CRI・ミドルウェア
CRI・ミドルウェアはムービーやサウンドの事ならなんでもござれ、ゲームのムービーやサウンドに必要な技術を手掛け、そのゲームのクオリティを上げる、正に縁の下の力持ちなゲーム会社です。
会議室に入ってまず目に入ったのはでっかいテレビ2台とXBOX360とWiiとプレステ3の本体です。すぐ左を見るとゲーム屋さんなみに、たくさんのゲームソフトが棚に並べられていました。全てCRI・ミドルウェアが手伝ったゲームなんだそうです。（設立してから今まで2609 本(2013/09/01時点) のゲームを手伝っているそうですよ、すごい数ですね～。）「ドラゴンボールＺ」に「ストリートファイター」に「モンスターハンター」に「ぷよぷよ」に「大神」に「ルーンファクトリー」、もう知ってるゲームばっかりです！
講義ではこの会社がやっていること、そして自社が開発し実際に使っている二つのソフトの紹介をしてくれました。それはゲームソフトでもハードウェアでもない、高機能ムービー再生ミドルウェアの「CRI Sofdec2」とオール・イン・ワン型オーディオソリューションの「CRI ADX2」です。彼らはこれらを使ってムービーの部分再生をしたり、動画の重ね合わせ再生をしたり、動画のスライドパズルを作ったり、ゲームのサウンドを簡単に編集されたりしていました。個人的には動画のスライドパズルが面白そうでしたね。このミドルウェアはコンシューマーゲームだけではなくスマートフォンにも使えるそうです。
いいな～私もこんなミドルウェア使えたらいいな～と思ったら、最後にプレゼントとして「CRI ADX2」の本をもらっちゃいました。さすがCRI・ミドルウェア、ふとっぱらですね！
ランド・ホー
ランド・ホーはコンシューマーやモバイルゲームはもちろん、なんとNHKの番組制作までやっちゃっているバラエティ豊かなゲーム会社です。
現在はドラゴンに乗って世界を駆け巡る「Crimson Dragon」を鋭意製作中なんですが、なんと私たちはテストプレイをやらせていただきました！操作するドラゴンはとてもスピーディでグラフィックもとってもかっこいい、背景とかもよく作り込まれていて、新しい仕掛けやマップが登場するたび私たちは「おおーっ！」と盛り上がっちゃいました。他の方々が「Crimson Dragon」遊んでいる間、後ろを振り向くとそこは「Crimson Dragon」の開発現場。ゲームのテストプレイをして疑問に思った事をメモする人、移動できるマップのルートに悩む人、ドラゴンの3Dのモデルをせっせと作ってる人、そんなゲーム開発者たちの真剣な表情でゲームを作っている所を拝む事が出来ました。
そしてここではゲーム会社における2つの役割について教わりました、それはゲームを作る人とゲームを宣伝する人たちの事です。彼らが言うにはゲームを宣伝する人はゲームを作る人と同じくらい会社にとって大事だという事です。なぜならどんなに面白いゲームでも宣伝をしないと全く売れないからだそうです。（こんなに面白そうなのにびっくりです。）ゲームが売れるためには面白いゲームを作る人とそのゲームの面白さをうまく人々に表現できる人、両方とも必要なんですね～。勉強になりました。
Cygames
Cygamesは綺麗なイラストが入ったカードで遊ぶ「神撃のバハムート」を作っているゲーム会社です。
ここではイラストレーターさんたちがゲームのイラストを描いている実際の現場を見せてもらいました。イラストレーターが働く部屋はイラストを描く時目をチカチカさせないよう部屋を暗くしたり、液晶ペンタブレットや複数のディスプレイなどの高い機材も会社から出し惜しみなく提供されていて、正にイラストを描くための環境が整っていると思いました。（こっそりイラストレーターさんが手がけている絵や背景を見ましたが、もうめっちゃキレイでかっこいいです。ああいう絵、私も描いてみたいな～！）
これはここの社長さんが、社員たちがゲームを気持ちよく作れる、環境のいい場所にしようと心がけているからだそうです。ゲーム会社で働きたい身としては結構うれしい事ですね。私もそういう社員を大切にする会社で働いてみたいものです。
東京ゲームショウ
東京ゲームショウではセンス・オブ・ワンダーナイト2013という新しいゲームジャンルやアイデアを開拓し、その可能性を観客たちに「魅せる」イベントを見に行きました。特に興味を持ったのは「チュー太とふしぎな洞くつ」で使用するやわらかい不思議なコントローラー「やわらかローラー」（←聞いてみた所、名前がないそうなので勝手に命名、後で触らせてもらってぷにょーとした感じが気持ちよかったです）、四角いブロックの「ボクセル」を使って自分の好きな宇宙船をドット絵風に作り、その宇宙船を操作できる「Space Qube」（個人的にドット絵大好きなので）、大きい魚を釣るためとことん待つゲーム「TSURI」（プレゼンがとても面白かったです）、他にもいろいろあってどれも面白いアイデアだなと思いました。いろんな方面からゲームを見つめることによって、少しですが新しいゲームのアイデアを思いつくことが出来ましたので家に帰ったら早速作りたいと思います。
たくさんの制作者さんとの出会い
ゲームショーが終わった後、私たちはたくさんの有名なゲーム制作者たちが集う「INDIE STREAM」パーティに参加しました。有名なゲーム制作者に会えるこのパーティですが、私はあまりゲーム制作者に詳しくありません。どうしようかと悩んでいる時、もう一人のメンバーは私とは逆の事で悩んでいて、有名なゲーム制作者がわかるのに日本語がうまく話せず困っていました。お互いの利害が一致し、私たちは一時的にコンビを組み、私は彼に有名なゲーム制作者を教えてもらい、その人に彼が言いたいことを私が通訳する事になりました。
「わー！この人東方を作った人だー！」「わー！428の作曲家の人だー！」と彼はまるで子供の頃に戻ったように目をキラキラさせていました。（私は個人的にSmokingWolfさんが制作した「片道勇者」の英語の翻訳をされている方に会えてうれしかったです。）
そんなたくさんの有名なゲーム制作者さんたちに会えた事に満喫している中、最後に会ったのはロックマンを作った稲船敬二さんでした。もう一人のメンバーは稲船敬二さんの大ファンで、他の人ではあんなに流暢に話していたのに彼の前だけすごく緊張していました。少しお話をして、名刺を交換し、ツーショットを取って別れた後、緊張がほぐれたのか座り込んでずっと下を向いていました。もうずっと「ここに来て良かった、すごく良かった」、「今が一番幸せな時かもしれない」と言って長い間感動していました。ここまで人を感動させる稲船敬二さんってすごい人だなと思いました。
さいごに
5日間という短い間だったにもかかわらず、覚える事がたくさんあって私の中ではすごく長いように感じました。こんな有意義なツアーを考えてくださった小野憲史さん、その他にもこのツアーに同伴してくれた藤原正仁さんと矢澤竜太さん、本当にありがとうございました。私たちはこのツアーで体感したこの5日間の事を決して忘れる事はないでしょう。
Maria Miyako／クイーンズランド工科大学
＊日本文・英文とも
My name is Maria Miyako and I am currently studying Masters of IT, major in Game Design in Queensland University of Technology. I would like to introduce my experience in TGS scholarship.
CRI Middle Ware Inc.
CRI Middle Ware Inc. is a game developing company which is an expert of creating movie and game audio. They assist other game developing companies by enhancing the quality of their game using its movie and sound technology.
CRI Middle Ware Inc.
CRI Middle Ware Inc. is a game developing company which is an expert of creating movie and game audio. They assist other game developing companies by enhancing the quality of their game using its movie and sound technology.
When I entered the conference room, what I first saw were 2 big televisions, game consoles such as Xbox 360, Wii and Play Station 3. When I turned left, there were tons of video games displayed on the shelf. Those video games on the shelf are all the games that the CRI Middle Ware had cooperated with. (According to the company, they have previously cooperated and created 2609 games titles in between Sep 9, 2013 from establishment. Don’t you think that’s a lot!) “Dragon Ball Z”, “Street Fighter”, “Monster Hunter” , “Puyo Puyo”, “Ōkami ” and “Rune Factory”. WOW, I KNOW ALL THOSE GAMES!
On the conference, they have introduced their activities as well as 2 devices which they have developed and also been used for their development. Those 2 devices are neither “soft”ware nor “hard”ware; it is a high-end “middle”ware named “CRI Sofdec2” which is for playing movies in multiple purpose and “CRI ADX2” which is for editing the audio sound. They introduced some of the demos such as playing alpha movies, playing multiple movies in one screen, movie slide puzzle and editing game audio really easily. The most interesting demo I think it was is the movie slide puzzle. You can see the anime while you’re playing the game. This middleware can be used not only in console games but can also be used in smartphone games.
“I wish if I could use such middleware…”, while I was thinking like that, CRI Middle Ware gave us a book of “CRI ADX2” as the present at the end of the conference. CRI Middle Ware, you’re the best!
Land Ho!
Land Ho! is a game developing company which not only works on the consumer and mobile game but also working on NHK TV program production.
They are currently developing “Crimson Dragon” which the player is riding on the dragon and flies around the world. This game was planned to be played at Tokyo Game Show 2013 but they let us test play the game beforehand! The dragons were very speedy and graphic was made in high standard 3D model. The stages were very detailed and we were excited when new gimmicks and stages had appeared. While other scholars were playing the game, I turned around and saw the development scene. I saw the serious faces of developers who were testing the game and noted some problems and improvement ideas, considering the route of the stages and manufacturing 3D models of dragons.
In the conference, I learnt about 2 roles of game company; one is developing the game and the other one is promoting the game. They told me that promoting the game is important as developing the game. No matter how interesting the game is, it would never be sold if they did not promote the game. (I couldn’t believe it. After all, the game seemed very impressive.) In order to sell the game, we need both staffs that develop fun games as well as staff who can appeal the fun part of the game. I have learned the lesson.
Cygames
Cygames is a game developing company who created “Rage of Bahamut”, a mobile social card game that uses beautiful graphics cards.
In here, we were able to see the real development scene where the illustrators draw the graphics of the game. Unlike other offices, the office in here is rather dark. This is to prevent illustrator’s eyes from getting hurt. Also in each table, graphic pen tablet and multiple displays were provided by the company. I thought this would be a perfect place for drawing illustrations! (I’ve peeked inside and looked at their illustrations and background drawings, there were all very beautiful and polished. I wish I could draw such illustrations.)
The president here has its own motto, “The best game is created within best environment!”. This is very happy news for the person who wants to work in game studio. I would like to work in such company where they value their employees.
Tokyo Game Show
We went to see “Sense of Wonder Night 2013” event which develop new game genre and ideas and show the possibilities to attendances in Tokyo Game Show. The games and ideas that I was impressed were “Soft-roller” which is soft and strange controller and was used in the game “Chuta and the mysterious dungeon” (I asked the name of this controller but it didn’t had a specific name so I name it myself. They let me touch the controller afterwards, it was very soft and it feels like touching a slime.), “Space Cube”, a game which allows the player to design and control their customized spaceship by using tetragon block “box cell” (I really love pixel art.), “TSURI” is a fishing game that the size of the fish depends on how long the player didn’t run the game (I love their presentation). There were many games and I thought every ideas were awesome. This event made me to look at the games from various perspectives and let me come out with new ideas of the game. I will start develop it when I returned home.
Meet up with many developers
After TGS, we participated to the “Indie stream” party where you can meet many famous game developers. I was hoping to see famous game developers but unfortunately, I’m the type that misses staff roll so I couldn’t really recognize who is famous or not. On the other hand, the other scholar member had the opposite problem; he could recognize who is the famous game developer but he was not confident of his Japanese communication skills. So we’ve temporarily team up; he finds the famous game developer and I translated his conversation in Japanese. We were able to speak and become acquaintance with lots of game developers.
“WOW, he is a developer of Toho”, “WOW, he is a composer of 428”, he was so excited as if he was back to childhood. (I was also happy too, meeting with the translator who translated “One Way Heroics”, the game developed by SmokingWolf in English).
The last game developer we met was Mr. Keiji Inafune, one of the most famous game developers who developed “Megaman”. The other member was a great fan of Mr. Inafune and he was very nervous in front of him although he spoke fluently with other game developers. After we chatted a little, exchanged business cards, took a picture with him and break up, the other member was extremely tense and finally snapped. He sat on the chair, looking down to the ground and said “I was so lucky to come here”, “I think this is my best day in my life!”. I thought that Mr. Keiji Inafune was amazing because he impressed people in such way.
Finally
Tokyo Game Show
We went to see “Sense of Wonder Night 2013” event which develop new game genre and ideas and show the possibilities to attendances in Tokyo Game Show. The games and ideas that I was impressed were “Soft-roller” which is soft and strange controller and was used in the game “Chuta and the mysterious dungeon” (I asked the name of this controller but it didn’t had a specific name so I name it myself. They let me touch the controller afterwards, it was very soft and it feels like touching a slime.), “Space Cube”, a game which allows the player to design and control their customized spaceship by using tetragon block “box cell” (I really love pixel art.), “TSURI” is a fishing game that the size of the fish depends on how long the player didn’t run the game (I love their presentation). There were many games and I thought every ideas were awesome. This event made me to look at the games from various perspectives and let me come out with new ideas of the game. I will start develop it when I returned home.
Meet up with many developers
After TGS, we participated to the “Indie stream” party where you can meet many famous game developers. I was hoping to see famous game developers but unfortunately, I’m the type that misses staff roll so I couldn’t really recognize who is famous or not. On the other hand, the other scholar member had the opposite problem; he could recognize who is the famous game developer but he was not confident of his Japanese communication skills. So we’ve temporarily team up; he finds the famous game developer and I translated his conversation in Japanese. We were able to speak and become acquaintance with lots of game developers.
“WOW, he is a developer of Toho”, “WOW, he is a composer of 428”, he was so excited as if he was back to childhood. (I was also happy too, meeting with the translator who translated “One Way Heroics”, the game developed by SmokingWolf in English).
The last game developer we met was Mr. Keiji Inafune, one of the most famous game developers who developed “Megaman”. The other member was a great fan of Mr. Inafune and he was very nervous in front of him although he spoke fluently with other game developers. After we chatted a little, exchanged business cards, took a picture with him and break up, the other member was extremely tense and finally snapped. He sat on the chair, looking down to the ground and said “I was so lucky to come here”, “I think this is my best day in my life!”. I thought that Mr. Keiji Inafune was amazing because he impressed people in such way.
Finally
Even though it was actually the short period of time, I thought this 5 days of scholarship was very long because there were many things that I learnt from. I would like to thank Mr. Ono who held such meaningful tour and also to Mr. Fujihara and Mr. Yazawa who escorted us. We will never forget what we experienced in the tour.
Maria Miyako／Queensland University of Technology
Maria Miyako／Queensland University of Technology
＊この文章は本人が日本語と英語の両言語で執筆しました。 This essays was written in both English and Japanese by herself.
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