- In the next eight months Ueda prepares a prototype of the game.

- Kaido visits universities in Tokyo looking for people to hire. Kaido, Yoshida and Ueda have previously agreed that to make an unusual game they'll have to find people with unusual skills and a fresh look into games.

- Ueda hand-picks fourteen people from the list of names Kaido brings back. None have ever worked in the games industry before and only one of them is a programmer; the rest are either animators, artists or planners.

- Footage from the prototype is integrated into the pre-rendered video used to pitch the game in 1997 and used to induct the new people into the project and pilot their efforts towards a common target.

- Kaido sets a checkpoint system. Every few months they'll gather in the conference room and see what everyone else on the team has been doing.

- ICO has to be a game that anyone can pick up and play without instruction manuals.

- Ueda and Kaido set three rules for the project. It has to be different; it must be graphically appealing; and it should not be photo-realistic.

- The game's engine is ready. The artists come up with a bunch of puzzles, Ueda and Kaido approve the best and hand them to the designers to add textures.

- The first checkpoint is reached. The footage they use for review is shown at internal demonstrations around the world at the various Sony division headquarters. Ueda is told many of the other teams were very impressed with their work.

- With ICO taking shape Yoshida, Kaido and Ueda agree on a target release window - Autumn 1999, a little over twelve months away.