Tag: Unreal Fest

Day 12/13

The majority of Friday I spent at Unreal Fest before going with the group Cyber Connect 2. I am really interested in the development and the technology behind video games; I even enjoy watching GDC talks and the making of documentaries in my free time. I got to see how they used motion capture technology to make a mesh follow movement live from a camera reference – I even got to try the headset on. They also let me use the sphere that takes a bunch of pictures at once and turns your face into a mesh for a video game character.

We met as a group in the hotel lobby before making our way to Cyber Connect 2. I’ve never gotten to tour a studio of any kind before, so this was a very cool experience. After this tour, we were free to do as we wished since this was the last scheduled day of the trip. I ended up on the same plane as both Professor Jacobs and Professor Sten, as well as another student so I spent my last day hanging around the hotel with them, mostly trying my luck at the arcade machines; which I did win a prize.

I was fortunate enough to not have anyone sitting next to me on any of my four flights. This was by far the longest plane ride I’ve ever experienced, and I was pleasantly surprised that we got three meals, free headphones, and access to hundreds of free movies.

While I was glad to be home, I found myself already missing the group of students, professors, and the KCG professors, I spent almost everyday with. I am beyond grateful to have gotten this experience and I can already see the short-term effects from this trip: greater confidence, better problem-solving, etc. But I am almost more excited to see how it will impact my life long-term. Thank you for this amazing trip!

Food in Day 12: Unreal Fest and CyberConnect

We started the day out by braving the rain and making the walk over to Unreal Fest. It was super cool to see all of the projects being made using Unreal Engine. It makes it feel like the possibilities are endless. Seeing that inspired me to keep working hard on my own projects so that one day I may be able to create something like the things that were being shown off there. After that, we went and got a tour of CyberConnect2, the game studio behind the development of the Naruto fighting games, .hack series, and Fuga: Melodies of Steel. After that, Jasmine, Jessica, Megan, Brody, Maddy, Vincent, and I trekked through the rain for a delicious last dinner and ice cream. After that, a few of us had a late-night meeting, I finished packing, and then head to bed.

In terms of the stars of the show, sadly, I had to skip out on breakfast because I did not wake up in time to grab breakfast before going to Unreal Fest. So for lunch, I got oil noodles again, but with a raw egg to mix into my rice this time. Maddy and I had already come to this place before in Shibuya, so we knew this was good. I decided to try a different flavor this time, but I forgot what that flavor was called. Again, this was delicious. I also appreciated that they gave us broth this time. I assume they did this because it was rainy outside. Great service, and I appreciated being able to order form a terminal that included English translations.

For dinner after CyberConnect2, Jasmine, Jessica, Megan, Brody, Maddy, Vincent, and I had dinner together. Jasmine and I shared some garlic bread with pesto as an appetizer. It was toasted just enough to have a bit of a crunch, and the garlic and pesto paired well together. It was the perfect way to lead up to the steal that I got that came with rice and baked vegetables. The steak was super flavorful and juicy, and the sauce only made it better. The whole dinner was just delicious.

For dessert, I got a Sumiko Gruashi-themed ice cream from Baskin Robbins, which was a fruity-flavored ice cream. I really like it, and I enjoyed the character being a little chocolate that you could eat. For second dessert (to help me stay awake during my meeting), I had a coffee jelly from 7-11. It was also really good and super cheap.

Tomorrow, Maddy and I need to brave the subway system together once more to the airport. Leaving will be very bittersweet.

UnrealFest and CyberConnect2

Our day started at 10 am to go to Unreal Festival, conveniently located in Akihabara. I expected it to be much larger than it was, however, because it was small, I was able to see most of the exhibits which were interesting. Overall, Unreal Fest was a great experience, even though my Japanese was not at the level to understand the presentations, seeing what people have done was really interesting. Some of the exhibits that I interacted with that I quite enjoyed were digital manga in which the reader interacted with Unreal scenes in order to change the story. There was also a company promoting their player-to-player server connections.

Afterward, a group of us left Unreal to go have lunch at a stand-up Wagyu beef restaurant. The restaurant was surprisingly cheap for A5 beef and was also really good.

Later, Megan and I went and played some crane games for a short time, however, no winnings were taken home. At least I was able to see the Hololive displays at the Gigo. I also bought a Taiyaki of Houshou Marine and I got her coaster as well.

Next, we met and took the train to CyberConnect 2. There, we watched a presentation and were given a tour by the head of PR. Seeing the studios behind the scenes was really fun and interesting to see. Other than the exclusive art made for CyberConnect, I enjoyed seeing the different artists’ desk setups as they used various different methods in order to eliminate glare. We also were able to see the meeting rooms and ask questions relating to the company. Overall, the company seemed like a company that I would be okay working with for a while, however, I could not envision myself working there long term.

When we arrived at the hotel from CyberConnect, a group of us went to conveyor belt sushi. This was the first time at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant and the system was quite novel. The food was also quite good considering that I had never seen so many chefs working so hard in the kitchen at once. Afterward, we got ice cream and it was really good and tasted similar to gelato. I got Hokkaido Milk flavor and strawberry mixed with another fruit that I did not know the name ice cream.

Later that night, some of us had a short farewell get together and some of us said our goodbyes.

One more post…

To be continued…

The Final Countdown

Our last day included two tasks: attending UnrealFest and visiting CyberConnect. After a semi-late start at 10 AM, we were able to get into UnrealFest, which I had been promoted from the waitlist the day before. Unfortunately, today was also the day of the typhoon, dooming rain upon us.

UnrealFest had a lot of cool games, though I had to admit it after my feud with UE5 during the Game Jam. It was a little difficult at times learning how to play the game because most of them were in Japanese, but I had fun nonetheless.

Afterwards, Brody, Esther, Maddy, and I found a soba place where I was able to order and absurd amount of so a for around 1000 yen – it was so much that I couldn’t finish it, and that’s saying something. Then, we went to Radio Kaikan for some last minute gift shopping.

The image I stole from Steve because I didn’t take any photos that day

We met back up with everyone around 2:30 PM to say goodbye to Toshi – probably the saddest part of the trip. He walked us to the subway, where we parted our ways as he went back home and we went to the CyberConnect studio.

We had a small introduction to the studio by their PR manager, and a cool tour that included seeing a lot of anime and manga spread about their many shelves. After CyberConnect, we were officially done with our Japan trip agenda and were free to spend the rest of our last day how we chose. Brody and I, who were exhausted after the whirlwind of activities in these last weeks, just decided to get dinner and rest in our room.

Actually Doing Game Industry Things

Friday was pretty packed with both events and rain! It rained pretty much the entire day, and the wind was a bit much at times, but it honestly just made the day more memorable.

We met at 10 AM and walked to Unreal Fest, a game industry networking / showcase event that Epic Games was hosting. It was cool, but I don’t think foreigners were the intended audience (obviously). The day we were able to go wasn’t focused on indie game showcases, but instead on seminars for people learning how to use Unreal Engine and make games. As someone who A) has never touched Unreal before, and B) can’t understand more than a couple simple phrases in Japanese, the seminar that I attended was pretty much just a break to sit for an hour. But the game showcases that were on display were really fun to play test!

One of the games I enjoyed most was a VR rhythm game where you’re shooting bullets at timed targets to the music. As someone who loves rhythm games, it was right up my alley. There was also a cool game about learning English based on groups of letters (for example, breaking “perfection” into “per”, “fec”, and “tion”) that had a really cute art style. They also gave us some merchandise for attending, namely a wristband, a bag, and some flyers that I definitely don’t have anymore. But I did buy a cute fruit sticker from one of the game showcase tables! (I didn’t really take any pictures from the Unreal Fesr, but I cannot for the life of me get rid of the image spot above / next to this text, so enjoy this weird random pic of an email they sent me about Unreal Fest lol.)

Once we were finished at Unreal Fest, we were all excited for lunch. I found a super small wagyu yakiniku place nearby, and man was it incredible. It was me, Pavel, Megan, Skyler, and Fabian, and just us alone took up nearly half of the space in the restaurant, but we got there at the perfect time when it was totally empty. Yakiniku is a type of restaurant where you’re provided with your own mini grill, and you can cook the meat to your liking. The meat was fantastic (and this was the first restaurant since being here in Japan that provided salt on the table, which was a big plus for me) and it was a really unique experience that I’m really happy I got to have. I’m really sad that I didn’t make it back here for the rest of my trip!

After lunch, we had some time to kill before we met with our professors again at 2:30. I went to the card store that I’d visited a couple days before to get some other cards that I’d been thinking about in my head, and then me and Pavel went to Bic Camera to meet up with Fabian. The only notable thing there was that they had a Pikachu keyboard on display, which was SO EXCITING to me because I’ve always seen them in videos and never gotten to play with one in person.

It was then time to head to CyberConnect2, a small game studio that we had the opportunity to tour that afternoon. They’re responsible for a lot of anime-to-video game titles, namely Naruto games, and it was cool to see all of the merchandise that they have in their offices and how small the teams really are in some gaming studios. The whole presentation they gave us felt super sugar-coated and corporate (and I’m not gonna lie, I was really close to falling asleep in the middle just because we were all SO tired from how busy we’ve been and getting to sit for an hour was few and far between) but it was a great experience! I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures inside of the office of course, but they did have an anniversary banner in their lobby that I got a picture of.

We were all pretty tired once we got back from the studio tour, but the next thing we had to worry about was dinner. We split into two main groups and the group I went with that went to Sushiro, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It’s another experience that I was really excited to have while being in Japan, and we had a lot of fun! Chloe, Fabian, Pavel and I sat at a booth together and I got to try some stuff that I don’t think I would’ve in another scenario, such as crab tempura with some mystery sauce on it (pretty sure it was mayo, but there is no guarantee). There was also a delicious chocolate cake slice that I of course had to order too!

Despite the rain, Chloe and I managed to convince Pavel and Fabian to come to the arcade next door with us to play the rhythm and crane games. We learned that Chloe is an absolute god at the cranes, winning a Miffy stuffed animal and a King Boo night light, and I had fun playing a rhythm game called maimai DX that I would definitely become addicted to if I lived here. Just before we left I also managed to win a Pokemon stuffed animal from one of the crane machines!

To end the night, we finished the Dungeons and Dragons movie and spent our final time together as a large portion of the group. Saying goodbye was really hard, but I’m so blessed to have been on this trip with so many incredible and amazing people and learned so much about myself and the world. I wouldn’t have traded this trip for anything else, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again when I’m back in Rochester. I love you guys!!

There is no other group of people I’d rather be crammed into an elevator with LOL!

Invading a place of business

Today we went to Unreal Fest! It was super cool even though I couldn’t really experience most of the activities since it was mostly lectures in Japanese. There was a room with game demos set up that was really cool. I played a bunch of puzzle games, this really interesting mecha movement-based action game, and a super fun soulslike that I really liked. There were a lot of games there that I didn’t end up playing because they didn’t look particularly interesting to me, but still cool nonetheless. There was also a lot of tech demo stuff for random systems or software that I didn’t understand because it was in japanese.

After Unreal Fest we had a break for lunch before heading to CyberConnect 2! I ate at this hole-in-the-wall soba place that was pretty good, but I started getting a stomache ache so I didn’t finish most of my food :(. After we regrouped we took a train over to CyberConnect 2’s Tokyo studio. We had a bit of a lecture about what CyberConnect 2 is, the games they’ve made, and how they run things. Then we got a tour of their studio which was really cool to see. They have a really casual workplace that has a staff room full of free games and manga to rent for research, which actually makes sense since they primarily make anime fighting games (such as the Demon Slayer, Naruto, and Jojo’s games). Their studio was really cool.

After CyberConnect2 we could do whatever we really wanted for the rest of the day. So a few of us went back to Akihabara to find someplace to eat. We tried going to this steak place that was supposed to be really good, but it ended up being too crowded. After that place was a bust we walked around for a little bit trying to find a new place to eat. Eventually we decided on this place that was supposed to be like Japanese Olive Garden. It had steaks, burgers, pizza, garlic break, and the like. I got a little pizza and some garlic bread which was pretty good. Then we trudged back to the hotel in the pouring rain and said goodbye to everyone we got dinner with. Then Vincent and I had to do laundry, which was quite troublesome during the typhoon. After the laundry dilemna we went to bed for the night. Last day in Japan :((.