Jamming

From arriving to the KCG campus to work on our game until around noon, we only had 3 hours! It was a mad dash to get everything done on time, and get everything to a polished, finished state.

The KCG gang was kind enough to offer bento boxes and enough omurice to feed a small village, haha!

We decided on the name “Café Lingua”, a cool-sounding blended name for a language-based game.

Above is a preview video of our game made by Ryuki! Sadly most of the sound effects weren’t put in in time for final presentation, but oh well.

Two esteemed individuals, Akira Thompson, the Studio Head and Game Director at RainBros LLC, and Yuya Shiotani, a UE Community & Education Coordinator at Epic Games. They were great to have, and we all went around playing our (monstrously buggy and unfinished) games, receiving feedback.

(Not to brag or anything, but I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO INTERPRET FOR THEM! I was super nervous but it was crazy to be able to be put in that sort of role. Aaaaa)

Overall, it was great being able to collaborate with students, and more effectively learn how to help with communication. Turns out diagrams are VERY important lmao!! Especially with a language barrier. Even when understanding the language, they’re a very useful tool. The more ways to understand, the better.

Osaka-ing

Back at the hotel, we were faced with a free afternoon. A bunch of the others decided to go to Osaka, over to the Pokemon center, Nintendo store, Capcom cafe, etc.

Now I was anticipating a restful afternoon, buuuuut

I caved 😀

Thankfully with my experience having already gone to that Pokemon Center, I knew exactly how to get there!

We all had a blast looking around, abusing our wallets completely. Even me, the notorious never-spender found himself buying a cool shirt and a tin of cookies.

While I was at the Pokemon Center, looking for the ever-elusive Gengar Plushie that seems to no longer exist in all of Japan, I ran into an old lady (perhaps Portuguese or Brazilian), looking for something for her son. She showed me two Pokemon, a Gengar and a Mew. I told her that Gengar was most likely entirely sold out, but I told her to wait there for a second. I was able to ask the attendant if there was any Mew in stock, since there were none on the shelves–to my pleasant surprise, they WERE! It felt wonderful to be able to help her like that. Heart-is-full moment for the day 😀

Afterwards we all went to the basement floor, where there were tons of stores for desserts and more. Originally, I was looking to introduce the others to Rikuro’s cheesecake, however with a 40 minute line, everyone was a bit apprehensive. Completely understandable! We instead split up to look for things we might like ourselves.

I found myself entranced by this adorable mini chocolate cake, and a canned confection(?). They both tasted absolutely wonderful. (Only problem was the canned cake was frozen, but still, picking at it as it slowly defrosted was a fun experience! Tasted amazing nonetheless.)

We arrived back at Kyoto late at night, with the tower shining proud. A wonderful night out with a bunch of friends 😀

Back to the hotel, and lights out!