What is the life of a game designer?

this is a day in the life of a Japanese game designer

this is shita 29 years old living in

this one LDK apartment in the heart of

Tokyo and he’s just waking up for work

he moved in five years ago specifically

because it was walking distance to work

but the office moved recently so now he

trains luckily in Japan it’s typical for

most companies to pay for the train

commute

so right after earning a master’s degree

in computer science at one of the top

schools in Japan at scuba University he

was hired immediately by the company he

works for today in Japan’s gaming

industry but growing up his dream was

originally to become a chef and never

imagined what he would be doing today

but we’ll get into that in just a bit

you wear makeup

oh when did you started

I guess he’s motivated today

so for Tokyo standards a shooter lives

in a rather spacious apartment but says

he also prefers to keep things simple

apparently that goes for breakfast as

well

[Music]

since he was a kid she’d love creating

and Building Systems whether it was in

the kitchen with Legos at drawing or

even on his computer which ultimately

fueled his decision to study engineering

at a specialized seven-year hybrid high

school and University during this time

Keen to become a Creator in the I.T

industry he eventually discovered a

Creator’s path in a game development

which we’ll get to see today so we’re

back with another day in the life this

one is going to be super fun I’m always

interested to see how game development

Works shoot this should be coming down

the train right now

good morning did you sleep well last

night

[Music]

directly connected to rapunzi station

his office is located inside of Tokyo

Midtown shooter works as a lead game

designer in Japanese game planner at

codopla one of the largest mobile game

developers in Japan popular for making

casual mobile games like Shiro Neko

project and Meow Meow Star Acres with

about 800 employees in their Tokyo

office their creative teams produce a

wide variety of mobile games that the

world can’t seem to put down

oh I guess he’s starting off this

morning with a healthy banana apparently

the company has an all-you-can-eat

policy so healthy

and today is a big day for him since the

game he’s been working on for the last

few years is supposed to finally be

uploaded to the App Store but we’ll see

if things go as planned yo that deck is

extremely small

wow what’s the setting

that’s so tiny so in typical Japanese

game development companies the job title

game designer is rare instead like in

Shooter’s company only the job title of

game planner really exists though the

roles are more or less the same maybe

because in Japan the designer title is

thought of as a person who focuses more

on visual Aesthetics while a planner is

involved in the entire creation process

foreign

[Music]

level and course planner these days she

deletes a development team for the game

title Neko golf a realistic animated

style golf game where players can play

each other online it’s one of the most

critical parts of the game as a course

planner most technically design and

imagine engaging courses that will key

players continue to attention it’s part

of shoots his job to help guide this

process to ensure that the courses are

in line with the overall Games vision

[Music]

now shoot the moves on to another quick

meeting with FX designer

although the initial development cycle

for the game is complete and it’s

scheduled for upload to the app store

today the team is far from stopping

development as they will continue to

improve the game by adding new features

play modes Etc while also fixing

reported bugs for as many years as the

game is popular

from here a meeting with the games

costume designer

as a Japanese game planner he’s

continually in meetings as he needs to

project manage and help direct all the

various team members who designed and

develop the game to ensure that it’s

produced as conceptualized and completed

on schedule and working in such a large

team it’s crucial to communicate

constantly as small adjustments are

often required

so it looks like [ __ ] is going to be

here for just a little bit longer so

while he’s doing that let’s look around

and see what develops

wow there’s just so much stuff look at

all of these books here so what’s

interesting with all of the books on the

walls you can rent them out and a

company actually has their own rental

system right here that they develop

themselves in fact the complete library

is sped out through the entire office

and let’s see what’s going on over here

in addition to these vending machines

right here they have these Frozen

gourmet meals ready to go wow those

meals look rather balanced okay cool

let’s see what’s over here oh wow

[Music]

so check this out they have all of these

mobile devices they have phones they

have tablets and it looks like they even

have all the adopters right there that’s

pretty convenient

okay so we’re in the office area right

now let’s go talk to that guy over there

excuse me what are you doing right now

oh really so what do you do um

cool what infrastructure do you use here

but you guys have maintenance right nice

nice he says that it’s sad when users

can’t play because of Maintenance so

they can figure the system in a way that

there is never any user downtime so how

long have you been with the company

so you’re the only one on the team

well thanks to him and his team you can

literally play Forever

hi what are you doing right now

oh balls he is the programmer that codes

a golf Ball’s Behavior like how it moves

to the air and how it bounces on

different surfaces do you need some sort

of science

backgrounds

oh so how long have you been with the

company

I see so what’s the most challenging

part

um

hey the code is in English do you speak

also

in Japan it’s typical for programmers to

use standard English code While most of

the comments and documentation are in

Japanese

[Applause]

now shoot is attending the weekly all

team project meeting for them to share

updates and report on their current work

progress

and it’s confirmed the game will be

uploaded today

hmm where are they going

so what happens if you find bugs

the entire team plays together for about

an hour to make sure the final version

has no bugs before it gets released to

get to this point it’s been a long seven

year stretch but shooter says that he’s

enjoyed the journey working with such a

talented team from the coders to the

music composers he appreciates that they

could all come together to create one

beautiful game

foreign

[Music]

with some of his co-workers and I guess

they’re all getting stuff from the

matsuya vending machine

[Music]

can I ask you some questions what do you

do

oh when’s it coming out

what kind of game is

you’re not gonna give me anything

so how long have you been working on

this project

well I guess I’m looking forward to your

new game what do you do

what game are you making sure

is there anything that’s difficult

[Music]

sounds a bit stressful

at least after lunch they can chill a

bit and play some games together what

are you guys playing

did you help make it

shoots says that the key to being a

successful game planner is exposing

yourself to all kinds of entertainment

which of course includes different

styles of games anime manga movies even

theme parks the experiences he has and

the knowledge of those experiences are

reborn into the games he creates so as

part of his job to regularly seek out

new experiences

so in this game area I was actually kind

of wondering what’s inside the boxes

below damn they’ve got an old school

famicom Wii Dreamcast and even a Zelda

controller

[Music]

shooter what are you doing now

by the way did you start as a game

planner

how was it when you just started

as a Japanese game planner it’s

important to have strong management and

communication skills it’s not enough to

be creative and come up with ideas but a

planner must also be able to organize

these ideas create proposals and

specification documents in order to

effectively communicate their ideas to

their team

plus it doesn’t hurt that shoota even as

a kid has been comfortable speaking in

front of an audience

[Music]

oh he’s using one of the test phones

although the company has simulators

sometimes the team needs to test and

verify bugs on physical phones luckily

the company has a wide range of phones

that they can use to thoroughly test

what’s the emperor

testing sometimes must be like a kick in

the golf balls

foreign

apparently all employees get one free

massage per week which they usually use

working in Japanese game development

it’s no surprise that the staff spend

many hours sitting at their desk in

front of their computer screens so the

company tries to promote healthier

habits and encourage them to take care

of their bodies as much as possible

so it looks like shoota is going to be

getting this massage for just a little

bit longer so while he’s doing this

let’s go putt around this place

[Music]

okay so we’re just past the entrance

area here let’s see what’s going on over

here I think there’s actually a meeting

room over here

hi oh

what are you two doing game no story

and what do you do

[Music]

is a mobile action RPG one of the

company’s biggest titles produced eight

years ago now with over a hundred

million downloads and they were just

playing the game together to discuss

future plans how was it in the beginning

he says that when he first developed the

app many people internally who played

the game didn’t think it would do well

but as a Creator he didn’t allow that

deter him and was pleased when the game

became Ultra popular so what do you do

oh so you’re the one who decides what

games get made how long have you been

with the company

so how was it back then

so what are you planning next

time

no doubt oh shoot is back at his desk

already are you going somewhere

okay everything is going to plan first

upload ever

compared to PC games mobile games must

be approved first by Google and apple

before it’s available to the public so

uploading to the app store for review is

a last step just before it’s finally

available for public download

for many playing the game they’ll

probably never truly understand how much

time went into creating it but for

shooter and his team I’m sure there’s a

great sense of accomplishment today

yeah finally done this evening shooter

has plans to go out with his co-workers

[Music]

so where are you guys headed to foreign

he says that they often go to an actual

golf course on the weekends but during

the week this is where they hang out

since the office is located in Roppongi

which is filled with all sorts of

entertainment they never have trouble

finding a place to go after work that’s

one nice thing about working in one of

Tokyo’s popular night spots

[Applause]

yeah

[Music]

so what do you do

all of you go out often

you brought your own golf club right you

must love golf

so what do you do

[Laughter]

so it looks like shita and his friends

are going to be here until nine o’clock

and then after that he’ll go home

probably take a bath and then play some

games watch YouTube and then go to sleep

around probably midnight but that’s

pretty much a day in the life of a

Japanese game planner if you guys like

this video help me out and hit that like

button if you guys want to see more

videos like this or anything related to

Japan hit that subscribe button on the

Bell button I’ll catch you guys in the

next one