opened up his new studio, GenDesign, in 2014 along with other former Team Ico members. He helped finish work on The Last Guardian, which finally released in 2016 to mostly positive reviews, although it's regarded as the weakest of his three games. Since then, GenDesign has been working on this unannounced project with Epic Games stepping in to help fund development.
It's not surprising that the creator of enigmatic titles like Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus would be so secretive with details of his new game. However, this cheeky little preview of what he and his team have been working on may indicate that they're close to finally revealing it in the not-too-distant future.