Daniel Benmergui

I’m on my way back home from Japan, after one of the best trips in my life. I left the writeup until now since I’ve been travelling like crazy the last 15 days:

The Tokyo Game Show is a huge circus of lights, noise, screaming, booth babes and cosplayers, but I didn’t find anything inspiring at all. Most of it was about Tekken 7, Biohazard 5, Monster Hunter 3 and Final Fantasy (14?). There were hidden gems every now and then, but the whole show tired me up and didn’t really feel like hunting for gold.

The Sense of Wonder Night was a completely different experience. We were all gathered in a restaurant showroom while each of us showed our games in front of an audience that was set in the mood by being giving free alcohol and food. They were given a toy that makes noise when you wave it, with the instructions of using it when a game evoked a sense of wonder. I think that concept made it very fun both for us presenters and the audience. Ian’s The Unfinished Swan and Gomibako really excited everybody.

I severely cut down my presentation when they told us that the translation would not be simultaneous but intertwined. So I only said three things: I wanted to make a game about people and not objects, small and short in scope and gametime, and not using text or movies to propel the game forward.

I enjoyed presenting despite being a little anxious of standing in front of an audience completely alien to me. I was relieved when the reaction was enthusiastic.

My only complaint was that I wish we presenters had some sort of private meeting afterwards or before… since half of us were westerns and the other japanese, there were not much opportunity for bonding across the language barrier in the middle of the event. But being the first edition of this event, I think it was great. If you are a creative game developer looking for an excuse to spend the money to visit Japan, go for SOWN next year!

If there is anything you want to ask about SOWN, TGS or Japan, I’ll happily answer here.

I have a crappy clip of the intro.