Every year Sakagami Satoshi organizes an interesting little exhibition called MY FAMICASE EXHIBITION. Designers, videogame lovers and 80′s nostalgics worldwide are invited to submit their own 8 bit Nintendo game, by designing a cartridge label which Sakagami will print and paste on physical famicom cartridges. People are free to make up any kind of game they can come up with and are required to design the label, write up a short description about their game and even submit a faux game company logo. During the month of May he turns his shop into a little gallery and exhibits all submissions on the walls of his small boutique in Kichijouji.

When shooting TOKYO X CREATIVES I was allowed to go through the stacks of previous submissions and there is something quite charming about them. They all look like legit honest-to-god famicom games, ready to be popped in and played. Most of em are designed very elegantly and you’d wish that the games were real instead of make-belief. Of course I wanted to submit my own this year and the result is posted above, I have tried my hand at designing a little fictional puzzle game called “MOUSTACHE KING ADVENTURE PKPL”. The object of my game is to find and feed as many gold and jewels as you can possibly find to the big Moustache King before he loses his temper and eats your planet instead.

I also invited my friends over at LARGETOSTI to join this year’s fun and they submitted two hilarious designs. Even though the humor might get lost in translation to the Japanese audience, they had me cracking up when I opened the attachments to their mail. I am pretty sure they will post their own designs sometime soon on their website. If you are in the Tokyo area during May please make sure to visit the exhibition at Meteor in Kichijouji and if you want more information About Sakagami san and his shop I invite you to look here.

TOKYOFACES.COM

銀座でTOKYOFACES.COMの撮影に参加してくださったの皆様お疲れさまでした。まことにありがとうございました！今日の写真をアップすることはちょっと時間がかかります、その時までにぜひTOKYOFACES.COMをご覧ください。よろしくお願いします。

TOKYOFACES is a fashion blog run by Said Karlson and myself and our goal is to bring you contemporary snapshots of Tokyo’s street style. Ofcourse the  Harajuku area is wonderful for getting the more fashionable people on camera, but we also take trips down the several shita-machi of the city to create a more down to earth collage of Tokyo residents and their sensibilities.

Please have a look and don’t forget to like us on facebook!

Every now and then I tease my readers with concept sketches for the upcoming RHYTHM CONTROL game that is to be released soon by DAIKONSOFT.

The game is in its final stage and even though I suck horribly at it ( I guess I have much better rhythm in video editing ) the game is coming along really nice and I can’t wait to see you guys get your hands on it. After this post I might have another tease for you  just before the game gets officially released this spring.   Stay tuned!

TOKYO VISUAL ARTS

It’s nine o’ clock in the morning, my luggage and its contents are scattered around the floor and my body is still pretty confused from my recent trip to Atlanta. I will have to clean up pretty soon though, take a shower and dress myself formally, because today I will graduate from Tokyo Visual Arts. To celebrate this event I have reposted “IKARI”, the very first project that I have written and directed for Tokyo Visual Arts, for those who are interested, you can find my storyboards here.

It has been 2 years since I moved away from Okazaki to study film in Tokyo. It has also been two years since the last time I saw my mother and friends back in Holland and the countless memories of Aichi ken, Utrecht, Seoul, Amsterdam, Rome, Denbosch, San Felice Circeo and even Atlanta seem like a lifetime ago.

Studying at a Japanese Film Academy along side young and upcoming Japanese talent has been a hell of a ride and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to be part of Japanese society in that manner. I must confess that the past two years have not been easy and who knows, maybe one day I will write up all my experiences as a sometimes awkward outsider trying to make his way through this institution and it’s strong cultural and social values.

Nonetheless I would like to sum up the things that made me stronger and that I will take with me as a TVA graduate. First and foremost I would like to thank the very strict and sometimes intimidating Hineno sensei for guidance in sound recording but above all discipline, Satou sensei for teaching me the value of equipment, Yusaku sensei for encouraging me to explore my own style and Shimada sensei for sharing his 40 years of experience in the field of lighting and set design. They are the teachers that have influenced me the most and have contributed to the enormous leaps in skill of the past 2 years. I would like to thank Yasaki sensei as well who gave me a deep understanding of Japanese film history but also a clear assessment of  the current state of the industry and it’s weaknesses. Last but not least I am very grateful to my fellow students who unknowingly painted a broad picture of Japan’s modern day youth. In the span of two years they made me understand the things that inspire them and more importantly their view on society and the world.

As of now I am without a job. I am considering to crowd fund TOKYO X CREATIVES since a sponsor has yet to step up to the plate, Finalroundbats has promised me some kind of compensation in the upcoming year for my involvement, there have been talks with CNN’s Geek Out blog for a possible collaboration, the friendly people over at PechaKucha seem very interested in my work but there have been no concrete talks, Daikonsoft might be able to compensate and/or employ me once things start taking off, TOKYOFACES is doing pretty well but still fails to be profitable and through all of this I am doing 100+ hour workweeks living on nothing but ramen and 100 yen curry. The only safe bet for now is to see if I can apply for a steady job with one of Tokyo’s many production companies.

Right now however, it is time to unpack my luggage, have a long shower and dress up in an Italian suit so I can attend the celebrations. Thank you for all your support and I hope I can continue to entertain and inspire you in the many years to come.

PLANES, TRAINS AND VIDEOGAMES.

Two weeks ago I already wrote about the upcoming FINALROUND XV event in Atlanta, Georgia. Scott Popular will be leading the Japanese FINALROUNDBATS team as they will compete with American players for some serious loot. What is FINALROUNDBATS you are saying? Click the video above to have Miguel Sanchez aka STREETWOLF explain to you what all the hype is about.

Tomorrow I will fly off to the United States and I will be covering the tournament together with Nasir Ansari. If equipment allows us, we will be bringing you quality content on the fly during the event spanning over the days of 2-4 march. On a personal note, I was born in upstate New York but raised in Europe. So this will be the first time coming back to my mother country. Even though far away from New York I am really excited and am preparing myself for an overload of impressions.

If time allows I will try to update my blog on a daily basis during my days over in the United States.

渋谷でTOKYOFACES.COMの撮影に参加してくださったの皆様お疲れさまでした。まことにありがとうございました！今日の写真をアップすることはちょっと時間がかかります、その時までにぜひTOKYOFACES.COMをご覧ください。よろしくお願いします。

If you have been following the blog you will have noticed that every once in a while I post a message in Japanese. This is to thank all the people who participated in our TOKOYFACES project. TOKYOFACES is a fashion blog run by Said Karlson and myself and our goal is to bring you contemporary snapshots of Tokyo’s street style. Ofcourse the  Harajuku area is wonderful for getting the more fashionable people on camera, but we also take trips down the several shita-machi of the city to create a more down to earth collage of Tokyo residents and their sensibilities.

Please have a look and don’t forget to like us on facebook!

The third trailer for the upcoming TOKYO X CREATIVES series of interviews. TOKYO X CREATIVES explores the creative side of Tokyo and is scheduled for release in April 2012.

Meteor is a little games/clothing store in Kichijoji which doubles as Sakagami Satoshi’s design studio. I had a talk with him about his career as a designer, a shopkeeper and also about how his love for gaming culture brought him to organize FAMI-MODE and FAMI-CASE. Read more about Sakagami san HERE  or check his page: super-meteor.com/

The full interview will be released this spring under the TOKYO X CREATIVES banner.

The track “Omni Lite” is courtesy of Vincent-Paolo: highest5.nl

TOKYOFACES.COM

赤坂でTOKYOFACES.COMの撮影に参加してくださったの皆様お疲れさまでした。朝早くて、寒くてとても大変でした。まことにありがとうございました！今日の写真をアップすることはちょっと時間がかかります、その時までにぜひTOKYOFACES.COMをご覧ください。よろしくお願いします。

Two weeks from now FINALROUND XV will kick off in Atlanta, Georgia. AO, AGEO JOE, ABELITY and FRIEDA will be the Japanese team representing FINALROUNDBATS JAPAN and are ready to show the American players what the Japanese game is all about. To a certain extend so am I since I will be joining TEAM JAPAN on their road to victory as I will be shooting the entire event this March.

I am really excited to be on the team and even though I will be focused on directing the camera teams mostly, I will be rooting for our guys quietly from behind the viewfinder. 頑張れ日本！

TOKYOFACES.COM

下北沢でTOKYOFACES.COMの撮影に参加してくださったの皆様お疲れさまでした。朝早くて、寒くてとても大変でした。まことにありがとうございました！今日の写真をアップすることはちょっと時間がかかります、その時までにぜひTOKYOFACES.COMをご覧ください。よろしくお願いします。