Hackathon: Collaborate on Making Games from Sound

2024.07.13(Sat)–15(Mon)

Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]

Date & Time: Dates: July 13 (Sat) 1:00 pm – 9:00 pm, July 14 (Sun) 9:00am – 9:00 pm, July 15 (Mon) 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, 2024
Venue: Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]
Target: Ages: Any
Capacity: Around 20 ※Reservation required, First-come,

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.

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。

ヘッドホンを着けた三人の人が、デバイスが取り付けられた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。

Outline

Dates: July 13 (Sat) 1:00 pm – 9:00 pm, July 14 (Sun) 9:00am – 9:00 pm, July 15 (Mon) 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, 2024
Venue: Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]

Lecturers / Facilitators

– Inukai Hiroshi (e-Sports Producer, Game Director, Sports-play Expert)
– Ishida Hayato
– Egashira Misato (e-Sports Player)
– Omachi Yoshiki
– Kakehi Yasuaki (Researcher, Artist / Professor at The University of Tokyo)
– Kato Hideyuki (systems engineer, musician)
– Shirai Takaaki (violinist / Director, Invisible Gaming Lab game accessibility research team)
– suzueri (Suzuki Elico) (sound artist)
– Tanaka Miyuki (Curator, Producer)
– Tsuji Katsutoshi (accessibility consultant / SmartHR Inc.)
– Nagashima Chihiro (Engieer, Researcher)
– Nozawa Yukio (Programmer)
– Mashiro (graduate student, Rikkyo University)
– Matsuura Tomoya (SoundMaker)
– Miura Daiki (Engineer)

Applications

Participant Numbers: Around 20 ※Reservation required, First-come,
Ages: Any
Please refer to the Japanese web site for applications.

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

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

Inukai Hiroshi

e-Sports Producer, Game Director, Sports-play Expert

Inukai Hiroshi studied under film director Yamamoto Masashi, and launched his career initially as a film director and Tekken player. He later worked as a developer for fighting games. A pioneer of esports in Japan, he has represented his country at the World Cyber Games, Cyberathlete Professional League, and Electronic Sports World Convention. Inukai’s accolades include awards at the Japan Media Arts Festival and Ars Electronica for such projects as the spatial information science–themed “Songs of ANAGURA: Missing Researchers and Their Remaining Devices” (2011) and “Sports Time Machine” (2013). He is one of the driving forces behind the sport co-creation event Future Tokyo Sports Day. His research on games and different forms of play has led Inukai to dub activities that transcend the conventional boundaries of art and sports as “sports-play.” He is a board director of the Undokai Association.

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.

Kato Hideyuki

systems engineer, musician

Born in 1975 in Tokyo, Kato Hideyuki has congenital blindness. Based in Tokyo, he is a systems engineer as well as an electric guitarist, composer, member of the band celcle, and a special adjunct instructor at an international school. He has appeared in the films Inner Vision (2013) and Night Cruising (2019). His hobbies include cooking, making things, and doing headache-achingly detailed stuff with his hands like plastic modeling.

Shirai Takaaki

violinist / Director, Invisible Gaming Lab game accessibility research team

Shirai Takaaki (violinist / Director, Invisible Gaming Lab game accessibility research team) Born in 1984 in Aichi, Shirai Takaaki came first at the All-Japan Blind Student Music Contest (today, the Helen Keller Memorial Music Contest) in 1995 and 1997. After studying music at the University of Tsukuba Special Needs Education School for the Visually Impaired, he graduated with a degree in violin studies from Toho Gakuen School of Music in 2008. That same year, he released his album Great Moment . In 2019, he released another album, Nostalgia for Sky and Earth , and expanded his range to singing vocals. Along with performing around Japan, Shirai gives lectures at schools, performs music for stage productions, and makes music for anime and games. When a student, he competed in a track and field world championship. In addition to his work as a musician, Shirai is a radio presenter, go (Chinese chess) player, and more.

https://www.shiraitakaaki.com/

Photo by Benedict Phillips

suzueri (Suzuki Elico)

sound artist

The Tokyo-based suzueri exhibits and performs devices and musical instruments she makes herself. Interested in interaction with tools and musical instruments as well as physical discrepancies and the relationship between telecommunications and improvisation, she explores the poetry and narratives that evokes. She is active in Japan and abroad as a sound and improvised performance artist. Her recent output includes appearances at Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (2022, Switzerland), Tokyo Biennale (2023), and Moers Festival (2024, Germany). In 2019, suzueri stayed in Valparíso, Chile, on a grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists, and the work she made during her residency was a Jury Selection in the Art Division of the Japan Media Arts Festival. In 2023, she completed a fellowship in New York funded by the Asian Cultural Council, creating and exhibiting work at Harvestworks.

http://suzueri.org

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).

Tsuji Katsutoshi

accessibility consultant / SmartHR Inc.

Tsuji Katsutoshi is a Tokyo-based accessibility consultant with over twenty years of experience. He also translates foreign audio games and is involved in improving accessibility for entertainment, such as by writing articles about esports for visually impaired players. Tsuji holds a position at SmartHR, serves as head of the Japanese-language team for the screen reader NonVisual Desktop Access, and teaches part-time at Tsukuba University of Technology.

Nagashima Chihiro

Engieer, Researcher

Nagashima Chihiro graduated from the Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment of Tokyo University of the Arts in 2018 and completed her master’s degree in 2020. She created and exhibited binaural audio artworks using open-air headphones in outdoor settings. Her focus was on blurring the lines between real ambient sounds and produced sound played by the headphones, exploring how this affected listeners’ perceptions of the space around them. In 2020, she joined Sony Group Corporation and was involved in research and development of music production technologies using machine learning and 3D audio technologies.

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/

Mashiro

graduate student, Rikkyo University

graduate student, Rikkyo University Born in 1998 in Osaka, congenitally blind Mashiro researches the communication abilities of bilingual students at graduate school. He also works as a blind esports player and does international public relations and interpretation for ePARA, which advocates for barrier-free esports. Originally interested in board games like Othello and chess, he switched to digital games a few years ago. He currently plays fighting games and strategy card games. Mashiro is also active as a workshop facilitator in theater and art, and searches for ways for anyone to enjoy entertainment.

Matsuura Tomoya

sound-maker

Born in 1994, Matsuura Tomoya researches which he calls “music civil engineering”: practice-based activities that engage in critical design of media infrastructure technologies related to sound. In addition to performing with Exidiophone, a self-made electronic musical instrument that produces sounds just from acoustic feedback, and designing and developing the music programming language mimum, his recent activities involve DIY semiconductors. Matsuura’s publications include contributions to Critical Words for Popular Music (2022, Film Art). He completed a doctorate at Kyushu University’s Graduate School of Design in 2022, since when he has served as an assistant professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts Art Media Center.

https://matsuuratomoya.com/

Miura Daiki

Engineer

While studying at the National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, Miura Daiki came across the Iwate Superhuman Sports Project, leading him to realize the inherent appeals of sports creation and the process of making something with others. He has since served as a facilitator for the project. At Future Tokyo Sports Day, Miura was impressed by the engineers who could instantly implement the requests of the developlayers, and founded omororg, which aspires to create collaboratively while also making prototypes of the projects where it hopes to attract partners. He engages in developlay on a daily basis with the aim through omororg of combining the omoroi (interesting) and an organization/organism. His seniors live in Yamaguchi.

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)

Hackathon: Collaborate on Making Games from Sound

Outline

Lecturers / Facilitators

Applications

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