Here's a summary of the audience reaction I saw during the Nico Live stream of BitSummit Day 2. Speaking of personal reaction, I feel that Day 1 saw larger entities in the industry struggling to descend to the indie level, but Day 2 felt much more like an event for indies and expressed itself well.
Professor (Kentaro) Sakamoto - The show opened up with an incredible performance by Professor Sakamoto. He really got the crowd excited for the show with classic NES/Famicom medleys and ended with two impressive original songs. I...I really want a CD now...
Unreal Engine - People were very impressed with what it could do, but thought its capabilities were far out of the reach of indie developers...that is until the presenter started to speak of its ease of use. That got people's attention until it came to the question of price: (^.^;) eheh...no comment?
Epic Games/Sony - Sony skipped the Executives talking business-speak today and had a few people come out to play Octodad. The Japanese audience was really amused by this game and happily discussed the logistics of a family with a octopus father. A few people were confused by the horrible controls but most got the point.
Unity - It seemed like Unity's presentation was a bit more effective today. Perhaps there was a bit too much focus on high-end functionality yesterday, but today was more accessible? At any rate, people were really impressed with Ball-point Universe. Every time this game appeared on screen, several audience members were asking where to buy it.
Digital Reality - Theo Riker spoke realistically about how sales of Sine Mora did not live up to the game's $900,000 development budget and the audience appreciated a look into the dangers of indie development. The presentation sparked heated debate amongst both Japanese and English viewers as some felt STGs were too niche for the overseas market and others felt that indie games should simply budget within their niche.
KimuraxZUNxNaramura - After an initial wave of alcohol jokes, the audience became very silent for most of the presentation as they listened intently. The translator had a tough time keeping up, both Japanese and English-speaking viewers supported and encouraged them. There was concern over how well Touhou will be received worldwide amongst some neutral speculation about existing downloads and patches, but generally people want the series to perform well. I'll be buying the games! ^_^
Tsugi/Optpix/Matchlock - These were very good presentations of development tools: Tsugi's audio software, Optpix's Sprite Studio and Matchlock's Bishamon for VFX. the audience was very impressed with the functionality, felt they could utilize it well and each offered reasonable pricing or even special versions or licenses for indie developers. I believe each software has an English version as well, Optpix making a point to highlight this during their presentation. I'm going to check them out!
Masaya Matsuura - Matsuura closed the show with a great performance that was appreciated by all. It was very sentimental to see Parappa again. It was a great way to relax for all the people who had stuck through the entire presentation.
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