BitSummit 2024

A friend told me to keep an eye out for beaver-like creatures that roam the banks of the Kamo River.

I need little encouragement to seek out unfamiliar animals. I saw a large snake on one of my evening runs just last week, and was thoroughly delighted; my tanuki encounters earlier in the year will likely remain 2024 highlights. Anyway, as you might expect, I was well up for spotting this mystery river-dweller.

It was on the second night of drinks on the banks of the Kamogawa, a river which runs through central Kyoto, that I spotted one darting through the grass. Unbothered by the hundreds of revellers, many of whom were in town to attend annual indie game show BitSummit, it came within a metre or two of our group.

It must've been 2 a.m., and we were several drinks deep, so at first I wasn't sure whether I was seeing quite what I thought I was seeing. So I got closer and, sure enough, it was a big rat-looking, beaver-ish creature. I pointed it out to the group, but they weren't as into it as I was. I followed for a little while, struggling to focus on it through the darkness. It tolerated me for a moment, before scurrying off. A new friend on a night when I made many.

Turns out my new acquaintance has a name: Nutria. Much like my good self, it's an invasive species, and our chance meeting was one of many highlights during a wonderful weekend spent in Kyoto for BitSummit.

My attendance was a very last-minute decision - train tickets and hotel booked barely twelve hours before my arrival. I adored it last year, but bullet trains and hotels are a considerable expense for what is essentially just an opportunity to hang out with friends and play some games. Mind you, I don't regret it; my wallet may be lighter, but I'm better off for it. I caught up with old friends, made plenty of new ones, and had the opportunity to hang out with the creatives that drive the game industry and the biz folks who make it tick.

I arrived Friday afternoon and spent a few hours being a tourist. Friday is the industry day for BitSummit, and I didn't have a industry pass, so I went for a walk in the sweltering heat, bought souvenirs for the family, and popped into the spacious Nintendo Store. I tried my best not to look like a foreign tourist - there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a tourist, but us immigrants in Japan are a sensitive & complicated bunch - and was sure to use my best Japanese, never get lost, and say 暑いですね at every opportunity. Friday night, much like Saturday evening, was drinks by the river, and a chance for networking, catch-ups and good conversations with good people. No stay in Kyoto is complete without a trip to a temple, so I braved the heat on Sunday morning and visited Nanzen-ji.

I packed a lot into 48 hours, and very little of it was sleep.

I attended the show on both Saturday and Sunday. Pretty much everything "indie" was covered, from experimental games and student-led projects, to offerings from more established developers and publishers, with even PlayStation and hometown giant Nintendo present and providing a platform for their indie partners. There were also plenty of merchandise booths, if you were looking for further opportunities to ruin yourself financially.

I played a tonne of games, and could've happily played more. One of the best things about this event is that you often have the opportunity to not only play games, but also to chat with the devs. It can be a little stressful at times, sucking at someone's game as they watch, but for the most part it's a very positive and unique experience. Besides, I'm sure the devs learnt a lot from watching me fail their demos over and over again! 

I struggled to get too far into 1000 Deaths, but what I played was entertaining. It's a colourful, 3D platformer that had me racing through some mind-bending stages. I burrowed and smashed my way through dungeons in Yacht Club Games' Mina the Hollower, and was over the moon to have the opportunity to play CR-Smash VRS New Dimension and share my love of the Dreamcast original with the devs. While it took me a minute to grasp what I should be doing, I ended up enjoying keyboard-bashing my way through the Last Standing demo, I drove off a cliff in Old School Rally, stretched and laughed my way through bendy-sim Exhausted Man, and thoroughly enjoyed the absurd ChinanaGo! This upward climber puts you in control of an eel on a mission to eat as much aquatic life as possible so that it can eventually devour a whale. Obviously.

Telebbit is a fast-paced platformer built around teleportation mechanics, and it also features a banging soundtrack. I was drawn to Masala Drive by its vibrant use of colour and simple premise - drive your bus, pick up passengers and avoid obstacles - and I appreciated the mental workout provided by arithmetic-puzzler Electrological. Flightpath succeeded in convincing me that I'm actually good at top-down shoot-em-ups, which is no mean feat, and Carsh was one of the most intriguing games I played all weekend. It's a driving battle royale that has you solving puzzles as you drive. In my brief time with it, I couldn't quite decide whether the multitasking enhanced the experience or if the increased demands lessened it. Still, interesting.

Swery and Suda-51's 2.5D slasher, Hotel Barcelona, is extremely stylish, as expected. It was also one of the bloodier games I played all weekend. Cassette Boy took home one of the most prestigious in-show awards, and I could see why. It's a charming puzzle adventure that has you manipulating the camera to open up new paths and proceed through dungeons. Flock is a very calming game about discovering, identifying and shepherding bizarre looking animals, and it's already out on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox. Next, I played Post Trauma, a horror game that couldn't have possibly been any less like Flock! The protagonist looks like he's about to keel over at any moment, and I don't blame him, given the horrific nightmare he's awoken to. And finally, with my departure time looming, I had a go at Inertial Drift, a pretty-looking twin-stick drift racer that has apparently been out for ages! Fun though.

Seventeen demos in total, and that doesn't include the countless games I watched over player's shoulders or discussed with devs. If I'd had more time, and more energy, I'd have played even more and this blog would've been several hundred words longer.

I would've also missed my train home.

Kyoto was wonderful. I played, I sweat, I ate, had a drink or two, socialised, went sightseeing, and even met some local wildlife. All in all, a great weekend. See you next year!