Greetings

  • 桐山 孝司 Takashi Kiriyama
    Professor, Department of New Media
    Dean, Graduate School of Film and New Media
    Tokyo University of the Arts

    Game Course 2023

    Starting this year, Tokyo University of the Arts will carry out "STEAM-Driven Japan-U.S. Joint Program for Innovative Visual Media Creators" through the program of Support for Creation of Inter-University Exchanges with U.S. Universities. This is a new five-year plan starting in 2023 that was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology based on the results of the "Japan-U.S. Educational Initiative on Creating Games as a Comprehensive Artistic Practice" that continued for 5 years starting in 2018. The Graduate School of Film and New Media's Game Course, which will be the driving force behind the project, has immediately started collaborating with the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to improve its course offerings and conduct exchanges of graduate students. We are pleased to be able to hold GEIDAI GAMES 05 with the participation of many faculty members and graduate students from USC.

    Currently, the evolution of generative AI is having an impact on game production. Based on the context you provide, AI can assist you with the programming by supplementing codes. Generative AI can now be used to prototype games as well, including their visual representation. Not surprisingly, AI is involved in the works of this year's Geidai Games Exhibition in various ways, such as programming support and user interfaces using voice recognition. The ability to use AI to fill in the missing skills is a blessing in terms of accelerating the production process. On the other hand, having such a resource, deciding what to create is now a major challenge for creators. As it pertains to both the production of games and digital contents in general, we would like to develop perspectives and practical methods for creation with the present and future existence of AI.

  • 岡本 美津子 Mitsuko Okamoto
    Vice President
    Professor, Department of Animation
    Graduate School of Film and New Media
    Tokyo University of the Arts

    The Significance of the Playtest

    The students in the Game Course at our university must participate in a gathering called a playtest several times a year. It is an occasion where people play the games that are being developed by them. The students will observe how the playtesters play and react, and also receive feedback from them.

    In addition to the game faculty, we invite people to the playtests who have never played the games before, such as students from other departments, alumni, and lecturers.

    The meetings progress in a very casual atmosphere. Each playtester is free to move around the classroom amongst the game creators and experience whatever game is available. Laughter and game sounds echo throughout the room, making it feel like an arcade rather than a classroom.

    In the field of art, it is common for feedback and advice to be given by reviewers, including faculty, in the form of a critique at significant production stages and completion. Reviewers with expertise and systematic knowledge of the field evaluate the work and provide discourse to position it within the history and entirety of the genre. However, academic playtests of games have a completely different approach from these critiques.

    For one, the faculty and other students than the one receiving feedback have no way of grasping what comments were given to the individual designers. In addition, all playtesters, whether they are faculty, students from other departments, or the general public, are treated equally with no hierarchical relationship. Third, in an art critique, what the reviewers say are of their own accord. But, in a playtest, the aspects to be tested are predetermined by the designers.

    Our collaborator from 2018, the Interactive Media & Games division at the University of Southern California, ranks as the No.1 program in games education in the United States. They are also well known for their frequent implementation of playtests.

    Games are a form of expression that cannot be completed without having players experience them. In other words, they are expressions in which the players receive the creator’s ideas and messages through experience. Therefore, the playtest, which tests these experiences, is of great importance in games production. We hope to incorporate the playtest effectively into our curriculum and add new insights to art education.

GAMES

Thesis Projects

M1 Projects

Affiliated Projects

Event Outline

Date & Time
March 16th 10am - 6pm, March 17th 10am - 5pm
Venue
Tokyo University of the Arts Ueno Campus Factory Complex Building
12-8 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, TOKYO 110-8714 JAPAN
Google map
Transportation
JR About a 10 min. walk
From either “Ueno (Park exit)” or “Uguisudani” stations.
Subway About a 15 min. walk
From “Ueno” station on the Ginza and Hibiya subway lines.
About a 5 min. walk
From “Nezu” station on the Chiyoda subway line.
Keisei
Electric Railway		 About a 15 min. walk
From “Keisei-Ueno” station on the Keisei electric railway.
Toei Bus About a 3 min. walk
From “Yanaka” bus stop on the Toei Bus(26 Kameido-Ueno Park).
“Megurin” About a few min. walk
From “5-1.Tokyo Geijyutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts)”
The Touzai Megurin(East-West Route)
*Megurin: Taito city circlar route bus.
Admission
Free entry; no booking required
Organized by
Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media
Cooperation
University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.
City of Yokohama Sports, Culture and Dynamic City Development Bureau
Tokyo Geidai ArtDX Projects
Tokyo University of the Arts COI-NEXT
Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media
Takashi Kiriyama   Mitsuko Okamoto   Yuichi Matsumoto   
Asako Eguchi   Nahomi Maki   Ryoya Usuha
Noriko Yoshino   Isamu Kubota   Yoriko Nishikawa
Partner Event
Tokyo Geidai ArtDX EXPO #01
Library (Learning Commons), Arts & Science LAB. (1F Gallery, 4F Hall)
https://artdx.geidai.ac.jp/exhibition/01/
Credits
Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media
Takashi Kiriyama   Mitsuko Okamoto   Nahomi Maki   Asako Eguchi   Ryoya Usuha   Noriko Yoshino   Isamu Kubota   Yoriko Nishikawa
Tokyo University of the Arts International Initiatives Planning Sectio
Yuri Hagiwara
SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.
Takashi Tokita
University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
Danny Bilson   Andreas Kratky   Peter Brinson
Site Supervisor
Yuichi Matsumoto
Key Visual
Chanya Sriuranpong (Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media)

GEIDAI×USC

Tokyo Geidai Graduate School of Film and New Media University of Southern California

In 2023, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology selected our proposal of “STEAM-Driven Japan-U.S. Joint Program for Innovative Visual Media Creators” for the Inter-University Exchange Project with U.S. universities.


First selected in 2018 for the preceding national project, Tokyo Geidai Graduate School of Film and New Media and the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts have since been jointly exploring methods to improve games and media education for both faculty and students. The new round will welcome the addition of USC School of Engineering to augment technological innovation and to pursue a well-rounded STEAM education in the visual media arts.


To launch the new round of partnership, in 2023, the schools organized a one-day game jam that began with a meeting of the students in Los Angeles. The project will continue in Tokyo in March 2024 during the Tokyo Geidai exhibition period.

Messages from USC

  • Danny Bilson/ダニー・ビルソン
    Danny Bilson ダニー・ビルソン
    Director of USC Games
    Chair, Interactive Media & Games Division
    USC School of Cinematic Arts

    We are honored to continue our valuable partnership with the Tokyo University of the Arts. Our USC Games students are thrilled to show their collaborative efforts this spring in Tokyo.

  • Andreas Kratky/アンドレアス・クラッキー
    Andreas Kratky アンドレアス・クラッキー
    Distinguished Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts
    Media Arts + Practice Division, Interactive Media & Games Division
    University of Southern California

    Tokyo Geidai and USC have been working together to develop a new paradigm of game design education for several years now. This year - and this exhibition – mark an important step in this process: We are looking at a five-year extension of our collaboration. After a cycle of five years that just ended last year, during which we had to deal with the restrictions of a global pandemic and remote collaboration, we are excited to be able to continue the work. The fact that this extension is possible is, of course, testament to the remarkable spirit of innovation and creativity of our dear colleagues from Tokyo Geidai, who put together the grant proposal, and the future-oriented thinking of the Japanese Government that decided to fund this new cycle. But even more importantly, it is also testament to the unique quality of this collaboration, which aptly demonstrates that working across different cultures, different creative mindsets, and different academic paradigms yields exceptional results that would not have come from either of our institutions alone. It is this collaborative spirit and the willingness to create together that makes me hopeful and enthusiastic that we can jointly face the tremendous challenges we are facing around the globe.

  • Peter Brinson/ピーター・ブリンソン
    Peter Brinson ピーター・ブリンソン
    Distinguished Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts
    Interactive Media & Games Division
    USC School of Cinematic Arts

    A handful of decades into the information age, we all find ourselves perpetually bouncing around the three points holding together the grand computational triangle - social media, A.I., and games. The former two operate as black boxes – cultural technologies that bank on the assumption that we need not analyze them or seek to understand how they operate on us. Social media and A.I. encourage us to play along assuming someone somewhere is manipulating us for the right reasons, with a fair intent.


    But games promise the opposite compact. If the player does not understand a game, the game does work, it does not advance, it does not exist. The player must seek and discover the logic within, the relationships among the pieces and people, and the unfolding path that emerges uniquely for every individual. Games can only promise transparency and fairness.


    The playable artworks in this year's show celebrate that contract between the game and the player. This alliance is not something games simply encourage, but it is the point of them. These game artists have created expressive playgrounds for us to explore, and we are better for it knowing they trust us to find our own path within.

GEIDAI × Industry

  • Industry Involvement in Academia

    Up until the end of the academic year 2019, one mentor from the Square Enix Group was assigned to each student. A new practice was implemented in 2020 where one mentor, Producer Takashi Tokita from Square Enix, gives guidance to all of the students and their projects comprehensively. Also aTokyo Geidai Visiting Professor, Tokita continues to provide advice that is on the mark and eye-opening.

  • 時田貴司/Takashi Tokita
    時田貴司 Takashi Tokita
    Producer, SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. Visiting Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts
    Tokita began creating games in 1984 as a part-time job while pursuing theater. He has participated in games production as a designer, planner, director, and most recently, as producer. His main projects include FINAL FANTASY IV, LIVE A LIVE, Chrono Trigger, the Hanjuku Hero series, and Nanashi no Game.

    Invitation to Tokyo Geidai Games Tasting

    Today, what we call games encompass a baffling variety.
    When it comes to creating games, there are countless branching points at which you must make decisions: the kind of a game to make and how, the underlying theme, the methods of expression, the technologies to use, etc.
    No one will argue that games are considered to be the latest form of entertainment, but I define game design as cooking.
    Take curry and ramen for example. The inexhaustible ways we customize them and how much pleasure they give us by appealing directly to our primitive instincts can only be described as cuisine entertainment.
    When you have a theme you want to express, you need to think about the ingredients to use and how to prepare them. Then, how will you serve it and to whom? How do you want it to taste for them?
    This exhibition is a great opportunity to have guests taste the dishes made by you, the chefs and patissiers.
    We ask the guests to savor these games and give the creators your honest feedback.

  Download exhibition catalog PDF
  Download exhibition catalog PDF