Indie Game Project

Shin IMAI

He has been covering the Japanese indie game scene since the 2010s, and joined Digica in 2015 as Publishing Manager. At Sankei Digital, he is also in charge of promotion planning for AAA titles, hardware brands and various indie games. He also serves as an award jury at various gaming events.

Masafumi ONUKI

Active in the doujin game scene since around 2010, he worked as a programmer for a game company before going independent in 2016.
In SOWN, he received the Audience Award in 2017 for "Ace of Seafood" and the Best Presentation Award in 2020 for "Fight Crab". He continues to develop new indie games.

Yuki KATAYAMA

Joined Kodansha Ltd. in 2018. Currently belong to the Creators' Lab.
After working as an editor for "FRIDAY" and "Monthly Shonen Magazine", he became the Chief of the Game Creator's Lab (GCL).
He checks on the production status of indie games supported by the GCL and manages the progress of the sales schedule.

Hidehiko KIMURA

Director of gamebiz, Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of gamebiz. After working for a securities media reporter and a game development company, he founded the web media "gamebiz" in 2010. He has been providing business information related to the entertainment industry, with a focus on the game industry.

Kazunori KOMAGATA

In April 2021, KOMAGATA started his activities with AURYN Corp. Currently, he is developing the Vtuber business and planning and selling his favorite games, merchandising in collaboration with Vtuber, and PC peripherals. His favorite game genre is action games, and he especially likes dodd pictures and 2D exploratory games.

Jh Shin

Shin is a postdoctoral researcher at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2020 at the same institution. She specializes in serious games and serious gaming approaches from a socio-cultural perspective, focusing on Japan and South Korea. Shin published "Questioning the Social Acceptance of Serious Games" (Fukumura Shuppan) in February 2024. Her work explores how games can make our world a better place. Shin also participates in projects at the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies (RCGS).

Takeshi TAKAHASHI

TAKAHASHI has joined Koei Co., Ltd. in 1998. Engaged in "Shin Sangoku Musou 1-4". In 2008, transferred to Creatures Co., Ltd. and worked as a director of "Pokepark". In 2013, we acquired Oculus Rift DK1 with a kick starter and started the VR software development and VR software presentation OcuFes (now Japan VR Fest). In 2014, became independent as a VR specialist. In the same year, OcuFes became an NPO corporation. Since then, he has been actively working for the spread of VR in Japan and VR developers in the world.

Koji MURAKAMI

Koji Murakami first encountered indie games at the age of 39, when he was an architect, and began creating games in earnest. So far, he has created games such as "Dark Blood" and "Keribato!" and other games with beautiful dot-picture designs that are conscious of the good old days of the 90s. In 2022, he will launch the Fukuoka Indie Game Association to support indie game creators through game events and study groups.
In 2020, he will establish Asobuild.LLC. With the philosophy of "creating a fun world through play," he develops games and operates Metaverse. His hobbies are bonfires and cooking.

Juan Gril

For the past 25 years, Juan Gril has worked in Games, Interactive Media, and Augmented Reality. Juan has served different roles: programmer, game designer, producer. He founded his own game studio (Joju Games), and ran it successfully for 12 years.
Over the course of Juan's career, he has been part of teams that launched various AR applications, websites, and he has produced and designed more than 50 games. Among others, he has designed games for the following companies: Dreamworks, Disney, Jam City, Nickelodeon, Universal, 505 Games, Atari, GSN, MTV, and Comedy Central.

Ramon Nafria

In 1992, Ramon realized at the age of 12 when he started playing videogames that it was the best medium to express himself. Since 1999, he has contributed to Spanish media such as Onez, Ociojoven, Anaitgames, Eurogamer, Videoshock and Vandal and produced games since 2003 in companies like Nerlaska, Gameloft, Digital Legends, Abylight, U Play, Blit Software and A Crowd of Monsters. He has been giving lectures about games at multiple universities, organizes Valencia Indie Summit, and the last game he has worked in is Alex Kidd in Miracle World Dx, the remake of the classical game from SEGA.

Takeshi TAKAHASHI

TAKAHASHI has joined Koei Co., Ltd. in 1998. Engaged in "Shin Sangoku Musou 1-4". In 2008, transferred to Creatures Co., Ltd. and worked as a director of "Pokepark". In 2013, we acquired Oculus Rift DK1 with a kick starter and started the VR software development and VR software presentation OcuFes (now Japan VR Fest). In 2014, became independent as a VR specialist. In the same year, OcuFes became an NPO corporation. Since then, he has been actively working for the spread of VR in Japan and VR developers in the world.

Kazunori KOMAGATA

In April 2021, KOMAGATA started his activities with AURYN Corp. Currently, he is developing the Vtuber business and planning and selling his favorite games, merchandising in collaboration with Vtuber, and PC peripherals. His favorite game genre is action games, and he especially likes dodd pictures and 2D exploratory games.

Shuhei YOSHIDA

Yoshida joined Sony Corporation in 1986, and joined the current SIE in February 1993.Since then, he has produced a number of software titles for the "PlayStation" platform, and in 2008 he was appointed President of SIE Worldwide Studios, the game production division of SIE.Yoshida has overseen development of franchises such as "God of War" and the "Uncharted" series. He was also involved in the development of the virtual reality system PlayStation®VR, which was launched in October 2016.
In Nov. 2019, Yoshida became the Head of Indies Initiative to promote indie games.

Yuki KATAYAMA

Joined Kodansha Ltd. in 2018. Currently belong to the Creators' Lab.
After working as an editor for "FRIDAY" and "Monthly Shonen Magazine", he became the Chief of the Game Creator's Lab (GCL).
He checks on the production status of indie games supported by the GCL and manages the progress of the sales schedule.

Jh Shin

Shin is a postdoctoral researcher at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2020 at the same institution. She specializes in serious games and serious gaming approaches from a socio-cultural perspective, focusing on Japan and South Korea. Shin published "Questioning the Social Acceptance of Serious Games" (Fukumura Shuppan) in February 2024. Her work explores how games can make our world a better place. Shin also participates in projects at the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies (RCGS).

Masasi ONUKI

Active in the doujin game scene since around 2010, he worked as a programmer for a game company before going independent in 2016.
In SOWN, he received the Audience Award in 2017 for "Ace of Seafood" and the Best Presentation Award in 2020 for "Fight Crab". He continues to develop new indie games.

Pocky

Pocky bought his first personal computer with his New Year's gift that he had been saving since he was in the second grade, and began posting live video games on YouTube.
He has been running his current YouTube channel since 2013, posting numerous gameplay videos focusing on horror games and indie games from overseas.
His YouTube channel has more than 3.5 million subscribers, and the total number of video hits has exceeded 3.8 billion.