My Game Jam Team! (From left to right) Back Row: Me, Megan, Reo | Front Row: Fabian, Shoma
Today was the final day of the game jam :(. We bussed over to KCG at around 9:30am and had about 3 hours to finish up our games. The plan for the day was to finish the games, eat breakfast/lunch, and then present our games to two special guests: Akira Thompson and Yuya Shiotani! The first 3 hours were very hectic and disorganized. Fabian was grinding out the animations in record time, which was super impressive, and I was frantically trying to learn how to impliment some of the sound effects into Unreal. The member who was supposed to impliment the sound effects said that he didn’t know how to do it for some of them, and needed help. So I offered to try to do the ones he couldn’t figure out, which took like 2 hours. Unfortunately we didn’t get them in the game because Shoma and Reo where trying to finish the coding and didn’t want us to push anything and possible cause problems.
After frantically finishing our game we ate yummy omorice for brunch. Omorice is basically just an omolet on top of rice with some sauce, which tasted a lot like curry sauce to me. It was scrumdidlyumptious. After eating we all got set up really quickly to present our games to Akira and Yuya. Every game had some really cool and fun ideas to them, regardless of the finish/polish that was reached. Most games, including ours, where not finished, but the special guests still gave great feedback and insight into our little 14hr projects. Overall the jam was super fun and unique, and I think I will remember the experience for a good long while. It was wonderful spending time with the KCG students and meeting all the really nice staff!
After heading back to our hotel I chilled for a bit and then went to get dinner with Maddy, Esther, and Vincent. A lot of the others went to Osaka which sounded cool, but I was too exhausted to do that. We went over to Aeon mall’s food court for dinner and got ramen, which was very yummy and inexpensive as per usual for Japan. On our way back we saw Sten coming back from a dinner party with he KCG staff and talked to him for a bit. Once we headed back inside the Osaka peeps got back and we all hung out again to play Jackbox. Some really funny moments came out of that session and I think it was a great bonding moment for all of us.
Yesterday was the final day of our Game Jam with the KCG students! While we weren’t sure if we were going to get out a remotely finished product (and I think most other teams felt the same way), I’m actually really proud of what we ended up making and all of the other teams made some really awesome products too!! The whole experience was a really interesting look into how game development works and how important communication is, and it’s the first real game that I’ve worked on that wasn’t for a school project made by myself.
The game that my team chose to make was called Café Lingua! The idea was that the main character has just moved to a new country (either Japan or the U.S. based on your native language / country) and opens a cafe, but they can’t understand any of the customers that come in to order. In order to play the game, customers would order in Japanese if you’re an English speaker or vice versa, and you’d have to use trial and error to figure out what phrases match to what products you serve them in order to form bonds with your customers. It was a concept that I came up with that I really want to refine and eventually make my own project based on in the future.
Once the Game Jam was over, we said goodbye to our new friends and prepared for the rest of our day. Unfortunately, the otter cafe had slipped through the cracks and we wouldn’t be able to go, but a large group of us were very excited to head to Osaka to visit the stores there, as this would be our last chance. We got to visit the Pokemon Center there (number 5!), and one of only two Nintendo stores in Japan, the other of which we’ll visit this week in Tokyo.
While I spent a bit more money than I expected to, I’m really happy with all the stuff I got! I got a couple of stuffed animals that I’d never seen in America, some cute sticker packs, and the Splatoon 3 art book which was my personal favorite item. We also got food at this Italian place in the shopping center, which had some really good pizza. Another interesting cultural difference between America and Japan is that waiters won’t automatically come to the table and ask what you want to order— they always wait for you to call them over when you’re ready. It honestly makes more sense, but it makes some weird situations where the waiter is awkwardly side eyeing us from across the restaurant waiting for us to decide what we want.
After we had returned from Osaka, a majority of our group gathered in Pavel and Fabian’s room to take a celebratory “shot” (it was more of a third of a shot) of sake for finishing the Game Jam and having fun on our last night in Kyoto. We played Jackbox games (short assorted game packs made by the Jackbox company), specifically Quiplash and Tee K.O.. Some of the combinations we came up with were absolutely hilarious, and some of them were funny just because they didn’t make any sense. I really love the group of people that I’m with for this trip, and it’s so fun to spend time with everyone outside of the super rigid planning that we’ve had for the last week.
Today we are headed back to Tokyo for the rest of our trip. I think that this half will be a lot less structured, which I’m really excited about because it means we won’t feel like we are zooming from place to place constantly. Hopefully my blog post for today won’t be a whole day late like yesterday’s!
Our final day of Game Jam was upon us! We got up bright and early again and rushed on over to KCG, in order to have as much time as possible to finish our games.
Coming into the final day, I still had about 8 animations to do and only 4 hours to do them, not to mention I still needed to push my changes to our GitHub. Luckily, Megan helped me learn the basics of GitHub and I was able to push my changes, but that’s when I realized the importance of having the same version as my peers; I was using UE 5.1, as I thought I would only be testing locally and then just sending my files off to someone else to import. However, I didn’t know how useful the ability to push your own changes was before committing to 5.1, and so when I pushed my 5.1 assets, they couldn’t be read on the 5.0.3 machines, and so they became phantom files and created saving issues. Megan was able to revert the changes though, and I then was able to import and save/push the assets correctly using her laptop, but man, I really wished I had just done the work earlier of trying to download and switch my Unreal version, then I could’ve used my own machine and not had to pilot hers and make it more complicated.
Our lunch was omurice!
By this time it was now almost 10:30am, and I still had 8 animations to do, so I was starting to freak out a bit. But I steeled myself, and just got straight to work. I powered through the rest of the animations and knocked them all out in about 2 more hours. Miraculously, I finished all the animations we needed for the game. They were a little scuffed and not super polished, but I thought they were good enough to get by and support the game. At this time, though, we were 30 mins out from presenting our games, and we still hadn’t built yet. I was a little nervous that none of my assets would get implemented despite me sending them in, but at this point I just wanted the game to function and so didn’t push the issue; if they were in, great, but if not, I still had the files for later and could try putting them in myself.
Working hard!
There were two guest judges that came by to view our games when it was time to present, one from an independent game studio in Japan, and another from Epic Games’ Community Outreach, which was really cool! They came around and gave us feedback on our games, but when it came time to present our game, disaster started to rear its ugly head. Our game wouldn’t connect with controllers, so we couldn’t play it to demonstrate. Shoma and Reo went right to work trying to figure out why, but the presentations had to move on, so we ended up waiting to go until the very end. By that time, Shoma and Reo had gotten the controllers to work, and so Shoma and Megan were able to play Co-Op and show off our game! It actually came out pretty nice, despite not having any of my models or animations in it yet. The core gameplay seemed to be there in some sort of base form, which was really cool to see. So overall, not too shabby for a 14 hour game jam in my opinion!
Reo was able to put in my work for Character A after the jam, so here’s a little gameplay sample.
Once the jam was over and we all said our goodbyes, we were free to do what we wished for the rest of our last day in Kyoto. So a group of us took the subway with Toshi-sensee and the judge from Epic Games back to Kyoto Station, which was pretty cool! I got to talk with the judge for a while, in both English and a little bit of Japanese, which was awesome. Once we got back to our hotel, we offloaded our technology and then headed back out to catch a Shinkansen to Osaka!
We visited the Nintendo store, Pokémon Center, Capcom outlet, and One Piece store, all in the same floor in a building right above Umeda Station. Osaka is a very interesting city, and after visiting it twice, I noticed just how similar to NYC it was. The buildings are all tall, the shops are more reminiscent of ones found in NYC and sometimes a bit more luxury, but I feel as though the area was not the same level of clean as other parts of Japan I had been to so far, I did find a few more things on the ground. I think it may just be the part of Osaka I visited however, and overall it was still a great place to shop and look around!
Osaka skyline!
Once we finished shopping, I grabbed some takoyaki from a nearby small shop in the basement floor of the building, which was delicious! It was probably one of my favorite foodie moments here so far. The takoyaki was hot, and the broth inside was so super and flavorful, and then followed by the octopus, it combined to create a really unique and fun sweet but tangy flavor!
Takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and a fruit sandwich!
Finally, we all returned to the hotel and packed up our things. We had a lot of fun playing some Jackbox games together too, before heading off to bed late in prep for our trip back to Tokyo the next morning. And so, our Kyoto chapter comes to end, just as our next chapter begins!
We had a free day today, and despite yesterday’s exhaustion, I thought it would be cool to venture into Osaka with one of my group friends, Fabian. Our mission? To savor the famous fluffy cheesecake from Rikuro’s, a treat exclusive to Osaka. We had seen this thing all over the internet before, and were so excited to see how it tasted!
Before we got there though, we spent some time strolling through the streets of Dotonbori. It felt like Times Square with its crazy billboards and massive, over-the-top displays. A bunch of high class stores, crazy displays, neon signs, it was crazy! My favorite sights included a golden phoenix statue elegantly displayed in a store window, an intriguing watch sign, a mammoth fist sculpture with a golden “2025”, and an ultra-modern building with a peanut-shaped indentation which (quite randomly) housed a rock climbing wall! Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, man.
Our wanderings took us to the bustling Ebisubashi-suji shopping district. Despite it being so early, it was a whirlwind of activity, from colossal stores filled with an assortment of items – claw machines, appliances, and more food than you could ever eat – to the tranquil temple nestled amidst the urban hustle and bustle.
When we finally reached Rikuro’s, we found ourselves just late enough to miss out on the opening of the sit down cafe (despite being 15 minutes early, the queue was just too long. Waiting another hour wasn’t really an option, so we opted to grab a hot cheesecake and an apple pie for the walk back. My verdict? Absolute heaven! The cheesecake was more eggy than I had anticipated, but delicious all the same.
I decided to round out our trip with a visit to the Osaka Pokemon Center, perched on the 13th floor of a towering building near Osaka Station. Still no luck with finding a Gengar plushie, but I did snag some nifty Snorlax chopsticks. Fabian decided to stay behind, since the Monster Hunter store was on the same floor.
After a bit of confusion finding my way back to the correct train station (Osaka’s transit system is a whole beast unto itself), I boarded the Shinkansen back to Kyoto. It was a wonderful day of exploring, but I was exhausted by the time we got back. Before boarding, I wanted to try something I always saw: Station Bento! Was really good, would definitely have it again! Finally getting to experience that was unforgettable.
But the day wasn’t over yet. Following a brief rest at the hotel, we joined the others and headed over to KCG’s brand-new building. The fresh scent of construction materials still hung in the air, and the classrooms were seriously impressive. You could write on the walls, there were cameras to make online classes more interactive, and the whole vibe was just very modern and efficient.
We even got a peek at the staff area and the roof, which offered an amazing panoramic view of Kyoto. Seeing the mountains in the distance, framed by the skyline, was simply awesome!
Finally, after another busy day, it was time to crash. I headed back to my hotel room and fell asleep immediately yet again.
Our first day of the Game Jam started at 9:30 AM, so, naturally, I woke up at 6 AM. After a tired awakening, I showered, got breakfast, and hopped on the bus towards KCG. As soon as we got there, we meet with our groups. My group, Group 5, had some decisions to make concerning our game, such was gameplay and art style, but it was quickly resolved.
The Game Jam started with our team making a Google Drive and my long initialization of Unreal Engine 5. I was worried about this Game Jam because I had never used UE5 before (nor any of its previous versions) and I was hesitant about the use of Google Drive as version control. But, I decided to throw myself in the deep end for the sake of ease for the KCG students on my team who were used to this workflow.
My team: Group 5
I was put in charge of movement and character controls, but I also wanted to work on local multiplayer, which would be my biggest mistake. After getting some quick controller inputs working with the characters, I started working on the local multiplayer aspect. Unreal Engine 5 is pretty new, and there are a lack of videos and articles that could help me figure things out, and it’s documentation isn’t as helpful as, say, Unity’s. So, many of the tutorials and articles I saw were for Unreal Engine 4, which had many different systems that I had to try to adapt to. I was not a fan of the module-based coding and found myself very confused on how to actually interact with the “code.” So, I tired hard-coding it, but the C++ aspect of UE5 is to compliment it’s blueprint system, not replace it.
After several hours of trial and error and no success anywhere near, I decided to put it off and work on other things like collision and hitboxes. Luckily, one of my teammates, Kento, took off where I left, though he struggled just as much as I did. As I was putting together collisions, I, once again, ran into many issues, and time was running out. Eventually, I was defeated by Unreal Engine 5, and, Kento eventually explained to me that we were doing local multiplayer correctly, but the version of UE5 that we were using had bugs in that specific area that blockaded it from good use.
The Game Jam ended and I went back to the hotel, beaten and exhausted. Though, determined to learn UE5 so I could win the next round. Whether that happens in the time before the second day is questionable, but not impossible.
