East & West

Over this past weekend was another industry event that is held annually in Japan called the Toyko Game Show.

This is one of the smaller events for the global game industry mainly because it is only attended by the Japanese game industry. A few media outlets travel there to attempt to cover the news, but from what I’ve heard of the experience, it’s a difficult setting. The convention goes to no lengths to assist any western media who attend and several of the main conferences and speakers are not translated.

For many, this is just another sign of how the Japanese Games Industry is in decline, which is strange thought because in the 80’s the Japanese Game Industry singlehandly saved the global game industry from near and utter disaster. Gamasutra, the go to place for industry news, put out a few articles about why the split between East and Western development has widened over time.

One of the biggest differences is the core development process.

The big thing right now is the iterative development cycle. A game is created, the team discovers what is fun about it, that one thing is refined, and the process starts all over again.

Independent development is the peak of that. A small team only has the time to really polish one aspect of their design and that becomes the core of everything.

In the AAA development world this iterative development process usually happens between sequels. The Mass Effect franchise is an excellent example of this; the changes between 1, 2 & 3 are huge steps that drastically change the foundations of gameplay.

As a whole, the Japanese Game Industry does not tend to do this. A game director has a vision and despite what the fans or critics reaction is to it, the vision is carried out. Even between sequels there are rarely any huge leaps in innovation.

Western Developers also have a tendency to come together more and share their processes and even toolsets, the unreal engine is a prime example of this. No Eastern made game engine has, or probably ever, be released like the Unreal Development Kit.

Take for example GDC, the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco is one of the largest gathering’s of developers in the world. Yet despite that, only Western Developers have been in attendance. Japan does not host anything similar.

This critique is by far and away not an attack on a part of our industry, just observation that several others have already pointed out. The question becomes, how will the Japanese Game Industry survive if they don't learn to adapt?