Original link: https://yousazoe.top/archives/9523ea4f.html
introduction
Japan is a representative power in the video game industry, but Japanese independent games have less visibility and influence than the world. Anne Ferrero, who runs an independent game developer community in Japan, shared her collection and arrangement of Japan at GDC in 2022 with the title “Big in Japan, Not in the West: The Difficults of Cross-Cultural Appeal”. An overview of indie game developers, and what to look out for when targeting a cross-cultural global market.
Reprinted with permission from IGDShare.org , converted from simplified to traditional, and modified the different usages of some words.
Originally from France, Anne has worked for a local TV station and has been based in Japan since 2011, producing a series of short documentaries by Japanese creators with the channel ” Archipel “. Since 2019, he has served as the community manager of the Japanese independent developer exchange entity space ” asobu “. Her representative work in the independent game industry is the documentary ” Branching Paths ” launched in 2016. Anne spent two or three years interviewing and filming a number of Japanese independent game developers, as well as overseas independent game developers based in Japan. , the content of the film was well received, and IGDSHARE assisted in the translation of the film and held a screening in Taiwan.
Before talking about the current situation of Japanese independent games, let’s briefly introduce the history of Japanese independent games. Just like there were many “bedroom developers” in the early days of Europe and the United States, there were similar developers in Japan in the 1980s, who submitted their own games to computer magazines and related competitions, earned royalties or bonuses, and moved towards commercialization step by step. For example, Koichi Nakamura, who founded Chunsoft with “Door Door”, or Gamefreak, which turned from self-made game guidebooks to independent game development, etc.
Another branch, the “fan” game, also began to develop in the 1980s, and this community culture has continued until now. Fan games are usually developed by amateurs and based on interests. They are sold at sales clubs or specialty stores such as Comiket, and have developed popular series such as the “Touhou Project” series, “When the Cicadas Cry” series, “Fate” series, etc. A series of commercial masterpieces.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the mainstream independent games in this period were various small free games, which were downloaded from personal websites, and Flash games that could be played directly online. The representative works included “Cave Story” and “La-Mulana”. “, “Dream Diary”, etc.
After the 2000s, the emerging term is “homemade game”, which is not much different in nature from the above-mentioned free games, mainly because the video sharing website “NicoNico Animation” uses this term and is widely recognized. The characteristics of the “homemade game” period are that it is usually an RPG/text adventure game made with simple development tools, and on the NicoNico video website, through the game live video and barrage (real-time subtitle message) discussion and creation of topics, in There is a trend among the younger generation of players. The masterpiece “Blue Ghost” has become so popular that it has been adapted into films, animations, novels and other cross-media works.
In the modern times since 2010, many independent games have also appeared on the smartphone platform, but because feature phones have not been quickly replaced in Japan, Japanese developers are faster than foreign developers in terms of platform transfer to smartphones. a bit slower. Representative works include “Mom Hide My Game Console”, “Cat Collection” and so on.
Finally, there are “indie games”. Of course, the above-mentioned games all belong to the category of independent games. What I mean here is the “Indie Game” in the European and American perspectives. Before that, if Japanese developers wanted to make games, there were usually only two ways to go. One was to enter a game company to make games, and the other was to create games for amateurs. In the 2010s, after the European and American concept of “indie games” was introduced to Japan, more developers began to try to set up small teams to make their own games full-time. Successful cases include games such as “Downwell”, “Gnosia”, and “Tian Sui No Saki Inami”.
To make a simple distinction, fan games and self-made games tend to be created by amateurs based on interests, while indie games are a way to survive at the same time as interests. Although these different groups of developers and players overlap to a certain extent, there are still some gaps between their communities and cultures. Even though there are already many successful examples of Japanese indie games, there are still many Japanese people who think that indie games are not much different from amateur development games.
At present, there are many independent game-related activities in Japan that are regularly identified, including the independent game zone in the Tokyo Game Show, or BitSummit, which is specially held for independent games, and Digital Game, which has both a fan game sales conference and an independent game exhibition. Expo, etc. After the global epidemic, there are also some online versions of the exhibition.
Next, is an overview of the industry in the Japanese independent game industry. According to a survey in the book ” Indie Game Survival Guide ” (written by Ichiki Akira), there are about 10,000 independent game developers in Japan, and the main distribution is Tokyo/Yokohama, where there are many large companies, and Nintendo, Kyoto/Osaka from CAPCOM and others.
Anne recruited 65 developers via twitter to take part in a survey of the indie game developer profile. The number of samples is not large and cannot fully present the real industry overview, but it can still provide reference value to a certain extent. Respondents are mostly single developers, or small teams of less than 5 people. In terms of age distribution, 13% are in their 20s and have more contact with overseas games and independent games. The other 85% of developers are between 30 and 49 years old, which is a generation deeply influenced by Japanese home consoles. Mostly indie game development with extra work or savings.
In terms of time and finance, the proportion of full-time independent developers and part-time independent developers is about the same, 37% and 35% respectively, and 25% of developers are making games purely for interest. In terms of finance, 58% of developers need extra work to earn development and living expenses, and 40% of developers rely on the money earned from the previous game to fund the development of the next game.
In terms of the support of external resources, what Japanese independent developers can get is very limited. The MG (Minimum Guarantee, the minimum guaranteed sales volume) that publishers are willing to give is usually very low, and there is little assistance from the government and industry; even if there are companies willing to invest in independent games, they are all invested in well-known developers from big companies , or a mobile game company with a successful track record. However, it is worth noting that in the near future, the comic publishing house “Shueisha” has shown interest in independent games, established an online communication community for independent game developers “Game Creators Camp”, and hosted or co-organized game creation competitions, somewhat similar to them. In the way of holding the Comics New Talent Award, the winners will not only receive bonuses, but also get full or part of the development funds for commercialization.
As for the prosperous Kickstarter platform in Europe and the United States, it will not accept Japanese proposals until 2017. Before that, it can only be proposed by agents from European and American countries, and most independent developers are unable to participate. In fact, only Japanese game producers who are already famous have the chance to succeed on Kickstrter, and this “famous” must be famous overseas. It is not enough to be famous in Japan, and because the main The target is overseas players, and it is very necessary to have a team that understands English to assist in communication.
Of course, there are also fundraising platforms in Japan. The representative one is Campfire. Many games have successfully raised funds on this platform, but the record amount that can be set is far less than that of Kickstarter. Most of the games that will raise funds on it are the types of relatively small but diehard groups, such as VR games, Japanese animation games, scrolling shooting games, etc.
For Japanese independent game developers, the biggest problem they generally encounter when entering overseas markets is the language barrier. 80% of respondents believe that they cannot communicate well in foreign languages and must rely on translation tools to help them understand.
This has created a huge obstacle to the acquisition of information. On the Internet, there are many teaching articles or videos on game development and marketing that are freely available, but most of them are written in English, which is difficult to read if the English is not good; then, the descriptions of international exhibitions or competitions are mostly only provided in English. , which also causes Japanese independent games to participate less in international competitions; in addition, the interface of the game’s development tool itself, as well as the files used, are basically in English. To make matters worse, poor English skills can also lead to misunderstandings in information.
Language barriers will also increase costs. When Japanese games want to be sold overseas, foreign language translation is necessary. Games that only require a small amount of translation may be fine, but RPG or text adventure games with a high amount of text are the mainstream of Japanese indie games. The translation will increase a lot of development costs, and teams with insufficient funds may Choosing not to do translations also caused the game to lose the chance to be favored by overseas publishers.
In the questionnaire statistics made by Anne, 50% of developers will try to translate games into foreign languages by themselves, 19% of developers’ game translations are the responsibility of publishers, and 31% of developers choose not to do translations. In terms of language selection for translation, the highest proportion is English, followed by Chinese, which is similar in culture, has low translation difficulty and has a large market size.
Another obstacle caused by language barriers is the marketing of games. Even if the game has a way to do a good job of translation, to introduce the game to overseas players, what is needed is a more flexible and instant use of text. Such as how to correctly describe the game, how to contact the media, how to manage the community, how to interact with fans, etc.
In the questionnaire statistics made by Anne, 50% of developers will try to translate games into foreign languages by themselves, 19% of developers’ game translations are the responsibility of publishers, and 31% of developers choose not to do translations. In terms of language selection for translation, the highest proportion is English, followed by Chinese, which is similar in culture, has low translation difficulty and has a large market size.
Another obstacle caused by language barriers is the marketing of games. Even if the game has a way to do a good job of translation, to introduce the game to overseas players, what is needed is a more flexible and instant use of text. Such as how to correctly describe the game, how to contact the media, how to manage the community, how to interact with fans, etc.
Especially in Japanese, there are many “Japanese English” that only Japanese use, or English abbreviations that Japanese players are accustomed to use, which foreign players may not understand. For example, a game like “Final Fight” that beats people while walking is used to be called “Belt Action / Ribbon Scroll Action Game” in Japan, but the English circle does not use this word, but uses “Beat them up” to call them. Or like a “strategic RPG” game, Japan uses “SRPG” (Strategy RPG), and in English circles, it is used to call it “Tacital RPG”. Not only are there differences in the expression and abbreviation of game types, for example, in English for game trailers, Japan will be used to using “PV” (Promotion Video), and Europe and the United States will use the word Trailer, saying to overseas players “Please take a look at our game. “Latest PV”, they may not understand what it means.
Next is the console platform chosen by respondents. The highest proportion is PC/MAC, because this is the platform with the lowest entry threshold, but at the same time, the size of Japan’s computer game market is very small, and it is much smaller than that of European and American countries. If you want to use the console, the Switch platform is the first choice. Even though the Xbox Game Pass service has benefited the independent game industry a lot in recent years, the market share of the Xbox series consoles in Japan is still too low, which has affected developers to make the Xbox version. Willingness to play.
On PC, the main sales platform for Japanese indie games is Steam, followed by doujin game sales, Itch.io website or free download. Local digital sales platforms in Japan, such as DLsite, DMM Games, and Booth, also have a certain amount of usage, but these platforms are comprehensive platforms that include films, comics, illustrations and other works, and the main content is also more inclined to adult games or fan games. There will be no mainstream game masterpieces sold here, and the proportion of foreign consumers is not high, so the effect of attracting ordinary players is limited, and it is only suitable for games targeting specific groups.
The proportion of overseas platforms such as GOG, Humble Store, and Epic that choose to be listed on the shelves is one step lower, which is related to the fact that these platforms have not done a good job in Japanese culture and are rarely used in Japan.
In terms of distribution and promotion, as many as 75% of the respondents publish games in Japan by themselves, but when it comes to overseas distribution, the proportion of publishers who are responsible for it has increased, but 35% of developers choose not to publish overseas. In terms of publicity, 66% of the developers are responsible for the publicity of the game, but 21% of the developers do not particularly promote the game; in the overseas part, the proportion of non-advocacy is even higher than half, even if the game is on the overseas platform, because it does not promote the game. If you know how to promote it or don’t know how to promote it in English, you just put the game on the shelves and wait for those who wish to take the bait.
In terms of media contact, about 65% of the works will send press releases and other related information to the domestic media in Japan, but the proportion of contacting overseas media is reversed. estrangement factor. In addition, about 80% of developers will not actively contact any influencers (both domestic and foreign), and only passively hope that influencers can play their games. 86% of developers have never brought their games to overseas exhibitions, and even if they have, they are mainly from neighboring Taiwan and South Korea.
The channel of game promotion, almost all respondents will promote through twitter, more than 70% of them will have a website page, and half of them will make Youtube promotional videos, but the use of the remaining platforms is not high, and twitch, which is popular overseas, is in Japan. The usage rate is impossibly low.
There are many game media in Japan, such as Farmiton, 4gamer, Gamespark, Dengeki, IGN Japan, Automaton, Gamecast, etc. Most of these media accept press releases, and there is a chance to get one or two articles published. Some Japanese game media will review and rate games, but only IGN Japan’s game ratings will be included in the Metacritic score statistics. Automaton is a media that reports overseas independent games more often, and also translates Japanese reports into English. Then, many European and American game media will record videos or podcast-type programs. Japanese game media rarely do this, and they still maintain the form of static text and picture reports.
Overseas people may not know that Japanese media often do “reverse import” reports. Just as European and American media describe “Big In Japan” when they introduce famous things in Japan, if Japanese games resonate overseas, they will report on the theme of “attracting attention overseas”. This is from music, The film and television and pop culture industries are very popular.
For example, after the Japanese independent game “ElecHead” was retweeted and introduced by Derek Yu, a well-known game developer in the United States, Japanese media wrote a report about “domestic games praised by famous overseas developers”. This is also a benefit that can be brought by marketing games overseas. After all, independent games usually lack popularity or special news points, which makes it difficult to attract reporters to write reports, but if they resonate overseas and are recommended by famous people, it constitutes enough was written as the subject of the news.
It is a pity that not all games can be reverberated all over the world. Even if the game quality is good, it will not be loved by overseas players due to cultural barriers and other factors. Like “Unreal Life”, this is a pixel art style adventure game with a great atmosphere. It has received good reviews in Japan and has also been translated into multiple languages for overseas markets, but on Steam, 78% Sales are purchased by Japanese players, and are even more extreme on the Switch, with 97% of sales coming from Japan.
Another example is “Nkodice”. This work has designed a special kind of dice. The dice are marked with Japanese kana (letters) instead of points. It is easy to make players want to challenge to roll out obscene or funny word combinations, which has become a popular topic on the Japanese Internet. However, such games are difficult to be translated directly. Even if the dice face is redesigned and localized for different languages, it is not easy. It is destined to be a Japanese game.
What I want to talk about next is that Japanese schools, companies, and industries actually know very little about independent games. There are many universities in Japan that have game-related departments, as well as specialized schools that mainly teach game development. However, the expectations or commitments of these schools for students are that they can work in game companies after graduation, and will regard the employment rate as a priority. Performance for schools that can be used to advertise. Therefore, in the final year of the students, almost all of them are spent in internships, interviews, and trying to get the company’s internal process. When the entire education system guides students in this way, naturally very few students have the intention to become independent developers.
When developers join game companies, most companies do not encourage or even prohibit employees from developing their own games privately. Even if some developers still make games privately, they can only publish them under pseudonyms. Host hardware companies such as Nintendo or SONY will provide some assistance to independent games in order to enrich the number of software on their own platforms, but other game companies rarely lend a helping hand to independent developers. The largest game developer seminar in Japan At CEDEC, there are very few independent game development topics to share.
In terms of the entire industry, although Japan has a promotion plan based on “Cool Japan”, which focuses on “cultural soft power”, most of them can only benefit from large companies. The official support that independent games can get is quite small, even if they go abroad. The exhibition also lacks collective exhibitors such as the “National Pavilion”, and can only fight alone.
The speaker made some suggestions for Japanese indie game developers and the community. The first is to have more translation resources, such as the translation of foreign teaching articles or the subtitles of videos, so that people who do not know foreign languages can also acquire relevant overseas knowledge, and vice versa, Japanese games and related promotional content, both Translated versions should be produced as much as possible to effectively spread overseas. Then there are more regional or national exhibitions, conferences, or joint sales, which can make players realize that there are also independent development groups in this country and what games are there.
In addition, we must also try to promote more opportunities for overseas exchange students or immigrants to work overseas. Especially in a country with a relatively closed society such as Japan, it is very important for someone to actually live and work abroad, and then come back with relevant experience to share. Then, I also hope that there will be more local native incubators or accelerator units. Many of the current incubators or accelerator units are from the English-speaking world. Local developers in Japan are relatively afraid to participate, and it may be difficult to cooperate due to cultural barriers. However, in 2021, Japan finally has the first incubator ” iGi ” (indie Game incubator) for independent game teams, which is a good phenomenon.
The final conclusion is that through exhibitions, publicity and other means as much as possible, the public has the opportunity to know all kinds of independent games and creators. When more successful models appear, it can inspire more people to devote themselves to creation, Improve each other. The diversity of games across cultures can also build a brand new fan base, such as Japanese RPGs or visual novels. Twenty years ago, there might be only the local Japanese market, but now, there are fans of such games all over the world, and some Overseas developers will make games of a similar style.
Then, creators and works must try to step out of the independent game circle and stratosphere to attract the attention of ordinary players and mainstream media, proving that independent game creation is also a dignified profession, just like independent movies or independent music. It is a cultural industry that deserves attention from the society and is invested by the government and enterprises.
And if you are a player, don’t be shy about talking about your favorite games or developers, leaving comments, recommendations, sharing and reposting, which can not only bring about the effect of publicity and diffusion, but also bring great benefits to developers. Inspiration!
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