ReRave in Japan (Test Location - Matsudo, Chiba)

Okay, since I had work today in the general area, I decided to stop by the only known arcade in Japan with the test location version of ReRave by Step Evolution LLC. The game has already appeared in arcades in the West but the expansion to Asia is relatively recent.

So anyways, the arcade that has it is called "Tokyo Gulliver" (東京ガリバー) and it is right by the East exit of Matsudo Station in Chiba (on the Joban line). Once you take the elevator down from the main concourse, you can see it on your right almost immediately

In the arcade, the games are broken up by floor, which is nothing that special, actually. The pachinko games are on the 3rd and 4th floors. Music games are normally in the basement according to this (there are some Project DIVA arcade machines there), but the Bemani and ReRave was on the 2nd floor for some reason.

So anyways, after sorting through the initial confusion of where the games even were, I found the ReRave game on the 2nd floor near the elevators (one of the sets of elevators). More precisely, my son was drawn to it.

The screen and sound system were both eye-catching and looked/sounded great, no doubt about that. In comparison, the volume on the other music games nearby (DDR, Beatmania IIDX, Beatmania The Final, GF/DM, etc.) were quiet.

While I was trying to sneak blatantly and obviously photograph the game, a few people did go up and read the instructions/play a game.

Note that the in-game instructions are all in English. For music and action games, this really isn't a problem though I suppose some in-game localization would have been a nice touch. There were a few cards stuck next to the machine in Japanese saying what to do, however.

Of course, whenever I tried to have a round, my son was either bashing on the screen or running around the arcade screaming and I had to forfeit my game to catch him, so this is the only result of mine I could get without any of that.

So there it is in a nutshell. After this last gratuitous photo, I will note the major points I observed as well as what the staff noted since the game arrived two days ago (Friday)

Observations from myself/staff/staff comments:

General:

• The game only just arrived on Friday (13th), 2012

Location

• The general reaction has been all right. A number of people have tried it but a notable issue is that Matsudo Station is pretty far from the central part of Tokyo and many of the more hardcore music gamers that would probably love to play this are a bit alienated with the machine so far out.  If the machine were closer to central Tokyo, say one of the Leisure Land arcades, St. Tropez in Ikebukuro, and of the Taito Stations or even any of the Round One arcades, it would probably draw more players, at least initially
• (Update) Granted, DJMax Technika had a pick of great locations for their localized release and it still ended up secluded to a small cult following.

Price/Settings

• 100 yen for two songs isn't bad (100 yen for three songs tends to be the standard for music games, though (Taiko no Tatsujin being a notable exception, though even then a number of them are set to 3 songs)

Signing In

• With the Konami games there is an eAmuse card the player can use as an ID card linked to an account that stores scores and rivals, personal progress, etc. and requires the player memorize a 4 digit number.  There is a longer (8 in many cases) game ID number associated with the eAmuse account for the player and a 16 character (20?) string used to identify the card...but in the end the player only has to worry about a 4 digit code of their choosing.
• With ReRave, it asks for a login ID and password. If you don't have one you can register one from the ReRave site, but it would have been nice to be able to do this from within the game somehow. Many arcades have internet connections anyways, though some of that is for proprietary networks like eAmuse.
• Not having to use a card is very nice, though the ID/Password strings could get quite long. Gamers are impatient in that way. Is there a way to shorten this whole process somehow?

Selection

• The banners are nice and clear, but is there anyway to sort the songs or display them other than a huge long single-line stream of cover art? It feels like it takes forever to sift through the song list
• (Update) I understand there are different sorting methods but I was talking more in terms of displaying more songs on the screen. Jubeat manages to fit 12 on a smaller screen. Maybe have an iOS-like pinch/expand gesture feature that lets the user zoom in/out to see more songs, with there being two, three, etc. columns when the covers get small enough.

Difficulty

• One of the big complaints from the staff (through beginner players) is that the game fails you out a bit too quickly, even on the easier settings. You do get to select another song, but it just seemed too harsh for the beginners. The hardcore players probably wouldn't care so much, but they are outnumbered by the casual gamers anyways, and it makes the game seem too intimidating to have it so readily fail out the player
• Players sometimes don't know you can play a 2nd song even if you fail the first and walk away at the "failed" results screen
• (Update) I understand the act of failing out the player as that is done in other games and has been so for a long time, but for beginners especially, maybe let the player at least finish his/her song? (Maybe only do that if the song is on basic difficulty?)
• The actual judgment timing-wise is fine if you are on beat. The position judgment looks fine too, though it is a bit hard to determine so early just how it sits with the players. Some think the positional accuracy may be slightly subjective based on how the players angle/position their finger to touch the screen.  There isn't any way for a player to have a custom alignment, is there?

Music (song/quality/taste)

• No problems with the music. It all sounds good but there are no noted favorites at this time; that would take a while to form a basis, anyways.  Nothing is really 'hated' at this point at least.

Visuals

• Not much to say, but the symbols, once they are understood, are easy to see and everything is crisp and clear for the most part. The higher difficulties get a bit muddy and confusing to read, though then again I suppose that is the point.
• Everything is very vibrant and colorful.

Overall

• The game is getting some decent game play despite the location and it is interesting to the players, though perhaps slightly intimidating to some for reasons listed above
• DJMax Technika was released in Tokyo a while ago but it never really took off. It had a cult following as an import game at World Game Circus but when there was a localized release it didn't really take off.
• I would definitely like to see more of these machines in arcades across Tokyo.  Maybe shuffle the "test location" arcade around once in a while? (I can speak with Odaiba Tokyo Leisure Land if you are interested. That is still a bit out of the way but it is in the middle of Palette Town near Odaiba and draws a lot of traffic)

Meme material

♪♪ Old MacDonald did some math, e^i - e^i = 0 ♪♪


I just made that up. I thought I should get it out before someone else takes it and memes it in my place.

AIJBot Poetry (2nd, and hopefully only, revision)

Okay, this is a very brief update but I edited and resubmitted the contents of the book to fix some very minor issues that really don't affect the book overall but they were tiny things that were pointed out to me after the fact (and over 500 copies were already sold)

The basics of what was changed:

* There were some double spaces after the period on the back cover
* The spelling of "Wonderous" on the back cover was changed to "Wondrous" based on feedback, even though I believe technically both are correct. (one is slightly antiquated)
* I shifted the margins so the left hand pages are more to the left and vice versa for the right hand pages (i.e. I moved them further from the inner crease). Nothing was cut off originally, but I think it looks nicer with the extra space
* As a result, I had to shift some image borders and margins to fit within the new page margins (though in theory I shouldn't have had to when everything on the page shifted)
* Adjusted a transparency issue in one part where the text overlaps an image (the monks on the starfield). It was fine before but I lightened it even more for a slightly better contrast
* "Pedantantly" isn't a word. "Pedantically" is. I regenerated that poem continuously until that same sentence came up with the proper adjective form just to confirm AIJBot could actually generate it. (The dictionary data used as part of the source data included common errors and theoretical conjugations based on multi-language dictionaries and general rules for translation and conversion of concepts and ideas)
* I fixed up the intro to add the proper subtitle "A Collection of Computer-Generated Poetry". The working title "I Doesn't Afraid of Anything" was the 1st section's subheader but it was falsely listed originally as the subtitle of the book and it cause a few issues over at Amazon with advertising and the product page.

The updated content has been submitted, reviewed, and is available on createspace currently. Amazon will be up to date in a few days at most if it isn't already.

So now that I am more or less happy with the final "final" version of it, I can get back to the sequel (unless I pursue this Children's book idea more closely, even if only as a sick joke that turns into a complete work somehow)

Oh hey, my book arrived, and by that I don't mean some random book I ordered, I mean the book I wrote.  It came out very nice in my humble opinion.  I noticed on the whole the outside margins (towards the end of the page) seemed larger than those near the spine, but nothing seems to be cut off and I don't have to overexert myself to open it far enough to see anything.  A minor point, but I should take this into account if there is an AIJBot Poetry 2 or something

The infamous Hub Tower

Sometimes I mention or get asked about the "Hub Tower" that I mention having from time to time (shared amongst friends) It is basically 2 pints of the in-house brew, which is surprisingly stout.

So you want to publish your own book

Self-Publishing is something that is cheap or free to do, and there are helpful resources out there.  As a bonus, it may look nice to potential employers to have a book credit on your resume. Also, it is quite fun and very self-rewarding to see the final product in your hands. I am aware of three different ones you can use, though there are probably more.  I have had experience with the first two of them directly. My book on the history of the DDR scene in Japan was published through Lulu and my AIJBot Poetry book (now on Amazon) was published through Createspace. Lulu CreateSpace Lightning Source

(published through CreateSpace) (published through Lulu)

General Notes on Online Publishing/Process


Lulu is probably the easiest place to get a book published, but there is no quality control.  They don't care what you set to print, they'll publish it, but do this at your own risk.  The default option is to only publish on lulu.com, which is fine, but if you opt to have it published on Amazon as well (which did require a small fee when I used them last), they may step in and hold up your publishing progress since they reserve the right to refuse poorly printed/illegible/bad/unprintable material.  However, the big advantage of this lack of proofing is that if you spot a mistake or need to overwrite your documents, make a new cover, update your book info. etc., you can do it immediately and the changes will take effect immediately.

One other disadvantage of Lulu is the distribution network.  The prices have come down in recent years from what I understand but they are still more expensive than say, Amazon.  If you are looking to make a profit, lulu is going to take a bit more off the top than other places.

With Createspace you have similar options, though they will not only put your book on Amazon but help with wider distribution nets (for a price: $39 US at this time).  That would help you expand to more worldwide distributors (including the different Amazons of the world) as well as actual bookstores.  You also get slightly more profit per sale if you opt for the extended distribution option since that puts you in their "Gold" club.

The process is well defined through Createspace; very similar to Lulu in fact, though there are some key differences that may hold up your progress (though probably for your own good in some cases).  The first thing to note is that everything you submit is subject to review by their system. They have taken issue with images (do you own the right to use them?), they will not allow you to say in the book that "Amazon" is the publisher (for whatever reason I forget now), and other small copyright points.  This means that after you submit files for review, there is a waiting period of up to a day or two before you can continue.  This peaks when you submit the book interior and are ready for the proof copy.  You *must* order a proof copy before Createspace will let you publish the final thing.  Once you order it, you can then choose to publish it at that point before you receive it, but it is strongly recommended you take a look in print form first since some things jump out at you on paper where they didn't on screen.  Also, once your book is "published", you will jump through many hoops if you want anything changed, because it affects not only your createspace page, but anything on Amazon.

I honestly don't know too much about Lightning Source except that they are a printing center first and foremost and they just happen to publish as well.  Also, they demand very specific types of PDFs for submission (I can't remember the specific format but it was one you had to tweak settings in some Adobe app to get).  It had to conform to that standard or you couldn't submit anything.

Important Points - Interior

Regardless of what you use to write your book, in the end you will be exporting to PDF.

Also, remember that the first page of your book is actually the right side page facing you, the second being the back of that page, and so forth (go open a book and take a look if you don't know what I mean).  This means your book must have an even number of pages.  Add a blank one somewhere if you need it.  Viewing your book and setting your pagination in something like Word can be confusing because Word lays out your book like this:

1  2
3  4
5  6
7  8

However, when your book is printed, the pages look like this:

    1
2  3
4  5
6  7
8

To check how it will really look, open your PDF in Acrobat, go to the View Menu, choose Page Display > Show Cover Page during Two-up and also select Page Display > Two-up Continuous.

Include all pages in a single PDF file, with the front cover at the beginning, and the back cover at the end. Ignore the book spine (that is done when creating the cover).

If at all possible, make the PDF text-based, not image-based. In other words, avoid creating your file from full-page scans or rasterized page images. (But the covers can be images.)

A page in the file must show only one page in the book, and the dimensions should equal the book’s trim size. In other words, don’t output the PDF as two-page spreads instead of individual pages. Don’t submit PDFs at 8.5 x 11 inches with a small centered text block. Don’t include bleed or slug areas.

Embed and subset all fonts.  You can do this at the export to PDF phase. In PrimoPDF (what I used), I set the option to "Prepress"

Non-vector images should be exactly 200 pixels per inch. The same goes for page scans, if you use them.

Images should be in RGB, grayscale, or monochrome. Do not use CMYK. Use an sRGB profile for RGB images, and Gamma 2.2 for grayscale ones, with profiles embedded. (If you don’t know what any of this means or don’t know how to do it, then never mind.)

When generating the PDF (not before) apply JPEG compression to color and grayscale images, but at the highest quality that allows the file size to be reasonable for uploading. Monochrome images should also be compressed.  The maximum file size should be no greater than 500MB.

Also, if at all possible, do all your graphic editing in a separate program and plug them into your book as-is. If you rotate something in Word/InDesign such as WordArt or some random clipart image, the exported PDF will sometimes have a grey border around it that does not *usually* come out when printing; only visible on screen, but there are random cases where the border is visible, and this only happens for rotated graphics as far as I have seen.

Oh yes, do not add any type of security like a password.

Important Points - Cover

With Lulu and Createspace, they have their own Cover Creator app you can use.  The designs are pretty basic but there is quite a bit of variety.  Just upload your own pictures, edit the titles and description and you are good to go.  You can go on your own for this part and use a template file but really, it is *much* easier to use the Cover Creator unless you have something *very* specific you can't reproduce otherwise.

Important Points - Advertising/Publicity

With Lulu and Createspace, you are given your own page which you can customize, including customizable previews. On Amazon, however, you are at their mercy. They take whatever info. CreateSpace or Lulu fires at them and uses it as it. This may not be a problem, but if you want to change something, be prepared for a lot of red tape and obscure contact paths and waiting to get anything done. Also, Amazon has that "Look Inside" feature, which is nice, but once you click "Agree" to their conditions, they will pick some arbitrary section of the book to show, and you can't easily edit or even delete it. Be warned.

I also made a Facebook page for my AIJBot Poetry book but you could also use Google+ for that, too. You could also set up twitter or even a blogger account for it if you really wanted.

Important Points - Electronic Publishing


It is possible to publish through Amazon for the Kindle.  I do not know much about this phase but I am looking into it.  It is easy enough to convert a document with Calibre (if you have an eBook reader, get this *now* if you don't have it), but putting it on sale and formatting it so they will be happy is another story.  You can also DRM your work, but I'm against DRM in general, so I'm not the best person to ask about that.

Review of the Konami DDR Hand Controller

Konami's Playstation DDR Hand Controller (circa 2000)

Background

This was a home controller for use in your hand designed by Konami and sold in 2000.  Although DDR could be played on controller perfectly fine for 1P mode, it was a bit of a hassle to play SOLO (6-panel) or double (8-panel) since that required a combination of the L/R buttons and/or a second controller (though there are people quite comfortable with the 2-controller setup).

Button Layout

Okay, the button layout is obviously designed to mimic a DDR Stage for your fingers...well, kind of.  It puts two 6-panel (SOLO) stages side by side.  The button layout is as follows relative to a DualShock Controller:


Start/Select : As shown

1P Left : D-Pad Left
1P Down : D-Pad Down
1P Up : D-Pad Up
1P Right : D-Pad Right
1P Up-Left : L1
1P Up-Right : R1

2P Left : Square
2P Down : X
2P Up : Triangle
2P Right : Circle
2P Up-Left : L2
2P Up-Right : R2

This of course means that if you really wanted to, you could use this with other Playstation games, but the controller is a bit stiff and I can't think of too many games outside of maybe some RPGs where it might be nice to have them on the front of the controller.

Usability/Comfort

To start, it fits well in your hand, much like a regular DualShock controller.  However, it does feel weird for there to be no L/R buttons, have no analog sticks, and have a slightly wider top section (it makes the top panel area more of a rectangular shape)

Once you get over that hurdle though, the buttons are actually quite stiff, even after quite a bit of use.  I'm not sure if they were designed that way for more of a sense of stability but in any case, you really notice that you have to put more effort into charts that start to get fast at all.  Granted, it does soften up a bit after a *lot* of use.  I have considered taking it apart and lubricating the buttons on several occasions but since this controller is actually a bit difficult to find these days I didn't want to take the chance of messing it up and wrecking it or something.

Overall Impressions

For 4-panel play, I much prefer the regular DualShock.  However, for practicing double play this has been a great help to me since I don't feel comfortable with the two-controller setup and it seems more natural to me since the controller is set up like a dual stage.  It was also good for 6-panel play as well though I was getting used to using the L/R buttons before the SOLO/6-panel series was dropped altogether so this may be a moot point/not a selling point anymore.

If you are interested in playing double mode on controller or possibly 6-panel mode, this may be worth checking out for you, though for 4-panel play, the Dualshock works much nicer IMHO.

These controllers were not particularly expensive when they were new (2000~2500 yen) and they were under 1000 yen in the following years until they became rare.  If you can find one at a used game shop or in the back streets of Akihabara, you can probably still get it for anywhere between 1000~2000 yen but if you order online through Amazon or such, you could pay as high as 3500~4000 yen.