Day in the Life of a Japanese Game Designer

this is a day in the life of a Japanese game designer [Music] [Music] this is sha 29 years old living in this one LDK apartment in the heart of Tokyo and he's just waking up for work he moved in 5 years ago specifically because it was walking distance to work but the office moved recently so now he trains luckily in Japan it's typical for most companies to pay for the train commute so right after earning a master's degree in computer science at one of the top schools in Japan at scuba University he was hired immediately

by the company works for today in Japan's gaming industry but growing up his dream was originally to become a chef and never imagined what he would be doing today but we'll get into that in just a bit you wear makeup oh when did you start I guess he's motivated today so for Tokyo standards ASA lives in a rather spacious apartment but says he also prefers to keep things simple apparently that goes for breakfast as well [Music] since he was a kid Sho to love creating and Building Systems whether it was in the kitchen with Legos

at drawing or even on his computer which ultimately fueled his decision to study engineering at a specialized 7-year hybrid high school and University during this time Keen to become a Creator in the IT industry he eventually discovered a Creator's path into game development which we'll get to see today so we're back with another day in the life this one is going to be super fun I'm always interested to see how game development Works cha should be coming down the train right now good morning did you sleep well last [Music] night directly connected to runy his

office is located inside of Tokyo Midtown Sho works as a lead game designer in Japanese game planner at kopla one of the largest mobile game developers in Japan popular for making casual mobile games like Shido Neco project and Meow Meow Star Acres with about 800 employees in their Tokyo office their creative teams produce a wide variety of mobile games that the world can't seem to put down oh I guess he's starting off this morning with a healthy banana apparently the company has an all you can eat policy so [Music] healthy and today is a big

day for him since the game he's been working on for the last few years is supposed to finally be uploaded to the App Store but we'll see if things go as planned yo that text is extremely small wow what's a setting that's so tiny so in typical Japanese game development companies the job title game designer is rare instead like in Shas company only the job title of game planner really exists though the roles are more or less the same maybe because in Japan the designer title is thought of as a person who focuses more on

visual Aesthetics while a planner is involved in the entire creation [Music] process now he's meeting with the games level and course planner these days sh leads a development team for the game titled Neco golf a realistic animated style golf game where players can play each other online it's one of the most critical parts of the game as a course planner must technically design and imagine engaging courses that will keep players continued attention it's part of Sha's job to help guide this process to ensure that the courses are in line with the overall game's [Music] Vision

now sha moves on to another quick meeting with effects designer although the initial development cycle for the game is complete and it's scheduled for upload to the app store today the team is far from stopping devel development as they will continue to improve the game by adding new features play modes Etc while also fixing reported bugs for as many years as the game is popular from here I'm meeting with a games costume designer as a Japanese game planner he's continually in meetings as he needs to project manage and help direct all the various team members

who design and develop the game to ensure that it's produced as conceptualized and completed on schedule and working in such a large team it's crucial to communicate constantly as small adjustments are often [Music] required so it looks like Sha's going to be here for just a little bit longer so while he's doing that let's look around and see what develops wow there's just so much stuff look at all of these books here so what's interesting with all of the books on the walls you can rent them out and the company actually has their own rental

system right here that they develop themselves in fact the complete library is spread out through the entire office and let's see what's going on over here in addition to these vending machines right here they have these Frozen gourmet meals ready to go wow those meals look rather balanced okay cool let's see what's over here oh [Music] wow so check this out they have all of these mobile devices they have phones they have tablets and it looks like they even have all the adapters right there that's pretty convenient okay so we're in the office area right

now let's go talk to that guy over there excuse me what are you doing right now oh really so what do you do cool what infrastructure do you use here but you guys have maintenance right nice nice he says that it's sad that users can't play because as of Maintenance so they configure the system in a way that there is never any user downtime so how long have you been with the company so you're the only one on the team well thanks to him and his team you can literally play Forever hi what are you

doing right now oh balls he is the programmer that codes a golf Ball's Behavior like how it moves to the air and how it bounces on different surfaces do you need some sort of science background for this oh so how long have you been with the company I see so what's the most challenging part hey the code is in English do you speak also in Japan it's typical for programmers to use standard English code While most of the comments and documentation are in [Applause] Japanese now sh is attending the weekly all team project meeting for

them to share updates and report on their current work progress and it's confirmed the game will be uploaded today h where are they going what's going on so what happens if you find bugs the entire team plays together for about an hour to make sure the final version has no bugs before it gets released to get to this point it's been a long 7year stretch but sha says that he's enjoyed the journey working with such a talented team from the coders to the music composers he appreciates that they can all come together to create one

beautiful game how did it [Music] go yay lunchtime today he's eating in the cafeteria with some of his co-workers and I guess they're all getting stuff from the matsuya vending machine [Music] hey can I ask you some questions what do you do oh when's it coming out what kind of game is it you're not going to give me anything are you so how long have you been working on this project well I guess I'm looking forward to your new game what do you do what game are you making is there anything that's difficult [Music] sounds

a bit stressful at least after lunch they can chill a bit and play some games together what are you guys playing did you help make it sh says that the key to being a successful game planner is exposing yourself to all kinds of entertainment which of course includes different styles of games anime manga movies even theme parks the experiences he has and the knowledge of those experiences are rebor into the games he creates so it's part of his job to regularly seek out new experiences so in this game area I was actually kind of wondering

what's inside the boxes below damn they've got an old school famicom Wii Dreamcast and even a Zelda [Music] controller sh what are you doing now by the way did you start as a game planner huh Can you code how was it when you just started as a Japanese game planner it's important to have strong management and communication skills it's not enough to be creative and come up with ideas but a planner must also be able to organize these ideas create proposals and specification documents in order to effectively communicate their ideas to their team plus it

doesn't hurt that sha even as a kid has been comfortable speaking in front of an [Music] audience oh he's using one of the test phones although the company has simulators sometimes the team needs to test and verify bugs on physical phones luckily the company has a wide range of phones that they can use to thoroughly test what's Tempur testing sometimes must be like a kick in the golf balls sh where are you going apparently all employees get one free massage per week which they usually use working in Japanese game development it's no surprise that the

staff spend many hours sitting at their desk in front of their computer screens so the company tries to promote healthier habits and encourage them to take care of their bodies as much as possible so it looks like sha is going to be getting this massage for just a little bit longer so while he's doing this let's go putt around this [Music] place okay so we're just past the entrance area here let's see what's going on over here I think there's actually a meeting room over here hi what are you two doing and what do you

do did you come up with the idea project is a mobile action RPG one of the company's biggest titles produced 8 years ago now with over 100 million downloads and they were just playing the game together to discuss future plans how was it in the beginning he says that when he first developed the app many people internally who played the game didn't think it would do well but as a Creator he didn't allow that deter him and was pleased when the game became Ultra popular so what do you do oh so you're the one who

decides what games get made how long have you been with the company so how was it back then so what are you planning next no doubt oh shoot do back at his desk already are you going somewhere okay everything is going to plan first upload ever compared to PC games mobile games must be approved first by Google and apple before it's available to the public so uploading to the app store for review is a last step just before it's finally available for public download for many playing the game they'll probably never truly understand how much

time went into creating it but for sha and his team I'm sure there's a great sense of accomplishment today yeah finally done this evening sha has plans to go out with his co-workers so where are you guys headed to he says that they often go to an actual golf course on the weekends but during the week this is where they hang out since the office is located in rungi which is filled with all sorts of entertainment they never have trouble finding a place to go after work that's one nice thing about working in one of

Tokyo's popular night [Applause] [Music] spots nice so what do you do so cool do all of you go out often you brought your own golf club right you must love golf so what do you do so it looks like sha and his friends are going to be here until 9:00 and then after that he'll go home probably take a bath and then play some games watch YouTube and then go to sleep around probably night but that's pretty much a day in the life of a Japanese game planner if you guys like this video help me

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