A few years ago I started blogging on the Japanese video game development industry, from the inside, so to speak. I mostly did it to excercise my brain, flex my writing muscle, for what it's worth, and didn't really think it'd lead to anything. Without any marketing or spreading the word myself the blog slowly gathered a core group of steady followers, keen to hear about the ins and outs of an industry which is often examined from the outside but hardly ever exposed from the inside.

Though I sometimes used it to vent steam, generally it was a sober look at the ins and outs of game development, especially for a foreigner like myself. It soon became clear it was turning into something of a guide for people who have similar ambitions to those I once had; to work in games in Japan. It has lead to some commissioned writing gigs for magazines, on-line and on paper, and has put me in touch with a great bunch of people, both interested onlookers and other industry insiders alike, some of whom I had to pleasure to meet in real life. Mostly it helped me keep my sanity and perspective; writing nasty, hatefull bile is no use to anyone and it often forced me to reevaluate my positions on certain subjects and figure out things are usually not as bad as we think. Though I've long stopped writing the blog, I am glad I did it back in the day, only good things have come of it.

Now I have had a chance to revisit the blog I figured why not turn it into a guidebook? Part of its appeal, apparently, was that there were a lot of people interested in working in Japanese games, yet still there is extremely little information about it. Even in the last couple of years we've seen a massive rise of foreign developers hired at Japanese studios, and I thought now is as good a time as any to take the information I've gathered over the years and turn it into a book.

Though writing has begun in earnest it's a massive task that will take quite some time and effort to complete. Aside from covering all the basics, I've decided to write a few new editorials, as well as select and edit a few pertinent posts from the old blog for inclusion. I've also approached a few fellow expatriates willing to give their insights in small interviews for the book, so as to give possibly opposing views on what is otherwise a very subjective experience. And we plan to have an extensive list of Japanese game companies to include. We really want it to be, as the working subtitle is suggesting, an "ultimate guide to working in video games in Japan".

For the print version we are currently thinking Lulu.com, self publishing it. We might approach a publisher or two, but we kind of like the idea of having the level of control self-publishing affords us. We'll also do an e-book version, though we haven't decided yet how. On the one hand if we make our own app using our own technology we can do a lot of cool stuff, like making the company database link up to Googlemaps and your contacts list, though depending on the time involved, we are also considering publishing the paperversion as a bare-bones e-book, via one of the many new services that are cropping up.

As a first attempt at a book it's not quite the Great Modern Novel I was hoping I'd be writing, but I figured there are more people interested in a guidebook to working in games in Japan than there would be in my tedious and verbose prose. Once it is finished and becomes available I'll be sure to boast about it all over our site, and will try to instigate a big push through relevant websites and magazines. Hopefully I can help hopefuls with the same dream I had to be as lucky as I was, to give something back to the industry I have so often complained about (I am British afterall). For now though I am just spweing words onto paper, through the medium of keyboard and screen, and interested parties are implored to have patience. I'll do my best to finish it sooner rather than later, but I never seem to be able to run out of things to write about.

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