Free Time – Page 3 – RITs International Game Industry Course for 2023

Dawn of the Final Week

Yesterday was a little bit of everything, which I wasn’t sure if we were going to get again! We did some shrines, some shopping, and another very cool themed cafe.

To start the day, me and Megan had to do our laundry for the last time. The hotel that we’re staying in charges an outrageous price for laundry service, so we had to lug our stuff to a local coin laundry building and immerse ourselves in the culture. It was really cool! I was dumb enough to forget to take a picture, but they had these machines that did both the washing and the drying so you didn’t have to move your clothes between machines, which ended up working really well (despite us having to run the drying mode for an extra cycle).

Then, we headed to the Imperial Palace to walk the grounds. We weren’t able to get a ticket into the actual palace, but even just the gardens surrounding it were absolutely gorgeous. It’s really weird to see giant skyscrapers behind the small, ancient buildings nestled into the middle of the city. There’s a specific garden called Ninomaru with lots of colorful flowers and a super cool (small) waterfall that you can walk to the top of.

After the Imperial Palace we headed to Harajuku, right outside of the Meiji Shrine grounds, for lunch. We originally tried following Megan to the mall with the Sailor Moon store, assuming that there’d be some kind of food there, but we managed to lose her and ducked into a different mall instead with an entrance that I’d swear is actually just a portal to another dimension. It looks SO COOL!

The only restaurant in the mall seemed very expensive and didn’t look like they’d have anything that I would like, so at the last second me and Fabian decided to leave and head to a small gyoza place instead. I can definitely say that it was worth it – the dumplings were absolutely delicious and super cheap for how much food we got!

After lunch we travelled into Meiji Shrine, with a long shaded path leading to it and other sub shrines in the area. The shaded path was very comfortable and a welcome change from the sun beating down on us. It was pretty standard compared to all of the other shrines that we’ve visited, but I picked up a peace of mind to keep on my backpack.

After the shrine we were sent off on our own, so a group of us rushed to Shibuya PARCO to visit the Pokemon Center (my 6th) and the other Nintendo Store in Japan. I got a pack of card sleeves from the Pokemon store (no pressed coin because they didn’t have any there 🙁 ) and a Korok coin purse and a handful of gummies from the Nintendo store. I really wanted to do the shirt design lab at this Pokemon Center, but unfortunately the wait was a bit too long for me. Once we had our fill, we rushed back to Akihabara for our dinner reservation!

For dinner, we ate at the Monster Hunter Bar for Fabian’s birthday. It was a super cool Monster Hunter themed cafe with drinks and food! I personally got a couple of different drinks and a steak meal, as well as a very cute set of dango. It was the first time I’ve ever tried dango, and it was definitely a lot chewier than I expected but it was still really good! Pavel also ordered this giant beer that Fabian took a picture with for his 21st birthday that seemed as big as him and it was hilarious.

We went back to Liam and Skyler’s room to watch another movie, this time the new Dungeons and Dragons movie, but we were all so exhausted that we barely made it halfway through before we had to call it quits.

Behind again on my blog posts! It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with them but I’m trying my best. We only have two planned days left after this, which is very very sad :C but I’m happy that I’m staying a couple days after to experience a little bit more!!

Game Jam Day 2

Team 01 got off to a rocky start but by the time day 2 came around, we felt much more prepared and had a better understanding of what we needed to do to complete our project.

Our main task to finish up was to finish art and sound assets and put them into the unity project, and then implement player attacks. We were also able to implement some last minute boss attacks. Finally, we hooked everything up through make a semi-working prototype that simulates gameplay and game flow.

It was great seeing everyone’s projects during the showcase afterward. Some teams used Unreal Engine and had more of an emphasis on animation, models, and graphics, while other teams had simpler visuals with an emphasis on gameplay and interaction. Everyone took the theme of “collaborating across cultures” in a unique direction and overall it was a productive and inspiring weekend!

That night, we all celebrated at the hotel for a chill night :).

The Shibuya Incident

For our free day in Tokyo, Brody and I went to Shibuya and planned to do a lot of shopping. We knew we wanted to hit the three-floored UNIQLO there, but we found so much more.

We did some research and found ourselves initially in Shibuya109, which we then realized was a female clothing store, but still thought was interesting enough to walk through because the designs and fashion were really cool. However, I didn’t come out empty handed as there was a place where I could get a very good matcha latte.

After leaving Shibuya109, we went to MAGNET, which was the male equivelent of Shibuya109 under the same company, however much smaller. Brody and I found some very expensive places, but eventually hit one of the many places I would become a costumer at: RECOfan, a record shop. Here, I bought two Studio Ghibli records as Joe Hisaishi is one of my favorite composers of all time, and they were much cheaper than if I bought them in the United States.

After that, we went towards the Parco mall which holds the famous Nintendo Store and Pokémon Center, as well as a Jump store (which covers most shonen anime). Of course, I spent some more money at these places, acquiring many stickers and even a painted manga panel, as well as some plushy gifts for my friends back at home.

Next, Brody and I went to UNIQLO, where we bought even more clothes (this being our third time to a UNIQLO in Japan). Lastly, we hit the Converse store, where we got some Japan-only kicks.

After the massacre of our wallets and the encumbrance of our spoils, we went back to Akhihabara to meet with Maddy and Esther for a hot pot dinner. It was delicious and, surprisingly, empty. It was also connected right next to our hotel, which made it convenient. We ended the night with an attempt to go to karaoke, but after Maddy’s unfortunately late birthday ruining our plan to get drinks, we abandoned the plan and called it a night.

Free day in Tokyo! AND KIRBY

May 30th:

This is it folks, the day I’ve been waiting for. My credit cards are not PREPARED for what I’m about to do to them today. I woke up early at 9am and secured a reservation spot for the Kirby cafe petit on character street. Character Street is an area near the Tokyo station that has all themed shops for different brands like Pokémon, Kirby, Ghibli, Shounen Jump, Snoopy, etc.. I was on a mission for the Kirby cafe petit. I got my reservation for 1:40pm.

To kill time a whole gaggle of us gamers got together to get breakfast and do some light shopping. We went to Starbucks for breakfast 1, I got a pretty good scone. Then we went to get crepes. All of these were sugary crepes but I got a tiramisu crepe. It was yummy and warm :),

After crepes we all split up while others were eating. I took a trip to the Razer store ( like the gaming peripheral brand) to see if I could get a new mouse for cheap. This was an experience to get into the store. It was in the basement ( where true gamers live) and had all green RGB LED lights. It was so funny. Also fun fact! Everything in that store was more expensive than it’s American price point! I thought that was funny.

Once everyone was done eating we starting walking to the train station when we ran into Sten! He was a bit lost and didn’t really know what to do so he tagged along with us to Tokyo station. We got on the trains and headed 2 stops up to Tokyo.

Finding Character street was an adventure in itself as it was hidden from us. I think it took about 15 minutes to find a sign pointing towards it. When we got there though, I saw the promised land. Kirby cafe petit right infront. At this point it was about 12 so we had some time before the reservation. We all split up and went to the themed stores of our choice.

I went to the Shounen Jump store first since I like their anime’s currently. I got a sticker of one of my favorite characters and some candy. After, I went to the Ghibli store and got some really heavy books, a sun catcher, and paper ball theater that I will have to build back home. My shopping bags were pretty heavy at this point so I walked around a bit with Sten and Skyler for their shopping and killed off some time. There was a Pokémon store but the line was astronomically long for check out so we left.

The time has come, Kirby Cafe time. I was ready, so ready. With the reservation we get to choose 4 sweets from the bakery, 2 take out items, and all the merch one could ever want or need. Jess and I were on one ticket so I got 3 desserts and she got 1 ( we agreed on this it’s ok). We also both got a star bread (it’s a big, like thick white bread). After we ordered our sweet we perused the store. I knew exactly what I wanted to I filled our basket pretty quick. I won’t bore you with words but I have many many photos I will show instead of the haul. Here ya go:

I felt at this moment, a tear shedding from my eye. A single tear, it has been my moment. We all exited the Kirby store and went home to eat our sweets. It was so yummy. The cheesecake was delicious and had cheese on it. The tiramisu was creamy and smooth. The Kirby car cake. Oh my. A dream come true. He was a sponge cake with some jelly and this soft pudding/jello like strawberry substance on top. It was amazing.

After consuming we went out again to Uniqlo, Muji, and other stores. I ended up at the Square Enid cafe ( creators of Kingdom hearts) and got some merch. I was so happy and I refuse to look at my credit card bills as of right now.

After shopping a bit, Cam, Liam, Belle, and I got dinner at this place our professor recommended. The food was good but the servers forgot about us. Would not go back. We also then got some donuts as a little treat. That was yummy.

After donuts we all went home and rested for a bit before movie night!!!! In Skyler and Liam’s room we watched Bullet Train ( surprisingly not available in Japan we had to VPN to America). It was a really funny movie and I would watch it again! After the movie it was about 12:30am so I went back to my room, took a shower, and went to sleep.

This was a whole day and oh my am I ready to just exist with my items. I went a bit crazy but I’m happy for it. Come back tomorrow blog for another crazy adventure. Peace ✌?

On the Road to Tokyo

Before long, the day to return to Tokyo had arrived. I woke up slightly later than intended, ate a quick buffet breakfast, and boarded the bus for the station. Before long we were on our way playing games with our headphones in.

Upon arriving at the hotel in Akihabara, we spent some time inspecting the various oddities included in the room. Ranging from the massage chair, in room massages, a rain shower, the interesting shower setup, and a tv where one cannot watch regular tv. We spent some time recharging before leaving the hotel for Mandarake. At Mandarake, we speedran from the top floor to the bottom floor in 30 minutes. From there, we split and I explored some of my favorite shops on my own. I found a giant EVA statue for $1000 at Japan’s Hobby Lobby. No purchases made though…

The streets at night were very cyberpunk with the rain

Later that night, I met with Belle and Megan for crane games and arcade games. I spent way too much money getting my favorite vtuber, Mori Calliope and had to use a “sumimasen” for help multiple times before the staff made it nearly impossible to lose. Afterwards, my luck turned around and I won a Ruby plush from Oshi no Ko in 4 tries.

We got Megan’s RWBY to do a headstand. Unfortunately, no one else won any crane games…

First full Free Day tomorrow! Stay tuned…

To be continued…

From Kyoto to Akihabara!!! (Oooo aaaaa)

After a week in Kyoto, it was time to leave our quaint and oddly artistic hotel and go back to Tokyo for the last leg of our trip. We had a decently early wake up of around 9 and loaded into the bus. We had two buses, one for our suitcases and one for the people. The guy was lifting suitcases all by himself, it was really impressive.

We got to Kyoto station with little time to spare for a real breakfast so good thing I grabbed some bread from our hotel beforehand. Our train came and we all piled on. I spent the whole 2hr ride playing Zelda. This is the first time I’ve touched Zelda in like a week so I was happy.

The Shinkansen ride is about 2 hours between Kyoto and Tokyo. So two hours passed and we got to Tokyo. When we got out of the train it was really really humid and raining. Kinda uncomfortable. To get go Akihabara we had to take 2 stops on a local train line. Toshi sensei helped us out with that.

Arriving in Akihabara was amazing, we got off the train to see anime, everywhere. Quite literally everywhere. Our hotel was right next to the station which was great for my aching shoulders. You know the deal, get the key cards and go up to your rooms. We had an hour of free time before meeting back up. Our rooms are nice, smaller than Kyoto but we have a massage chair! I tried it but the back was kinda hard for me.

Jas and I unpacked, relaxed for a bit, and headed back downstairs to meet everyone. Our classes walked around the city to see the sights and visit some old retro game stores like Mandarake. It was really expensive.

Afterwards we all split up to check out some stores and grab food. As prof Jacobs put it – “You’re free beings until Tuesday at noon”. So we all scattered with some going to animate, book off, and other second hand stores for games. There were a lot of really cool items in all the stores but my wallet was to be saved for the next day. Except for 1 event.

After Belle and I got dinner at this Karaage place ( karaage is like fried chicken) we headed to an arcade. Skyler ended up joining us later on. This was a 7 floor arcade with crane machines, video games, rhythm games, etc,etc. We spent ALOT of time there trying to win prizes but only Skyler came out with 2 prizes. We did, however, okay a lot of video games as well. The atmosphere for those floors were no windows only game. So it was lit up with LEDs.

I also ended up getting a really good score on one of the games. It was very fun.

After spending too much money there we went home for the night. I was able to get some really cool photos of the city at night. It was raining so things are a bit blurry but it was really pretty.

After getting home we basically went to sleep, I literally was out cold 2 minutes into laying on my bed. So I’ll catch ya later for tomorrrow, it’s gonna be a big one.

Game Jam Wrap + Osaka trip

The day began the same way as the day before with buffet breakfast in tbe hotel lobby. We then returned to KCG at around 9 to our groups to make one last sprint towards the finish at around noon. Because I finished my portion of the art the day before, I spent the day doing minor tasks such as making our game logo. We also had delicious Omurice for lunch. It was my first time trying it and I found it quite delicious. Overall, while some things could have gone better within my group, the experience of participating in a game jam for the first time was a great experience and was very worthwhile.

After another great lunch, two professionals from the game industry came in to critique our games. Their feedback was very interesting to hear coming from 3d design since all our critiques are visually focused. However, all of their feedback revolved around the gameplay and mechanics which was very new to me.

After a brief stop at the hotel, we boarded a bullet train for Osaka. We went to a department store where on one floor there was a Pokémon Center, One Piece store, Nintendo Store, Capcom store, and other smaller stores. I spent a little bit of money at the One Piece Store…

We also had dinner at an Italian restaurant in the department store before taking the bullet train back. Later that night we had a short Jackbox meetup before heading to bed. Until next time!

To be continued…

Record of the Incident on May 30th, 2023 at 12:00pm.

Shibuya Scramble Crossing, Shibuya, Tokyo

Today was our Tokyo free day, so me and Vincent when to Shibuya >:). This was the highlight of the trip for me. I love huge bustling cities, I love shopping, I love anime, it was perfect. Also not the mention this is where the Shibuya Incident took place >:))). We didn’t have much of a plan besides wanting to go to the nintendo store. Upon arriving we walked out of the station to see giant walkways stacked beneath freeways on top of intersections between skyscrapers. It was like a shot from a cyberpunk city during the day, absolutely insane urban architecture. We decided to start our adventure at Shibuya Scramble Crossing because that’s where we heard a lot of shops were.

Cool building that you would never find in the US (too much green)

After watching 50 bajillion people scurry across the street in 20 different directions, we headed into Shibuya 109. This store was 7 floors of every style of feminine clothing you can think of. We didn’t even look in the shops because we knew there wasn’t really going to be anything we wanted, but we still went to all the floors just to see it. After 109 we went to Magnent, which is owned by 109, and is for a more masculine audience. However they pretty much only sold designer clothing or streetwear designer that was way to expensive for me, even though they were sick ass clothes. After Magnet we walked over to the Nintendo store in Shibuya Parco and spent an obscene amount of money. Got some stuff for me and some stuff for my friends. After Nintendo we went to the Jump shop because we are anime fiends. They had some rlly cool stuff too, including printed JJK manga panels on canvas, which we each got one of. Then we were hungy so we got some italian food, it wasn’t the best food ive had but it wasn’t bad.

Conssss

Then we went to the converse store and I got Japan-exclusive white chucks that are sooo cool. After the converse store we headed back to Akihabara and got dinner with Maddy and Esther at this hotpot place connected to our hotel. It was quite scrumptious. Then it was bed time for the next day :).

The Queen of Poor Financial Decisions

So, I spent a lot of money today.

Today was our free day in Tokyo, so we decided to start the day with a quick trip to Starbucks for some drinks while we wait for the crepe place we intended to get breakfast at to open. By the time we had arrived at the crepe place I was pretty full on sugar, but luckily there was a beef skewer place just next door that was also opening, so I chose to get one of those instead. Nothing will top the beef skewer that I got at Nishiki Market, but it was still pretty good!

We also decided to visit Book-Off, a well known secondhand book/CD/video game store that held a surprising amount of Pokemon DS games. While most of them were 3DS games, I did manage to snag a copy of Pokemon Platinum for only $25 which I think is an unbelievable steal. The cartridge looks really cool too! I’m very excited to play it when I get home and see if there’s a save file on it (though I wouldn’t be surprised if they wiped it before putting it on sale). Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of it and am already in bed, so here’s a picture of a really cute cat statue that I saw later in the day instead!

We then took a train to Tokyo station to find Character Street, a well known chain of shops under the station featuring a lot of popular chain stores like Disney, Pokemon, Kirby, and more. I didn’t find too many things there that I really liked, but I did get a cute cat sticker, a pressed coin from the Pokemon store, and some cute sweets from the mini Kirby cafe!

After a pit stop in the hotel to devour our goodies, we made a change to our original plan to go to Ginza and decided to stay in Akihabara and visit the Muji and Uniqlo stores here. I didn’t find anything interesting in Muji, but this Uniqlo store did have the Splatoon 3 shirts that I was looking for so I picked up two of them!

Splatoon was truly my downfall today. After visiting the Uniqlo store, I took a trip to the floor below to look at some video games and Pokemon merchandise. While none of the Pokemon merchandise caught my eye, I did see something else that made me excited… the Splatoon 3 Special Edition OLED Switch. Yes, it’s something I passed up at the beginning of my trip, but here I would be able to purchase it tax-free and save nearly $100 compared to how much it would cost in America. Cloud my judgement with the Splatoon and Splatoon 2 art books thrown in… I stood no chance. But I got a really good deal on some really amazing merchandise that I know I’ll use! So I’m happy.

After lugging all of my Splatoon merchandise home, we had to find a place for dinner. We decided to visit a sushi place that our professor had recommended us. The food itself was really good, but somehow the server or the chefs managed to forget about half of our order, so we were stuck there for over an hour. It was pretty affordable, but unfortunately I’d never go back just because of the bad experience we had.

To end the night, me and a few others decided to have a movie night in Skylar and Liam’s room and watch Bullet Train, a comedy/action movie set in a Shinkansen in Tokyo. The movie was actually really funny, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would! Tomorrow we will be going to TeamLab Planets, which I’m REALLY excited for because it’s a really iconic location with a lot of good photo ops. I think we are also visiting Diver City, which will probably have some cool merch spots! I’m sad that my time in Japan is moving so quickly, but I’m having so much fun that I don’t regret any of it.

Day 7/8

Day 7 was the remaining part of the game jam and I stuck with my new group. We worked on adding the audio, the art, and backgrounds, as well as bug fixing when we got lunch. During lunch, I wanted to try adding a boss attack. So within the last 30 minutes, I started and finished adding fireballs to our game so the boss can attack the player.

Then we had two industry professionals review our games. One had started his own studio, and the other worked in the education outreach division of Epic – the makers of Unreal Engine. They seemed to think our game Hero Duo was funny – which was the goal, but gave a critique on our lack of player feedback; particularly when the player gets hit.

The next day, we took the bullet train back to Tokyo. I still think the bullet train is so cool, how it uses magnets to make the train as frictionless as possible. Although I’m bummed I wasn’t able to see Mt. Fuji due to the clouds. We went shopping for a while at some second-hand stores (although I mostly remained in the video game sections) before getting ramen – for the first time – and heading back to the hotel.