This Week In Retro: BitSummit MMXIII (Patreon)

March 9, 2013: Unsung indies flock/To the ancient capital/As plum blossoms bloom

by Diamond Feit

Living in Japan certainly has its ups and downs for a native English speaker trying to make a living as a writer. Local job opportunities are few and far between for obvious reasons. Time zones make telecommuting with European or North American companies inconvenient. It doesn't help that the rapidly shrinking Japanese video game market means most announcements and events target the much larger overseas audience, so Nintendo Direct and State of Play presentations rarely air at a decent hour for domestic fans.

Worse yet, I don't live anywhere near Tokyo, the de facto hub of all Japanese media. When I do spy the rare English-focused writing position, it's inevitably based in the Kanto capital region. The same goes for talent agencies looking for a foreign face, since nearly all media organizations film their products close to home; most Japanese movies and TV shows are set in Tokyo (and feature vehicles with Shinagawa license plates if you look closely enough). When I contemplate attending Tokyo Game Show, the biggest Japanese gaming event of the year, any potential revenue I might receive seldom exceeds my travel and hotel expenses.

All these factors, along with the general sense of isolation that comes with living in a foreign country, contributed to my unbridled excitement when I first learned about BitSummit 10 years ago. An indie game event focused on introducing Japanese game developers and Western media who might otherwise never meet sounded like a great concept, but by holding it in Kyoto, I could finally pledge my attendance without fretting about expenses. At last, BitSummit offered me a chance to feel less like a tourist and more like a reporter, with the added bonus of giving me an excuse to spend a day in one of Japan's most attractive cities.

The original BitSummit on March 9, 2013 hardly resembled other gaming events as it was not open to the public. A committee of local companies sent out invitations to game makers, members of the media, and guest speakers, and structured the entire day around a series of lectures. Everyone gathered in a single room, all huddled around a labyrinth of folding tables and chairs, where we split our attention between the action on stage and those of us on the floor. The people at the podium included a broad range of personalities, from BitSummit organizer James Mielke (formerly of EGM and 1up.com), divisive developer Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro, and chiptune musician Professor Sakamoto who performed a series of famous video game tunes with a Famicom strapped to his helmet.

The information on stage was not directed at foreign media; rather, their goal was to inspire and inform the indie developers in attendance about the tools and platforms available to help them connect with an audience. Valve sent two men in order to herald the convenience of Steam, a service that had already launched in Japan but offered few Japanese games at the time as PC ports of console titles were an afterthought for publishers. What a difference ten years makes, as today's titles—from AAA productions to games made by a single coder—target Steam first and foremost, even in Japan.

In between presentations, I slowly made my way from table to table, speaking with other attendees and playing any available demos, although a few of these developers could only share trailers or even just concept art to promote their ideas. BitSummit invited volunteers to provide Japanese interpretation but with only so many bodies in such a crowded space, their availability was limited. I largely handled these one-on-one conversations by myself as best I could, eager to do my part and help shine a light on these hopeful creatives.

No one left a bigger impression on me than Yoshiro Kimura, a name I had never heard before but whose profile has risen considerably in the last decade. Unlike most of the 20-somethings eager to make a name for themselves in that room, Kimura already had decades of experience working on projects big and small when he came to BitSummit. Despite a resume that included Chulip, Rule of Rose, and No More Heroes, Kimura wanted the freedom to explore more personal concepts. He told me he went to GDC the previous year and found himself in tears looking at the breadth of unique games on display. His takeaway from that moment was, "What have I done? Why don't I do this? I should make real games by myself, my way."

These days Yoshiro Kimura's Onion Games has become a prolific indie team, churning out a variety of oddball bite-size releases as well as remastering and localizing Moon from 1997 to broad acclaim. Kimura himself has given multiple English-language interviews to promote his latest creations as well as discuss his past titles which continue to grow cult followings. With all this well-deserved attention, it's hard to picture him as he was ten years ago sitting at BitSummit with nothing to show but an Onion Games logo and a few sketches of a naked policeman.

Of all the announced visitors to that first BitSummit, the name that excited me the most was Daisuke Amaya, a.k.a. Pixel, creator of Cave Story. I first fell in love with that game in 2005 while studying abroad in Osaka, and I viewed its success as a harbinger of both the indie game boom and a newfound respect for pixel-art in the 21st century. Better still, Amaya's appearance would include a reveal of his latest game, his first big release since Cave Story.

Given his status as a special guest, Amaya didn't spend his day squeezing between tables like the rest of us on the floor, so I didn't even see him until he finally made his way to the stage. I remember he seemed shy to an extreme; even though a roomful of people wanted to hear from him and get their first glimpse of his new game, I got the impression he didn't want to hog the spotlight for even one minute.

After showing us a trailer for Gero Blaster—a shooter eventually released in 2014 as Kero Blaster—I got a chance to speak to him for just a few minutes as he left the stage. Unsurprisingly, he remained as humble during our conversation as he was at the podium. My biggest takeaway from meeting him was a lesson I think everyone should take to heart: Success is never a solo affair. Even though Cave Story reached more players than he could have imagined, he pointed out that all he did was make the game. Getting the word out, foreign localizations, and the eventual console ports all came from third parties who approached him and offered their help. As he put it, "I don't know how far I can get on my own."

A decade later, BitSummit doesn't have the same scrappy, underground atmosphere it did on that remarkably warm day in March of 2013. The event has become an annual affair with major sponsors, elaborate booths showcasing new titles, and crowds as thousands of visitors attend each year. Other shows have also sprung up in BitSummit's wake both here in Japan and in neighboring Asian nations, reducing its profile while increasing the overall number of developers who can share their work with the world.

I say this not to suggest that I lament this turn of events or that I had the privilege to visit BitSummit "before it was cool." Instead, I feel lucky that for once, I got a front-row seat to something new and special that wasn't just another mega-convention like PAX or Comicon or Tokyo Game Show. Even in its current state, BitSummit remains worlds away from those catch-all corporate clusters. Sure, I know when I attend the next show this summer I'm all but guaranteed to see Inti Creates, PlatinumGames, and other big studios demo games to long lines of dedicated fans. Yet I'm also just as likely to find a college student or hobbyist working out of his basement who made a video game using venetian blinds or lotion bottles. And if the prospect of those two disparate developers laying out their wares side by side isn't indie as hell, I don't know what is.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts about video games, films, and dessert. Can you spot xem in the photo above?