Every month I try to attend Tokyo Indies, a monthly gathering in central Tokyo. It's a hub for game development enthusiasts and offers a unique opportunity to connect with fellow developers, showcase projects, and draw inspiration from the community's creativity. The event usually gets packed, but it's still small enough that you feel a sense of community. I've always had a positive experience attending and I wish I did a recap of all the other times I went, so this blog post will highlight some of my previous times going as well as my most recent one.
The first time I went to Tokyo Indies was sometime in 2022. I met a few people working in the local game industry and had some fun conversations about games and game development. At 8:30pm presentations started and everybody gathered around the stage both standing and sitting on the ground. There's something about sitting on the ground that makes a presentation feel more intimate. It was a lot of fun seeing what local devs were making. There were a lot of passionate people and it inspired me to show my games.
Since then I've made it my goal to go every month. After a few months of attending I began to demo my games on one of the open tables available on a first come first serve basis. The first project I showed was a small experimental work called Experiential Forms. It's an audio visual interactive piece that makes heavy use of light and space. Many people found the game extremely captivating. Attendees took photos and videos, asked lots of questions, and were positively bewildered by the experience. I don't usually get a chance to see live feedback on something I've made, so it was a surreal experience for me to see such positive reactions.
The next time I went to Tokyo Indies I showed off The Golden Tower. I turned this experience into a mini exhibition style piece. My partner dressed up as one of the ominous entities you encounter in the tower, and we turned the whole playthrough into small performance for each player. The reaction to this was super positive. Many people were in awe, and had so many questions and theories. There was a lot of praise for the sound design, atmosphere, performance, and the heavy sense of dread. It was so much fun doing this. It has always been a dream of mine to transform a game into a performance piece in an exhibition space. It was nice to test that concept at Tokyo Indies.
I have been working on an interactive sound art experience titled 'The Space Time Continuum of Sound'. I decided to show an early version at Tokyo Indies a few months ago. This experience is pretty minimal but it caught the attention of some attendees. People felt like they were transported to an otherworldly space. The noise cancelling headphones I brought helped a lot with that. One of the people that played it wanted to collaborate and use their extensive design background to help fully realize the vision. Overall it was another successful night. I've put this project on hold to focus on my most ambitious project, TO:RI.
The last two times I went to Tokyo Indies I showed off my newest in-progress work. This project is called TO:RI and I've been developing it almost fulltime for the last 4 months. It's set on an island and my goal with this game is to make an extremely atmospheric minimal narrative game in a small but densely interactive environment. Getting in-person feedback on this game has been so valuable. This is the first game I have made that has lots of interactive elements and gameplay systems. Watching people play has caused me to make lots of changes to ensure the experience plays smoothly. Testing is so important. Some people were able to break parts of it in unexpected ways. I'm really grateful to be able to have a place like Tokyo Indies to gather feedback.
On November 16, I showed off a new ending I made for TO:RI. My current goal is have 5 endings. The basic framework for the endings have been completed and now needs to be fully polished (the longest and hardest part). I was able to gather even more feedback and this time was extremely lucky to meet some industry veterans who have worked on huge AAA games and indie hits. In a wild coincidence, one of the people I met also happened to be the creator of the skybox asset I was using in the game. I had a wonderful conversation with them about our shared passion for more serene, evocative, and atmospheric games.
---
Tokyo Indies is an incredible event full of a lot of passionate people. I'm lucky to be living in a city full of so many interesting people working on amazing projects. The event is always a boost of motivation and energy when I start to get exhausted with development. I've made some great friends and connections and can't wait to showcase some more stuff next time. From my first visit to Tokyo Indies in 2022 to my latest demo, each experience has not only shaped my projects but also reinforced my passion for making interactive art. It was through these events that I was able to build the confidence to demo my games. My next step is to do a presentation on stage. 2024 is full of some exciting opportunities I can't wait to share. Stay tuned.
Did you like this post? Tell us
Leave a comment
Log in with your itch.io account to leave a comment.