Open Letter: Let's Save Japanese Game Development

Posted on Monday, June 18 @ 15:34:25 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Dear Japanese Video Game Developers,

I feel like we're asked these questions all the time: "What's wrong with Japanese developers?" "How can Japanese developers get back on top?" "Why aren't Japanese games performing as well as they used to?"

It's no secret that Anthony was born and raised on Japanese gaming, Nick practically bleeds obscure Japanese games, and I'm a lapsed Japanophile. I think GameRevolution and its readers feel very close to the Japanese developers struggling to adapt to the burgeoning Western market. We want to play those fantastic JRPGs, action games, fighting games, nonsensical platformers, dungeon-crawlers... Hell, anything that doesn't directly rely on shooting I think we'd gladly take more of.

So, I set out to figure out exactly how Japanese developers can regain dominance, or at least rise to some semblance of their former selves, and here's what I came up with:

Don't shy away from what interests you.

I've never met an artist that forced him or herself out of their own interests and succeeded. If you're a musician, pick up a instrument. If you like to paint, do that. If you're a developer who likes role-playing games, you should put your efforts into something you'd want to play. Don't make another shitty first-person shooter with some kind of level-up mechanic where the main character can shoot bullets faster or harder or something. That makes no fucking sense.

Here's the thing: in playtesting, tweaking, redesigning and re-playtesting, you are going to play this game A LOT. Make something you're going to enjoy, and share that passion with the market. Don't let the market dictate what you love.

The market is fucking stupid. It doesn't even know what it wants. Despite that, if you believe in what you're putting out, a project full of your home-grown interests and desires, that passion will come across in the product.

Next page: fandom.

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Tags: japan, japanese developers

Comments

TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
You need to add an extra "the" to page five.

0 2

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Where? Read through again and I don't see anything missing.

1 2

TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I'd go ahead and nudge it in right there between "destroy" and "town".

0 1

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
I don't think I've stated anywhere here that Japan is dead. I think Japan is fine, but the development scene could be doing much better. Stagnated would be a more appropriate word to use.

1 4

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Yes, Western developers are stagnating creatively, but business is booming. I'm talking about GROWTH. And there's no way ALL 300 of those JRPGs were good, troll.

1 5

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Dude, commenting 5 times doesn't like, earn you points on a scoreboard....

1 4

oblivion437
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Jun 24th, 2012 at 7:43 pm
But if I say something more times that makes it *more* true! That's like, logic, or something! I read it, in a book!

0 0

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
I love how he's somehow STILL clicking "Add Comment" somewhere. MUST GET REPLY IN. Thumbs down to hide all this mess.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
I think you did :P Just kidding before you jump down my throat.

0 1

Herb211
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Whoa what did I click into here? Its like walking into a really nerdy barfight. Lol.

0 1

HorriblePerson
Joined: Sep 2011

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Well, Persona 3 IS awesome. Gotta love Atlus.

0 1

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Before I was like "Atlus? Wahuh?" Now I'm like "MUST BUY EVERYTHING ATLUS MAKES."

0 1

213EDD
Joined: Sep 2007

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Down voting everyone who is wrong is fun! Now I know how everyone feels when they read my comments

0 3

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
The other side of the mirror can be a freaky place.

0 0

Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
What an excellent article, together with Heath's and Alex's it has made this a very enjoyable visit to GR.

0 2

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Thank you Bras! I felt like I was stepping on Heath's territory with this Japan feature, but I enjoyed writing it.

0 0

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Hey man, it's not like I own this country or its people anymore!

0 1

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Did you lose that in the lawsuit? The People of Japan v. H. Hindman.

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Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:26 am
We spent the whole time talking about the spelling of my last name and in the end the biggest thing that happened was that I became a Nakamura.

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Noritama
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Honestly with my experience living there they don't know what they want to be. Their games in general are pretty bland Im not talking about games that get translated just in general. Usually every year when I visit my folks for a month I buy a couple of games and it just gets depressing really. But that's ne being a negative Nancy . There is hope for Japanese gaming.

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ShadeTail
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 8:59 am
While that's an entirely reasonable statement, it doesn't change the fact that things really have stagnated over there. You bring up art styles, so let's talk about that. It seems like they do nothing but anime-styles anymore. It's very rare to see something really different, like Okami was back in its day. Ironically, considering the over-all subject matter, the most non-Japanese art styles I've seen from them lately have been from Square Enix (who go more for realism (of body if not clothes)) and Nintendo (whose cartoon style almost looks western). Then again, maybe that's not so ironic. Love or hate the results, the fact remains that Nintendo is one of the few Japanese developers who try to use Japanese kitschiness in innovative ways, rather than just make another anime game.

0 1

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:48 am
Good point. And I'll reiterate, I think there is SO MUCH GOOD going on in Japanese development, but there's not enough of it.

0 0

tinymhg
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 9:29 am
No just mad.

0 0

Noritama
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Actually the concept of RPGS have existed for ages. Platformers maybe would of been different. I'm not saying Japanese game were always bad or is bad. I'm just saying from my experience the creativity of Japanese games as a whole has suffered. they play it way too easy or appease to western audiences way too much. Keiji had it sort of correct.

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drathbone
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Is that Stealth dude the one who was crying on one of Heath's posts saying he was arrogant and his article sucked or something? Seems his neg train left the station again.

Anyway, good article guys.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:47 am
Thanks drathbone. No clue what crawled up his bum but I know he came from N4G.

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
I actually see some lights in Japanese gaming. Atlus is one of them with the Persona series. Platinum Games and Suda51 are other developers with a strong sense of innovation. One of the struggles with Japanese developers is that a lot of their money is being made on the mobile and social side of gaming, which has left developers for console titles in a bind. MMORPGs are huge there (which is in part why Final Fantasy has shifted toward that model to its detriment).

That said, Japanese developers are still very much relevant, with Ni Nu Kuni, Persona 4 Arena, RE6, and MGR all given E3 awards. For me, it's less that the East has gone down as much as the West has caught up.

0 0

Noritama
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
To be honest I wish they would just continue with the SMT series in general. Persona is suppose to be a spinoff of the design.

0 0