[G1] From Software (http://www.fromsoftware.jp), 11/28 (Mon) 15:00 - + Attended by: Ms. Tateno (HR Dept), Mr. Ohmori (Management Dept) We won't be able to get inside the development area, but will be able to ask questions (Q&A) to the director of "Demon's Souls" and "Dark Souls". (***) The company specifically asked us to bring in questions in order to drive the Q&A session. We will also present one or two games of ours (designed and made by DePaul students) to get their feedback. The company has informed us the rough program of our visit as follows. They could extend the time by 10-15 minutes if Q&A discussions went longer. 15:00 Start (please arrive 5-10 min before) 15:05 Company overview 15:10 Departments/positions overview 15:30 Q&A with the director 16:15 Game presentation by DePaul 16:00 End (or a little later if needed) ============================================= [G2] Grasshopper (http://www.grasshopper.co.jp/en/index.html), 11/29 (Tue) 11:00 - + Attended by: Mr. Kumagai (Public Relations) We won't be able to get inside the development area (or inside the company beyond the reception and conference room area), but will be able to ask questions to the Public Relations people. No specific content of the visit is discussed yet, but most likely the Q&A with the PR people would be all they could do for us (because of the privacy reasons). (***) The company specifically asked us to bring in questions in order to drive the Q&A session. But as a note, in our last visit (2008), people there were quite friendly and generous in answering questions. Hope that hasn't changed. ============================================= [G3] Geisha Tokyo (http://www.geishatokyo.com/), 11/29 (Tue) 15:00 - + Attended by: Mr. Tanaka (CEO), Ms. Fukuda (Office of President). + Also a colleague of Jose -- Enrich Gonzalez, who is an Engineer there -- will be attending. We WILL be able to tour the development area and ask any question to anybody, any time. The CEO said they have "nothing to hide." Their main lines of business are mobile games (for regular cell phones, some smartphones) and social games (for Mixi, Facebook). They are making other lines of games and contents (e.g. AR) but the current largest revenue is from social games & contents. The company is growing rapidly and steadily. The company also has ties with Tokyo University because it was founded by the graduates of the university (its Game research lab). Very intelligent people. --- BACKGROUND INFO: Games on regular cell phones are still very popular in Japan. Even people who have smartphones, they are also keeping the cell phones. As for smartphones in Japan, Androids are more popular than iPhones (because a couple of large carriers there are supporting Androids). AND their "smartphones" refer to Andoid phones -- iPhones are called "iPhones" (and iPhones are not smartphones there). As for social networks in Japan, Facebook is getting bigger there, but before then "Mixi" was dominating this area. But in the last 2 years or so, Mixi has been going down, and the users are moving to Facebook. According to Mr. Tanaka, developing contents for social network sites is a very lucrative business... ============================================= [G4] Assemblent (http://www.assemblent.co.jp/), 12/6 (Tue) 11:00 - + Attended by: Mr. Abe (President) We WILL be able to look at the development area and ask any question. Mr. Abe was a programmer at Nintendo (in particular, its R&D division Intelligent Systems). He quit Nintendo and started his own company, because he thought the work conditions and practices which have become common and even a 'norm' in the game industry (e.g. long hours, frequent change in design & direction, buggy code) are deplorable (and inhumane) and grossly inefficient. He wanted to build a company which models his philosophy for an ideal game company (in terms of work conditions, product development practices, and products themselves) -- no overtime (!), frequent communication with the clients and publishers (to prevent misunderstanding as well as to enforce continuous quality check), and the products which contribute to the society (rather than just entertainment). He has been very successful in this endeavor. The company grew quite a bit, and now has a few big publishers (under whose name they can develop games, such as Sega, Sony and Nintendo (though not so much any more these days)). Currently the company's main line of business is mobile games, in particular, with emphasis on smartphone, iPhone and tablet games. They do a multi-platform development, and use their in-house engine and tools (initially developed by Mr. Abe himself). Assemblent has also started another line of business, "ZombieShop George" (http://www.zombieshop.jp/) -- an online store for anything zombie! You can ask him anything about zombie :) He is also an adjunct faculty at Ritsumeikan University, Digital Image departmet, teaching courses in Game Programming. ============================================= [G5] Nippon-ichi Software (http://nisamerica.co, http://nippon1.jp/index.html), 12/7 (Wed) 10:30 - + Attended by: Mr. Honma (General Affairs Dept) We may or may not be able to get inside the development area, depending on the work they are doing when we visit. But they said if if they cannot show the development, they will have the people who are directly involved in the development make presentations and answer our questions. But the large part of the visit will be held in a conference room (or actually their company dining/food-court area). They may be able to do some of the following for our visit: - "Making of XXX" (where XXX is a game title; TBD) -- in-depth explanation/story of how they made that game - How they usually create animation (as anime/animation or for games) - A possible demonstration of art drawing and animation making