Fatal Frame 4 artwork

I recently posted some screenshots of some work I did for the Wii game Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse on my portfolio website. I created a number of indoor environments and the final stages of the game. It was a fun project to work on -- I took lots of photos of Japanese temples for research, and it forced me to look at them in a way to understand how they are really built.
The game was released under the name Zero: Gesshoku no Kamen in Japan, but unfortunately will not be released outside Japan.
Anyway, check it out!
Fatal Frame 4 artwork on my website
Fatal Frame 4 information on Wikipedia

Hopper's volume 2: Snake vs Zombie

This Saturday, games developer Grasshopper Manufacture held the 2nd edition of its annual Hopper's festival. The festival was a one-day event in Club Asia in Shibuya, featuring talks by prominent video game developers and live music. While in one part of the venue the talks were held, live music was played on another stage elsewhere. Various Grasshopper goods such as their soundtrack CDs and signed copies of the book Hand in Killer7 were on sale at the event and seemed to be selling well.

Speakers included Tetsuya Mizuguchi (best known for the games Rez, Space Channel 5 and Lumines), Fumito Ueda (director and lead designer of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus), Keiichiro Toyama (director of Silent Hill and the Siren games) and Hifumi Kono (Steel Battalion).

The main event, Snake vs Zombie, was a joint talk by Konami's Hideo Kojima and Capcom's Shinji Mikami, and hosted by Grasshopper's own Goichi Suda, better known as Suda 51. For the non-gamers: Kojima is famous for his creation of the Metal Gear Solid series of games (the lead character of which is called Solid Snake, shown right on the flyer), and Mikami is best known for creating the Biohazard/Resident Evil games, which can be credited for re-popularizing the zombie-genre in both film and video games in recent years.
The two men were asked things such as how they first got to know each other's work; which films they watched recently (all seemed to like the TV show Lost) ; and to explain their jobs, which differed in that Mikami said he was more concerned with scheduling while Kojima is more hands-on with the game's (visual) design.

All the talks were very much of the talk-show type; informal discussions which were loosely lead by some questions. I didn't attend all the talks, as my Japanese is still quite limited, but I was just able to understand the main points they were talking about. A better-Japanese-speaking friend had come along, and some of my colleagues were also there, so I was able to get some translations as well.

Following the main event there was also a recording of Kojima's podcast, in which members of the audience could ask questions to the speakers present.

The evening was concluded with a performance of the Grasshopper sound team, which played tracks from games such as God Hand, Killer7 (the Handsomemen theme song) and the upcoming No More Heroes. I can't be certain, but I think I heard the Grasshopper sound team announce that a Killer7 soundtrack CD is in the works. I also think I heard Suda 51 announce that one of their earliest games, The Silver Case is due to be appear for the Nintendo DS in the future.

Standing most of the day while trying to concentrate on the Japanese being spoken made the whole event slightly too tiring for us to go to the "after-party" nearby, which was some kind of Lumines Xbox360 Tournament party hosted by Mizuguchi and Microsoft. Still, it had been an interesting and fun day - I'll be back next year, when I should be able to follow the talks a little better!

Starting at a Japanese games dev

Two months after being offered my job, I was finally able to start working on the last Friday of January.

I arrived at the requested time and was shown by the receptionist to a table where two other people starting that day were sitting in silence, avoiding mutual eye contact. I couldn't help but kick off with my "Japanese Lesson 1" material and started the introductions. We were soon met by our leads and taken to our departments.

During the day we were shown around the entire office and introduced to everyone, which involved lots of bowing and exchanging the words "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" several times. This translates more or less into "Please be kind to me", and is the most common expression when meeting someone.

As usual, most of the first day working at a games developer is spent getting your PC set up. Creating a login, password, installing and setting up all the required software, network paths, etc. Learning what-does-what in Windows software is a little trickier when it's all in kanji. Luckily though, the software I need to use the most (Maya and Photoshop) were both available in English. When I'm in deep "into" my work, there's little to remind me I'm actually working in foreign country.

In addition to that, the two artists sitting nearest to me in the office are the two employees who speak the best English - it really couldn't be more convenient. Needless to say they've been a tremendous help to me the past few weeks in translating my questions (and answers), reading error messages on my screen, explaning work practices, teaching me new words, etc. etc. I'm not sure I would have managed without their help. Also since my arrival, all my colleagues have now added their names in romaji to the list in our instant messaging software, making it possible for me to read their names.

At some point during the first day I received my contract. Apparently it is not unusual to get this on your first working day, and it's only one page. Being that short it is of course pretty basic, the only striking clause being something along the lines of "Should the company get sued for something you did, you get sued, not the company". You don't need to sign - or rather stamp - it on the spot, but return it to following week.

While I'm not the first Westerner to work at the company, at the moment I am the only one. All in all, the company and the employees have been extremely accommodating. I can do my work without problems and best of all, I'm enjoying myself. So far so good!

Roppongi Hills

Roppongi is an area of Tokyo that's the home of many embasssies, foreign companies, foreign restaurants, The Hard Rock Cafe... I think you get picture. It also carries the reputation of being one of the sleaziest areas and in response to that there's been a recent surge in large property developments, the first being Roppongi Hills which opened in 2003. A few weeks ago I had to be in the area so decided to take a look.

The quite good looking Mori Tower is the center piece, which is surrounded by restaurants, an art museum, cinema, the offices of TV Asahi, and countless luxury shops predominantly owned by the big Italian fashion brands. For architecture-tourists I'd say the area is worth a look. (Left: a panorama photo put together quickly without proper stitching software).

While I was there, there was some sort of outdoor promotional exhibition by BMW. Aside from a few of their latest 4x4s, racing cars and motorcycles being on display, there were a few interactive exhibits to make it all a bit more fun. Visitors could have a go at playing a F1 game (I think the game was Grand Prix 3) from inside an "F1 car"; it wasn't particularly impressive but enough to warrant a queue of about a dozen people. Elsewhere there was a yacht racing simulator with a yacht-sized steering wheel. The graphics for the water, sunlight and surroundings looked pretty good for its purpose but the model and texture of the boat itself were downright shoddy.


Not far from Roppongi Hills the National Art Center Tokyo is nearing completion and is due to open January 21st, 2007. The building looks impressive enough from the outside, so I'm quite keen to have a look inside.

Plan B

Before coming to Japan, I already had a backup plan to keep me busy while I would be looking for a job here. I had already notified several colleagues and ex-colleagues in other companies that I would be available to do freelance work.

So far, Plan B has been working to a satisfactory degree. I've been doing some work for people in Los Angeles and London, and I've spoken about possible work with someone in Sweden. The work on each little project has been completely different from the others.

One of the companies I've been working with is AirPlay, a mobile games developer started by some ex-colleagues of mine based in London. Their first game, Super Yum Yum, got excellent reviews and was nominated for a BAFTA game award a few years ago. That year they were the only game nominated which didn't carry an existing brand/license. They've recently released Super Yum Yum 2, which is also getting great reviews. Check it out!
As is usual in the games biz, I'm not at liberty to talk about what I've been working on (until it is officially announced by the publisher).

Working with a time difference of 8 to 17 hours (Europe and LA, respectively) turns out to be easier than I'd expected. By the late afternoon, when I'm finishing up my work, Europe gets to work and we discuss the work either using Instant Messenger or Skype. If my employer in Europe decides he wants some other changes, he can always send me an e-mail, knowing it will arrive well before I start my work the next morning.

To anyone reading this who is looking for a freelance artist: I'm still available until the end of January. (There's a hint in there about the status of my jobhunt, but more on that later!)
You'll find my contact details on my CV at videogamesartist.com. =D

PS3 Launch in Japan

I suppose I should write something about the Japanese PlayStation 3 launch, seeing as I'm a games developer who's in Japan.
Of course, I didn't carry out my devilish plan to try to buy one here and double/triple my money by selling it on eBay to someone who really wants one. With some luck that could've worked, if also I had the energy to queue all night, but I consider myself too old for that kind of thing.
Having just seen an item on TV on the launch, I have no regrets. Twelve employees of the TV show were sent on a mission to buy a PS3, and began queueing 24 hours before the launch which would be at 7am on Saturday. The report showed sleeping people on the streets, sped-up shots of the queues hundreds of people long, and a manic stampede across a street and into a large shop, with security looking utterly helpless. Out of the twelve TV employees five managed to buy a PS3. A good first-hand account of the events can be found here.