It is well worth checking out the University and Indie Game Area at the Tokyo game show. First of all, you can beat most of the crowds and enjoy the area without too much hassle. Second of all, it's definitely possible to find some hidden gems in these areas. Third of all, it gives you a chance to get "behind the scenes" so to speak and talk to the developers directly, ask questions, give feedback, and express interest in their game(s). This was one of the best things I enjoyed about my time at TGS 2019, so I made a separate blog post about it. Below is a listing of all the game companies taken from the map. Some of them were very good.
I didn't have too much time to take pictures because I was so busy talking to the developers promoting my music, but I did have a chance to get a few pictures like when I won "Oh! Mochi!", the mochi battle royale game developed by Ajuda. Essentially you have to pick a mochi (Japanese glutenous rice) character and face off against 3 other players, fighting them in a room. The winner is displayed with a "you did amazing" message as seen below, while the other mochi are fried to a crisp. Overall it was a basic battle royale style game, but it was fun and the staff were very very nice and easy to talk to. They explained the game well and made it fun.
Other games I got to play were Bloody Bunny: The Game by Quantumpeaks. I didn't get to play it, but the illustration and design were very very good. The gameplay also looks good. Although I hope it will be challenging enough for some of the more motivated players out there.
There were also additional indie games there including Alter Ego by Caramel Column, which was very aesthetically pleasing but it is a visual novel, after all. There also was a good showing by Active Gaming Media, Inc. (Playism) where they were showing some of their game building tools. Their booth was nice and their staff was very professional and engaging. Additionally, there were some music games by Anela Corp. which were your standard beat games. Their staff members were also very nice. I tried their game called URO.
Finally there was a booth manned by some members of Asterizm and they were showing a platformer featuring a girl with long hair that you can use to attach to platforms and attack certain points on the screen. At the end of the demo there was a boss battle, where you had to use her hair to knock the boss off the edge. The game worked very well, but I'm just a little concerned it was too easy. Hopefully, this was only because it is a demo version. The following gallery contains some of their promotional material I could find:
After finishing the Indie Game Area, I went over to check out the games at the Gaming University area. Some of the games featured there were not so interesting looking, but three universities caught my eye: Osaka Electro-Communication University, the Ota Information and Business College, and ECC College of Computer & Multimedia. I'll refer to them hereafter as Osaka, Ota, and ECC.
I was very impressed with Osaka because they were the most English friendly and I thought their students were really mature and sociable. They had a few games. I could play a game called Ukemi Master, a judo throwing game that is sort of like Angry Birds and Boomerang! a puzzle game. Both were fun and I was especially impressed that the judo game was made with motion capture tech.
Ota's games were ok, but there was one that really stood out called "Cut Off". I really had a lot of fun playing this game at the conference. The hit detection and enemy behavior were really good. It is a platformer game and it was very basic, but it was very fun for me for some reason. Although the game crashed once and the staff had to fix it. The guy who played it before me just couldn't seem to beat the game but I didn't think it was too hard.
Finally, the ECC booth was very nice. I didn't have time to take any pictures of their area, but I thought their games where interesting as well.
This wraps up my coverage of TGS2019. If you have a chance next year, check out some of the smaller guys. You'll be able to play some games you wouldn't get to try otherwise, beat the crowds, and not have to deal with waiting in long lines.
Over and out,
SCOPS
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