![]() This comment wasn't just modesty it rapidly became apparent to me that Kimura is extremely humble - maybe too humble for the independent life, which requires a great deal of self-promotion and can be absolutely bollocksed by self-doubt. "How can I be this great? But it's okay," he added. But I also felt that my ability would never be as high level as other indie game designers. What a wonderful scene! I want to be here again, as an indie game designer. ![]() "When I went in to GDC 2012 in San Francisco, it moved me very much. "I dream about it sometimes," Kimura said, when I asked him if he'd like to see his own games at the IGF or featured on stage at E3. The premiere indie development festival, BitSummit, is only three years old, and the big mainstream events still don't give indies the kind of celebratory prominence they enjoy at western shows like E3 and GDC. Until quite recently, it's been much tougher in Japan. What is interesting? What is funny? Entertaining people is so important." “I want to go back to the US again, because it gave me a good feeling. It's not easy, by any means, but this many years into the indie revolution (or whatever), there's visibility, celebration and support networks for those who choose to take advantage of them. There are many channels in the US and UK whereby independent developers can network help each other bring their work to the attention of the public, the press and publishers and generally establish themselves. I wanted to talk to Kimura because I like his games (he was project lead on Little King's Story, but also worked on cult favourites Chulip and L.O.L: Lack of Love, among others) I like his sense of humour and I like the fact that he talks openly and honestly about the growing but painfully under-appreciated indie scene in Japan. I've been meaning to write this interview up for some time, but something always comes up. This chat with Kimura was my one selfish little window of indulgence in an otherwise responsibly packed event schedule, and I really, really needed it. We both think an onion tweeting is hysterically funny and a good use of our professional time. I read that," he said, seeming genuinely delighted. "You? You did! You wrote the article about Twitter! Thank you very much. "I wrote a little article about your Twitter feed," I said, planning to lead into my first question, but Kimura interrupted. I handed Yoshiro Kimura one of my business cards and we shouted at each other a bit. It's very difficult to hear anything on the floor at the Tokyo Game Show, even on the relatively quieter business days, and language barriers only make it worse. One man and his world of onions is helping lead the charge.
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