Home / Events / Creating with sound. Playing with sound. A game center that inspires imagination and creativity “Audio Game Center + CCBT”

Creating with sound. Playing with sound. A game center that inspires imagination and creativity “Audio Game Center + CCBT”

2024.07.13(Sat)–2024.09.16(Mon)
Civic Creative Base Tokyo
Dates
July 13 (Sat) – September 16 (Mon), 2024
Closed
Mondays (Open if Monday is a public holiday, in which case CCBT will be closed the following day)
Hours
1:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Venue
Civic Creative Base Tokyo
Admission
Free

A new kind of game center for experiencing space, speed, stories, and the body—only through sound!
Encounter the rich potential for sound to convey information and create things, and explore accessibility and inclusion.

Audio games are like video games but without visual components: they are created and played through sound. Far from being just video games with added accessibility via audible or tactile feedback, they are designed specifically for sound and developed without the use of sight. Audio games have been released online by designers and developers around the world, and played by many kinds of gamers. The games enable us to perceive space and sensation in whole new ways through sound, and also induce experiences where we rediscover the world that we hear every day.

Audio Game Center + CCBT opens in Civic Creative Base Tokyo as a laboratory for exploring how we can make and play with sound through creating, playing, and enjoying audio games. The game center offers opportunities not only for visitors to play a wide variety of audio games, but also participate in a hackathon event to develop new games, and experience what it is like to actually make an audio game. During the period that it is open, the game center hosts talks with special guests to share their insights into accessibility and inclusion in terms of audio game development.

Movement, spatial perception, and descriptions of situations, all guided by technology, sound-based expression, and human sensation. Experience a new world that emerges from sound, inspiring our imaginations and creativity through audio games.

Program direction: Tanaka Miyuki, Nozawa Yukio, Kakehi Yasuaki

Outline

Hackathon: Collaborate on Making Games from Sound

An audio game hackathon! Instructors provide commentary on audio games and the scene as well as case studies of accessibility in video games. In partnership with engineers and blind facilitators, participants try creating games while exploring ways of perceiving space and location through sound. The resulting mockups are then later brushed up and exhibited as part of the audio game archive.

Date & Time: July 13 (Sat) – July 15 (Mon), 2024 1:00 pm – 5:00 am
Lecturers / Facilitators: Inukai Hiroshi, Ishida Hayato, Egashira Misato, Omachi Yoshiki, Kakehi Yasuaki, Kato Hideyuki, Shirai Takaaki, suzueri (Suzuki Elico), Tanaka Miyuki, Tsuji Katsutoshi, Nagashima Chihiro, Nozawa Yukio, Mashiro, Matsuura Tomoya, Miura Daiki

ヘッドホンを着けた三人の人が、白状を使って床を探るような動作をしている。背景には「AUDIO GAME CENTER」のロゴとイベント情報が表示されたスクリーンがある。周囲にはスピーカーや折りたたみ椅子が置かれており、他の参加者も見える。
グループの参加者とファシリテーターがテーブルに並んで座り、それぞれのパソコンで作業している。ファシリテーターが指をパソコンの画面に向けており、参加者は真剣に画面を見ている。
黒い服を着たマスク姿の男性が、ヘッドホンを着けた男性にスマートフォンの操作方法を説明している。背景には音響機材やラップトップが置かれている。
ゲームの体験者の女性が中央に立っており、両手でハートのペンライトを持っている。みんな笑顔で楽しそうにしている。手前にはアニメのキャラクターのカットアウトが見える。
奥には「AUDIO GAME CENTER」のロゴが描かれた背景がある。

Audio Game Exhibits: The Fun of Playing Games through Sound

These exhibits feature audio games that can be played with others. The games are made through expertise in art, technology, and design as well as the ideas and sensations generated by the conditions of a disability. In addition to racing, horror, and action games, visitors can try an app that enables them to create audio games using their body.

室内の展示スペースで、ヘッドホンを着けた若者がレーシングシミュレーターの椅子に座ってハンドルを握っている。中央には青いパーティションがあり、右側には他の参加者がリズムゲームをプレイしている。背景の壁には説明パネルが多数掲示されている。
Photo: Maruo Ryuichi

Super Audio Racing! (Racing Game)
In this racing game, you drive a car by relying on a melody that tells you which direction to go. Turn the steering wheel depending on whether you hear the melody in the left or right headphone. You have to steer faster as the race speeds up if you want beat the other players! Sense the space from the sounds, imagine the speed you’re going, and then roar across the finish line.

レーシングシミュレーターの椅子に座ってハンドルを握り、集中してゲームをプレイしている3人の若者。背景には青いパーティションがある。
Photo: Maruo Ryuichi

Where the Ghost Dwells (Horror Game)
In this narrative-driven horror game, you’re guided by sounds and a female ghost. Why does this friendly ghost appear in front of you? Follow the various sounds you hear (created with stereophonic sound technology) to solve the mystery as you proceed through the different parts of the story.

暗い部屋の中でVRコントローラーを持っている女性の後ろ姿。彼女は白いシャツを着て、部屋の壁にわずかな光が当たっている。
Photo: Maruo Ryuichi

Screaming Strike neo (Rhythm and Action Game)
There’s just one rule: hit where you hear something! This audio game offers that universal feeling of release and satisfaction you get from hitting something. To play the zombie version of the game, listen to the sounds to tell which direction the enemies are coming from and knock down the ones coming at you. In the “flying tiles” version, punch and smash the boards and tiles you hear flying through the air.

オレンジ色の台に取り付けられた3つのドラムパッドを、カラフルなバチで叩いている人の手元の写真。
Photo: Maruo Ryuichi

Audio AR Game Maker (Audio Game Design App)
Audio AR Game Maker lets you create your own audio game using your phone or other device to insert various sounds in a physical space through augmented reality technology. The app is designed for both blind and sighted users. Brainstorm rules with your collaborators and then make your own game!

手に持ったスマートフォンの画面に、展示会のAR体験が映し出されている。背景にはヘッドホンをつけて壁の説明を読んでいる女性がいる。
Photo: Maruo Ryuichi

Audio Game Archive+: Play the World of Audio Games

Visitors here experience arcade, puzzle, and action games made mainly by blind developers using sound. Attune your senses of hearing and touch to anticipate a space through how sounds resonate, perceive the presence of people and objects, and play games with others.

黒い背景にカラフルなドットが並んだタッチスクリーンゲームをプレイしている人の手元。画面には「LEVEL 2」「SCORE: 21」と表示されている。
Photo: Maruo Ryuichi

Meetup: The Future of Sound Technology and Audio Games

The action game Blind Drive takes a sound-based driving game format that uses stereophonic sound, and adds visual aids for sighted players. This talk features the designer who developed the game and pioneered a whole new kind of audio games
Speakers: Tanaka Miyuki, Nozawa Yukio
Guest: Giori Politi (sound designer, game designer / Lo-Fi People)
Date: September 1 (Sun), 2024 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Registration: First-come, first-served basis
Accessibility and Support: English-Japanese Simultaneous Interpretation Available / Live-streaming Available

Access

Shibuya Tobu Hotel B2F (3-1 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)

Map

By Train

Shibuya Station: 7 minutes’ walk from B1 Exit ( Tokyu Toyoko Line, Denen-Toshi Line, Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line and Fukutoshin Line), or 8 minutes’ walk from Hachiko Exit ( JR Yamanote Line, Saikyo Line, Shonan Shinjuku Line, Keio Inokashira Line and Tokyo Metro Ginza Line)

By Bus

2 minutes’ walk from Shibuya Kuyakusho (Shibuya City Office) Bus Stop, or 3 minutes’ walk from Jin-Nan-Itchome (Jin-Nan1) Bus Stop by Keio Bus (to Shibuya Station): Juku 51 from Shinjuku Station West Exit, Shibu 63 and 64 from Nakano Station, Shibu 69 from Sasazuka Station and Shibu 68 from Eifukucho Station.

*Also accessible by Toei Bus.

Tanaka Miyuki

Curator, Producer

Tanaka Miyuki produces category-defying projects that explore how disabilities offer perspectives that redefine the world. She rethinks the way we perceive expression with audiences that include people with disabilities. Recent projects include Dance Work in Progress with Creative Audio Descriptions (2017–, Kanagawa Arts Theatre and other venues), the film Night Cruising (2019), and the exhibition Rules? (2021, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT). In 2022, Tanaka conducted research in New York as a visiting scholar at New York University’s Center for Disability Studies on a grant from the Asian Cultural Council. Her publications include Rules? Design for Living Creatively (2024, Film Art, co-authored) and Who Is Accessibility For? (2014, Little More).

笑顔の男性がカジュアルなシャツを着て、緑の植物を背景に立っている。シャツは白、ベージュ、グレーの3色のブロックデザインで、男性はリラックスした表情をしている。

Nozawa Yukio

Programmer

The creator of over fifty games that are played only with sound, Nozawa Yukio is a blind game developer with hundreds of fans in Japan and abroad. He graduated from the University of Tsukuba Special Needs Education School for the Visually Impaired High School, and then Keio University’s Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. He currently works as a programmer. Nozawa completely lost his sight at the age of three. From around the time he was at elementary school, Nozawa developed a strong interest in computers, began to teach himself programming, and started to make apps for users with visual disabilities. His portfolio of games to date is available on his website.

https://yncat.net/
白い背景の前で微笑んで立っている男性。男性はストライプの入った白いスタンドカラーのシャツを着ており、清潔感のある落ち着いた表情をしている。

Kakehi Yasuaki

Researcher, Artist / Professor at The University of Tokyo

Born in Kyoto in 1979. He is an interactive media researcher and artist. After experiences at Keio University and MIT, he has been engaged in research, creation, and education at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, since 2018. He holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Information Studies. He develops interactive media that combine physical materials and phenomena with digital technology, expanding experiences through objects, the body, and space. His work spans the fields of engineering, art, and design, with exhibitions at SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica Festival, YCAM, and ICC, among others. He has received numerous awards across various fields, including an Honorable Mention at the STARTS PRIZE 2022, the Excellence Award in the Art Division of the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival, the Best Paper Award at ACM CHI 2017, and the Young Scientist Award by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in 2014.

Production
Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]
Organizer
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] (Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)

Project cooperation: DDD Project (Disability Driven Design Project)