Tokyo Game Show

So I went along to the Tokyo Game Show this past weekend.




It was an absolute blast.




The event itself is as big as ever, with 270,000 people attending over the four days.  The first two days were business only which means the vast majority of the quarter of a million people attended on the Saturday and Sunday.




Having said that, the big publishers avoided the event as much as possible, with the obligatory enormous stands and almost nothing else.  Now that the Japanese game market has collapsed the big breaking headlines happen elsewhere, which makes sense, but is still disappointing for attendees.


What Japan has in abundance is mobile games.  So many mobile games.  If you're after something to play on your phone then this is the country for you.  The largest stages were reserved for Sony, playing live concerts and whatnot, but almost all the second tier stages were mobile publishers and streaming services.




Turns out there's a lot of money in phones these days, who would have thought.

Anyway, my favourite section was definitely the stage/indie/dressup hangar.  The main area was unbelievably loud and incredibly crowded on the public days, so much so that I had to retire to the other half of the show on several occasions.  I'm not one for loud spaces in the first place (nerd) but it really was unbearable.

So in the (slightly) quieter building I met a ton of really cool independent developers showing off their software.

I played a few really fun games, a few challenging ones, and a few in VR.

I met someone who worked on Dungeon Keeper, one of my favourite games ever.  He's working with his wife on the mobile game above and it was a treat to get to chat to them.  I was probably destroying their chance to advertise to the crowds, for which I apologise (not that they'll ever read this).

I didn't play it because I'm shocking at actually playing video games, especially puzzle games, but as long as there's an easy mode for me to try out I'll jump in when it's released.  It'll be interesting to see how it does because they're still working out how to make money from their games.  It's a tricky proposition, especially with the amount of free dreck out there.  Convincing someone to pay money is something everyone was talking about.  Unless they're creating in VR, because the assumption is that if you can afford 1,500gbp of PC and 800gbp of VR equipment then money is no object.

Another game I checked out was this one:

It's really hard.  Like, really really hard.  It's a fast moving platformer that will appeal to anyone who likes perfecting lines and speedrunning, and anyone that doesn't mind sending a Rude Bear to his death over and over again.  The interesting hook with this game is that every death leaves behind a body that will cover spikes, block projectiles and so on, meaning your next run through it slightly easier.  No matter how bad you are at the game you can eventually finish it with enough perseverence.

I also love the music.  Every stage has its own unique track, and I didn't hear a single song I didn't like.  It's all filthy, grimy and industrial, and sits well with the overall design and aesthetic.

It's too difficult for me by far, but it's still great.  (Also, I was chatting to the dev who took the controller off me because I was so bad and started playing while barely looking at the screen.  My guess is that he's playtested every one of the levels quite a bit.)

So a lot of indie games are 2D, sprite based platformers or RPG's with a fairly limited scope.  This is due to money, basically, and it means that when a team does end up aiming higher, they can crash and burn (cough cough No Mans Sky cough).

This game is a 3D adventure, and I tried it out in VR.  It's not an adventure game in the style of an old Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle, but more in the modern style of a Gone Home.

To be honest I'm not sure whether it's an adventure game at all, but I don't really have any other way of describing it.

You walk around and experience the life of the main character, interact with those around you and generally, if you're me, make a nuisance of yourself by throwing basketballs at people and turning lamps on and off incessantly.

It's impossible to get a sense of whether the story is compelling or not in the space of a demo in a booth, but what I can say for certain is that the VR works, just sit down while you're playing.  This game uses a controller which means you move forward and backwards like a normal first person game, but the sensation of moving forward throws your entire sense of balance off.  It's even worse when you stop because you slow down really quickly and your body is expecting the normal forces involved in deceleration, which means you overcompensate, which means you end up leaning forward and nearly falling over.

At least that's what I found.

That aside I think the inclusion of VR in a game of this type is a smart move because it really does add to the immersion.  It's one of those things that you have to try in order to see whether it works for you or not, just like the move from 480p to 1080p, or the upcoming move to 4K.  Hearing someone wax lyrical about the tech does nothing to convey the feeling.

As a side note, I commented on just how fantastic one of the characters looked, and it turned out the character artist was standing right next to me.  It also turns out she's from England.  It also turns out she's living in Tokyo.

Small world.

Needless to say the characters look amazing, even when you get right up in their grill.  I was probably the creepiest dude on the planet at the exact moment where I was millimetres away from this characters face studying every detail.

If you're interested I found a portfolio of hers here.

Those were some of the things that stuck out to me at the show.

After I've written up the article (the reason I was there in the first place) I'll put some of the rejected photographs on here.  I'll also get a video of me messing around in VR put onto my youtube, and onto here.