The Inspiration Behind Ico’s Iconic Cover Art

          Ico is a Playstation 2 game that has recently made news with its re-release and new cover art. Ico is an action-adventure game that was released in 2001 and received much attention because of its minimalist and subtracting design - where elements of gameplay where reduced to not interfere with the game's setting or story. Ico received many awards from the press and publications such as: "Excellence in Level Design," "Excellence in Visual Arts," "Game Innovation Spotlight," and also, "Art Direction" and "Character or Story Development."

          Such an artistic game should have an equally artistic cover right? Wrong. In fact, the North American cover was considered one of the worst in history and was said to contribute to poor sales.

          However, the game's re-release had a much more attractive, appropriate, and artistic cover:

          Besides cover the art, the actual game itself was inspired by the works of Giorgio de Chirico, a surrealist artist of the early 20th century who was considered the founder of the Metaphysical art movement. De Chirico's works inspired famous artists like Dali and Max Ernst, but more appropriately the creator of Ico, Fumito Ueda. Specifically, the works titled "The Nostalgia of the Infinite"

 and "Melancholy and Mystery of a Street"

         You can see in both works there is a minuscule, silhouetted and lonely figure being overshadowed, so to speak, by enormous buildings and structures. The cover is very similar to De Chirico's work; the massive structures towering over tiny people with big shadows and the color is similar in the shades and tones. Ueda says that De Chirico was one of the primary inspirations in developing Ico. The feeling of loneliness and being trapped by an overbearing building is a constant theme throughout the game, from the beginning to end.

     

          I thought this was really cool and interesting because I've learned about De Chirico in several of my classes here at the UofA and specifically remember being taught about "Melancholy and Mystery of a Street." Most people wouldn't think of this type of art and video games to converge but it is a rather common and unseen action that occurs on many instances. I never have played this game but remember hearing many great things about it when it was released. I remember people talking about how artistic it was and remember seeing screenshots of a little boy being dwarfed by a huge giant monster, relating to the overpowering structures in De Chirico's works.