【UniteTokyo2018シリーズ③】有楽町で逢いましょう 🐕

*English translation below

初めまして、エンジニアのK（from香港）でございます。10数年前『有楽町で逢いましょう』❤というDVDを見て以来、今回東京国際フォーラムにてUnite 2018に初参戦できました（♪イベントが違うけど♪）。

２日間フル・デイの講演の中、10数題の講演を聞かせて頂きました。疲れましたーー。２日間の日本語聴解試験…大変ですよーー（その中英語も含みましたが）。全ての講演の中、一番印象に残ったのは「ゲームの中の質感」という講演でした（その際、自分がエンジニアの偽りの躰を破って、ゲームデザイナーに変身しました）。

ゲーム歴の長い自分にとっては、昔々ある所に、グラフィックが全くない、単色の文字しか表示できない世界にも、すごく楽しいゲームがありました。ゲームにとっては、一番大事なのは見える現象ではなく、見えるものを通して、見えない質を感じられることです。画像の表面的なTextureではなく、画像（もしくは文字だけでも良い）を通して裏側の雰囲気のTextureです。小説を読む時、文字だけを通じても見えない雰囲気や当時の風景を感じられるのは高品質の物です。それは質感というものでございます。

後半部は、GUNTAI（「軍隊」？違うよ〜「群体」でございます！軍隊は群体のサブセットですけど..）：単一の個体ではなく、群れについて質感の表現を受講頂きました。単一の場合と群体の場合、個体ごとのリアクションが違うのが面白い心理学の研究課題です。人間だけでなく、動物も群体行動時「分離、整列と結合」(BOIDS)という特性があります。有名な「羊群効応 (Herd behavior)」は羊群れの挙動を通して説明するのでこう呼ばれます（日本だと、「赤信号みんなで渡れば怖くない」みたいかな）。
あと、講演者が製作中のゲームを通じで説明してくれました。すぐ有名な似てるゲーム「Lemmings」を思い出した。しかも、会場にてすぐ実感できました：講演が終わる時に数多くの皆んなが１台しかないエスカレーターに向かって、ゲーム内のと同じ風景が見えました。

P.S. 1 ここで使う画像は全部この講演後、会場で質感を感じて撮った画像でございます。
P.S. 2 美味しいフランスドッグを頂き、嬉しいです。チェダーチーズの質感（食感？）が一番オススメです。

（K）

【UniteTokyo 2018 Series 3】Let’s Meet in Yurakucho!（Yūrakuchō de Aimashō）

Hello, I’m K from Hong Kong and I work here as an engineer.
About 10 years ago I saw a movie on dvd called “Yūrakuchō de Aimashō,” or “Let’s Meet in Yurakucho.” Since then, I’ve come to Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho to take part in Unite 2018 (which is a bit of a different event).

This event featured two full days of lectures, and among those, I was able to check out 10 different talks. It was definitely exhausting. The entire two days tested my Japanese listening skills the whole time. So, it was especially difficult for me (although there was some English included as well). Out of all the lectures the one that impressed me the most was called “Texture in Games” (during the lecture I switched out from being an engineer, and right into the shoes of a game designer).

I have a long history with games, and back in the day it wasn’t all about graphics, since you could have an amazing time playing a game even if the game’s world was displayed with nothing but monochrome text. The most important thing about games comes through via things you can feel without the visuals alone. This doesn’t refer to surface Texture in images, but rather the sense of Texture that works in the background behind the image (or just the text). For example, when you read a novel, you can get a vivid sense of the book’s time and place as well as its overall atmosphere, which doesn’t come from just the visual text alone. This is the type of texture that was talked about.

The second half of the lecture was about textual representation with groups rather than on an individual level. This was called GUNTAI, which sounds like the Japanese word for “army unit” but in this case it’s most definitely referring to another Japanese word that means “colony” or other such groupings (but, you could say that an army unit is a subset of a colony-type grouping).
There are some interesting research projects that investigate the psychology behind how groups react as opposed to just single individuals. This isn’t just limited to humans, either. Animals also have a characteristic called BOIDS, which refers to the combination of separation and alignment that animals engage in during group behavior. This is explained by the famous term Herd behavior (it’s kind of like in Japan when you hear the phrase about how “if one person crosses the red light, then everyone feels safe to do the same”).

After that, the lecturer gave an explanation by using a game they were working on. Right away it reminded me of that famous game called Lemmings. To add to that, I was able to get a real firsthand experience with the topic at hand at the venue when everyone went as a huge crowd for one single elevator all at once after the lecture was over. It was exactly like what you see in the game.

P.S. 1 This picture here that I took shows you the “texture” of that whole scene I was talking about at the venue after the lecture ended.
P.S. 2 This is a delicious France Dog that I happily enjoyed. The texture of the cheddar cheese makes it my number one choice.

（K）