Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi has stated his latest game, To a T, “didn’t sell well” and “wasn’t a good fit”, expressing the difficulties of releasing more experimental games.

Takahashi is best known for the surreal Katamari Damacy series, which sees players rolling a ball around environments collecting increasingly bigger objects. Takahashi left publisher Namco in 2010 and has since lived in Vancouver and San Francisco while working on other projects.

However, speaking to Games Radar, Takahashi revealed he doesn’t own the Katamari Damacy IP (with Namco continuing the series itself). What’s more, he’s now had to move back to Japan due to To a T’s lack of success.

“I don’t think anyone tries to make a niche game,” said Takahashi of his output. “The title ‘niche game’ is just a result. I know my games are far from mainstream.

“I recently returned to Japan, and one of the reasons I had to do was because To a T didn’t sell well. This is a risk of being independent, and I’m willing to take it, but I don’t think it’s a question of niche or traditional, it’s a question of whether people like it or not.”

Takahashi believes there’s “still room for new ideas”, but “unfortunately To a T just wasn’t a good fit”.

Published by Annapurna and developed by his own studio Uvula, To a T follows a young child who’s stuck in a T pose. It’s full of joy and humour, but it’s also a game about living with a disability.

Takahashi told Games Radar he was inspired by the “downer mood/vibes/atmosphere of the place where we live” and so wanted to “make something very positive and silly”.

“I’m not sure, but it’s definitely getting harder for me,” he said, when asked about the difficulties of releasing experimental games. “If anyone wants to invest in a Uvula, let me know. Let’s make more fun and weird games!”

“What ultimately worked for me about To a T, about this frustrating, bewildering, clumsy and ingenious game – and I see this in glimpses, and in little starbursts of my own triggered memories – is its abiding sense of just how luridly weird life is when you’re young, how boundless and loosely-ruled it seems,” wrote Christian Donlan for Eurogamer about understanding the core of To a T.