在去采访James Kay和Paul Caristino的路上，记者看到许多激进的右翼分子在东京涩谷车站集会，叫嚣着让外国人滚出日本。好笑的是，记者此行要采访的这二人，却恰好是在日本创业的西方游戏开发者，James Kay这名荷兰出生的英国小伙子甚至把东京当成了家。

游戏邦认为，如果要解决人口老龄化和低出生率这两个老大难的问题，日本不妨坦开胸怀接纳更多像Kay这样的西方人，日本可以通过输入西方企业家和员工，缓解劳动力资源不足的局面。

Kay和他的生意合伙人Caristino是游戏开发工作室Score Studios的创始人及成员，两人都曾在祖国和日本从事过游戏开发工作。Kay曾就职于Criterion和Marvelous公司，Caristino则曾经是EA和tri-Ace的成员。Score工作室的主要开发iPhone游戏，但也计划向PC、Xbox Live Arcade和PlayStation Network等平台延伸业务。

Score Studios's game-flock-it--screenshot

他们为何选择日本？

尽管日本在游戏界的竞争优势很明显，但Kay表示他看中的并非这一点，“……我并不是因为在日本有更好的发展前景才来这儿的，我住在日本纯粹是因为自己喜欢，我在日本工作也是这个原因。”

Kay在东京落脚并非偏爱日本的流行文化、电子游戏、漫画等元素，而是出于更实际的考虑，他认为每个地方都有积极和消极的一面，东京正好是一个积极的城市。

Caristino住在福岛县，呆在日本的原因与Kay很相似。他曾经在宫城县的乡下当英语老师，后来又回到了澳洲，但又发现自己极其渴望回到日本，然后就在东京的tri-Ace公司工作了10个月，在其中的R&D部门当程序员。

比起世界上的其他国际大城市，东京的外国人算是比较稀少了，所以外国人在东京还是很容易感觉到自己与周围人的差别。

虽然多数在日本合法居住的外国人多半是替人打工的职员，但也有不少极富冒险精神和魄力的外国人情愿在此自主创业。

用Kay的话来说，那是因为他们别无选择了，“我想在这里创业，我刚在日本落户，而且也想在这里永久地住下去。”

对Caristino而言，这件事情则纯属巧合，“James有一段时间经常在谈这件事，离开东京后我又发现自己特别想在异地工作，所以我们深入讨论了公司的定位和开发游戏的想法，就敲定了这件事。你也可以说整件事就是天时、地利、人和。”

尽管Score落户日本只是偶然，但Kay也曾提到在日本创业至少还有个好处，“只要你开了一家公司，就是在为当地福利事业做贡献，比如说招聘日本员工之类的。虽然没人会帮你组建公司，但至少你不会轻易破产，税务局会放宽你的缴税时间。”

繁琐的注册程序

拍脑袋做决定很容易，但要在合法程序中创办和运营企业，就真不是件容易的事了。据游戏邦了解，日本有许多领域的法律条文表述语焉不详，不同法律归不同的行政部门负责，常导致同样的条款出现多个版本的解释。

Kay表示日本虽然有法则，但这些法则更像是行动指南，“在法律范围内，你得给公司上保险，但我们反问如果不上保险会怎么样，他们却只是说‘你就是得上保险’，却并不告知违反这一规定的后果是什么。不过我们希望光明正大地经营公司，所以请了个会计来帮我们做这件事。”

还有一些关于法律的事务只能由专业律师来处理，Score也不例外，通过熟人请了个会讲英语的律师帮助解决这些问题。

日本经济行业有许多官僚主义，这是Kay首次碰到的难题，仅一次会面就需要签30多份的文书，而且这些文书内容对他们二人来讲都是天书，最后他们就干脆让律师代理解决，律师问什么他们就答什么。

他们表示，注册公司花了6万至8万日元（约合675至900美元），再加上请律师的费用，总共支付了不到20万日元（约合2250美元）。至此，Score Studios总算是进入了合法的灰色地带，在部分法律条款中属于合法企业，在另一些法律条文中却只能算是黑户。

Kay称自从他们提交了申请材料之后，就开始为公司注册四处奔波，他们花了60天去各个政府机关注册，直到几周后才最终获得了批准。

公司成立之后，业务运营就成了他们的下一个挑战。所幸日本的税法专家不乏其数，通过朋友推荐的会计师帮忙，他们就只要负责签字盖章，剩下的税务问题就统统交给会计师处理。

从这些琐事脱身之后，Kay和Caristino总算可以全身心投入到游戏开发工作中。他俩对日本游戏工作室的运营模式都颇有成见，据Caristino所称，“日本人好像都把工作看得比家还重要，所有人都是加班狂，但工作方式并不灵活，我总是在想造成这种现象的原因是大家缺乏交流，不光是各部门之间没有互动，就算是同个团队中的人也很少沟通。”

James Kay

正式开工

Kay对这种生活更是抓狂，他甚至专门开了一个博客，以JC Barnett的笔名在上面吐露心声，缓解他在日本游戏公司工作的压抑情绪。没想到Kay在那段时间的无心插柳，居然也引来了一批忠实粉丝的围观。不过Kay现在因为忙于工作，已经很久没有去耕耘他的博客了。

因为俩人都对日本游戏公司的管理方式产生了阴影，所以他们决定要以全新的方式运营Score，决不让自己重蹈覆辙。除了工作环境，日本游戏公司的编程和内容处理方式，也让他们不敢茍同，Kay表示那些公司居然还在使用落伍的硬编码，Score的运营原则之一就是多用工具做事，“我们不会找投资商，我们只想给自己打工”，不过他同时也承认，“这种想法可能很欠商业考虑，但投资者都希望快速收回成本，他们不会跟你耗上几个月的。”

Caristino则表示，他们俩都希望用自己创建的工具开发游戏。因为Score只是一个双人小团队，所以很容易实现艺术设计和应用开发的统一和协调，Caristino首先创建了一项工具让Kay使用，也就是说他一个人搞定了美术、2D动画效果、多语言和多平台、声音、原稿和其他数据的处理。他们推行的是一站式的游戏开发过程，这种工作方式解决了他们预想的许多问题，也克服了一些意料之外的困难。

游戏邦获悉，Kay在公司博客中写道，他们并不是创建好所有的东西，然后将这些内容一次性塞到游戏中。他负责创建后端和一些游戏内置功能，加载工具查看运行效果等。最让他崩溃的事情是，大家创建了一个塞满东西的艺术文件夹，最后却发现里面的内容并不适合这款游戏，或者文件太大了需要返功。Paul创建的工具经常得让Kay丢下手头的工作，马上查看它的运行效果。

Caristino认为这些开发工具是Score的核心资产，“游戏的原型已经通过工具完成了，所有的内容都已经倒入游戏数据文件夹，该文件夹可运行于任何一个支持他们引擎的平台（游戏邦注：比如PC和iPhone）。这些工具大大简化了游戏开发过程。”

日本公司的游戏开发流程则与此大相庭径，他们一般都是打什么战才准备什么武器，一边开发游戏，一边创建工具。这也正是为何日本开发商不能在高清开发领域抢占先机的原因，有些高清版的游戏甚至从头到尾都使用ad hoc开发工具创作完成。

尽管他们对日本游戏的开发模式有所不满，但还是以积极的心态去适应这种情况，甚至将部分日本企业文化运用到自己的工作中。他们每开发一款游戏，都要指定一个人当设计总负责，其他团队成员则全力配合这名领队人。

Kay表示，“我们目前正在开发两款游戏，一个是Paul的，一个是我的。不过这并不是说我们各干各的，Paul也参与了我的游戏开发工作。我认为一个项目指派一名决策者的方式很好，这也是我从日本学到的知识之一。尽管这种制度有点压抑，但却有助于统一双方的立场。”

比如说，Score的第一款电子游戏《Flock It》的项目负责人就是Caristino，因为是他先想出了这个创意。不过另一款游戏《Togglights》则更像是一个集体智慧的结晶，因为Kay先有了一个清晰的思路，而Caristino则根据他想要的效果把游戏原型做了出来，然后他们就一起商量后面的开发步骤，不过整个过程中的决策者都是Kay本人。

Kay声称Score并不指望靠一款游戏一夜暴富，而是希望通过向多个平台发行多款游戏让自己的公司立足，会专注于开发可能受到用户欢迎，但却被大型行业网站所忽略的游戏内容。

Score的游戏充满阳光，视觉上也非常养眼，当然这一切都归功于他们二人在工作室埋头苦干的精神。Kay称他们喜欢在游戏中添加一些日本元素，但不是那种漫画风格的东西，也不是直观的日本事物，而是通过创意设计来体现这种效果。

在该工作室开发的《Bail-Out》这款游戏中，玩家可以按住游戏屏幕上，就像一款真正的LCD游戏一样，让图片产生丰富多采的变形。

这种将日本设计元素、西方灵活而务实的精神结合在一起的游戏工作室并不多见，这一点主要得益于二人的默契。正如Kay所言，他们自己都是硬核游戏玩家，所以很清楚进军硬核游戏市场需要投入大量的资金、时间和精力。但他们并不具备这些资源，所以只好以自己的开发专长转战另一个市场。

谈到自己的人生目标时，Caristino表示他们二人在游戏开发类型、开发方法上都有非常相似的想法，他们的目标就是顺其自然，享受工作乐趣，希望同时还能赚点钱，总之他们都很享受当前的状态，这也正是他们所追求的生活。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

The Story of Score Studios: Westerners Move East

I’m standing in front of Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, in the middle of a cheering crowd of radical right-wing nationalists. A man in a black van is shouting about the evil of foreign influence on Japan. I roll my eyes as the speaker spews out a racist stream of historical revisionism and slurs, while never meeting my gaze.

I don’t make a habit of attending anti-foreigner rallies; I simply agreed to meet someone in this popular Tokyo neighborhood, and the screaming nationalists just happened to be there too.

It’s a little ironic, since the man I’m meeting is James Kay, a Dutch-born British citizen who calls Tokyo home. For all the anti-foreigner hate being screamed, Japan needs more foreigners — especially those like Kay — if it wants to fight the double threat of an aging population and declining birth rate. It will take foreign entrepreneurs and workers to save Japan.

Kay and his business partner Paul Caristino are the founders and sole members of Score Studios, a new game development studio.

Both are industry veterans, having both worked as game makers in their native countries and Japan — Kay at Criterion and Marvelous, Caristino at EA and tri-Ace. Score focuses mostly on iPhone development, though it plans to branch out into PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network.
Why Japan?

Despite the allure that Japan holds for many in the games industry, Kay has no such romantic notions. “If after three years you’re taking photos of Shibuya Crossing, there’s something going wrong. I’m not here for the Japanese angle. I live in Japan for my own reasons. I work in Japan for my own reasons.”

Kay lives in Tokyo not because of any passionate love for Japanese pop culture, video games, or manga, but for more pragmatic reasons. “Every place has its positives and negative. Tokyo comes out on the plus side.”

Caristino, who lives in Fukushima Prefecture, chose to stay in Japan for similar reasons. After working as an English teacher in rural Miyagi prefecture, he found himself in Australia once again. “Not much had changed, and I found myself wanting to go back to Japan more and more. I ended up in Tokyo 10 months later at tri-Ace, working as a programmer in their R&D department,” he says.

The choice to live in Japan is not, in itself, a particularly exotic or novel one in 2010. While Japan does not have nearly as many foreigners per capita as other major industrialized democracies around the world, expatriates in Tokyo quickly find that they are just one among many.

However, most of the foreigners living legally in Japan are working for someone else. And though many expatriates — who are willing to leave their home country and make a life elsewhere, are on the whole more adventurous and daring than your average individual — seem willing or able to brave the Byzantine legal system of Japan and form their own company.

To Kay, there didn’t seem to be much of a choice. “I wanted to start a company. I just happened to live in Japan. I live here permanently.” The fact that his company was in Japan was inconsequential.

For Caristino, the decision came about as a matter of circumstance. “James was talking about it for a while, and after leaving Tokyo, the prospect of working from home was one I jumped at. It came from long talks about the direction of the company and our own ideas towards game development, and had it been anyone else I doubt I would have done it. You could probably say it was one of those ‘right place, right people, right time’ things.”

Though the fact that Score is based in Japan is almost incidental, Kay did mention that there is at least one added perk to managing a company in Japan. “Once you start a company, you’re supporting the welfare state. Employing Japanese, etc. So they won’t help you set up a company, but they will prevent you from going bankrupt. The tax office will let you delay payment.”

The Joys of Bureaucracy and Paperwork

Making the decision was the easy part. Actually forming the company and making sure it was operating within the law proved to be far more difficult. There are many areas of the law in Japan that are vague and governed by multiple executive bodies within the government, which offer conflicting interpretations of the same regulations.

“It seems there are rules, but rules are often just guidelines,” says Kay. “By law, you need to enroll in insurance through the company. When we asked what happens if we don’t do it, we were just told ‘you should’. There’s no penalty if you don’t. We want to do it aboveboard. So we paid our accountant to do it.”

Game Advertising Online

There are many aspects of the law that can only be handled by specialist lawyers — which is exactly what Score did. “A friend of Paul’s put us in touch with a Japanese lawyer who spoke English. When it was time, we called him to set us up,” says Kay.

This was Kay’s first step into the Kafka-esque bureaucracy of Japanese business. In just a single meeting, “there were 30 pieces of paper I had to stamp.” What all that paperwork was for wasn’t clear even to Kay and Caristino. “We let him [the lawyer] do everything. He asked for information, we gave it to him.”

“It was 60,000 or 80,000 yen (about $675 to $900) to incorporate. We only needed of one yen of capital. All together, with a lawyer fee, it was less than 200,000 yen ($2,250.)” The company enters a legal grey zone at this point. According to some laws, it doesn’t exist, and according to others it does.

“Incorporation was active from the moment we submitted our application,” explains Kay. This activation starts a ticking clock, however. From that point, Kay and Caristino had 60 days to register with multiple other government offices. However, their company wouldn’t officially exist, according to other governmental bodies, until their application was approved several weeks later.

Once the company was started, management presented the next challenge. Thankfully, experts in Japanese tax law are plentiful. Kay says, “a friend of Paul’s recommended an accountant who had started her own company.” They entrusted most tax matters to her. “She takes care of the paper work, I just get a stamp it and hand it to the bank,” explains Kay.

With the legal work taken care of, Kay and Caristino were able to focus on actually making games. Both were frustrated by the studio system that they had worked under in Japan. According to Caristino, “Japanese people seem to put work above their home life, and as such everybody comes in late and stays late. Everyone seems to work longer, not smarter, and I ended up always thinking there is a great lack of communication, not just between departments, but between people inside the teams.”
The Real Work

Kay was even more frustrated. During his time as a studio worker, he created the blog Japanmanship in order to voice his frustrations under the pen name JC Barnett. The blog had quite a following for a period of time, though Kay, busier and happier with running his own studio, has abandoned it. However, those that who enjoyed his writing can still find it at the Score Studios blog.

With the problems of the Japanese studio system fresh in their minds, Kay and Caristino decided to run Score in such a way that they would never encounter similar issues. Aside from the working conditions, the way code and content were handled in Japanese studios seemed outdated to both of them. “There’s still a lot of hard coding that goes on,” explains Kay.

Kay says that this desire to work on tools shaped the business’ founding principles. “We didn’t seek for investors; we wanted to be our own bosses. If you get an investor someone else has a say.” Though he admits that this “might not be the most-business minded way right now,” that’s intentional. “Investors want quick returns. They won’t let you spend months on the tools.”

Says Caristino, “One of the discussions about game development that James and I had was about the creation of a toolset that we could use to build our games on. Being a two man team meant having a well-defined art and asset creation pipeline, so one of the first things I did was to create a tool for James to use, which is basically where he puts all his art, creates all the 2D animation, handles multiple languages, multiple platforms, sounds, scripts and other data. It is the one-stop-shop for all our games. It solved a lot of the problems we could foresee having, and then some.”

“Rather than create everything and then put it in the game, I create one aspect, or part of it, say the front-end or some particular in-game assets, load up the tool and see how they work immediately. Nothing is worse than creating a folder full of art only to find out it doesn’t quite fit, or is too big or generally needs redoing. The way Paul developed our tool it’s very easy to drop my work in the game, press a button and see it running immediately,” says Kay, on the Score Studios blog.

Those tools are at the heart of what Score is trying to do as a company. Says Caristino, “Prototypes are done up in script inside the tool and everything is exported to game data files which can be run on whichever platform our engine runs on (currently PC and iPhone). It continues to evolve with every project making the game creation process for each game that much simpler.”

This stands in stark contrast to Japanese development, where the tools are made concurrently with the game. This system is one of the major reasons that many Japanese developers were unable to cope with HD development early on. Even high profile titles will use ad hoc development tools from conception to final product.

Despite their frustrations, the pair have taken the positive aspects of the Japanese system and applied it to their work. With each title, one person takes lead in design, while the other supports them. It is the Lennon/McCartney school of game making.

“We have two games in development right now. One is Paul’s baby and one is mine. That doesn’t mean Paul doesn’t have any input. But we do try to keep that auteur system going. It’s always better if one person is making the decisions. That’s something I picked up from Japan,” says Kay. “I do like the auteur system of Japan. It’s frustrating, but it does give a unified vision. We picked that up in Score.”

The Studio’s sheep herding arcade game Flock It, for example, was headed by Caristino because the original idea was his. Whereas their title Togglights, “is an example of a game where James had a clear idea of what he wanted it to look like, I made up some gameplay prototypes of what he wanted and a few of my own and together we decided on how it was to be included in the game, but there was no mistaking that it was James making the major decisions.” says Caristino.

The company is “not going to bank on one title making us rich. focus on a lot of titles on a lot of platforms,” says Kay. Its goal, instead, is to produce “solid, well-presented games that people will enjoy, but maybe big websites will ignore — but it will all add up.”

The bright, clean and visually appealing look that Score’s games have owe something to the time Kay and Caristino spent slaving away in a studio. “We like to add Japanese veneer. Not like manga anime style, I mean — more than photorealistic. It’s more design-based,” Kay says.

This Japanese attention to design shows through in their games. In the studio’s Game & Watch-inspired title, Bail-Out, putting pressure on the screen will cause the image to warp and bend as if it was a real LCD game.

The fusion of elements of Japanese design and Western flexibility and pragmatism is something few studios could replicate. It comes directly from the duo’s experiences. This allows them to bring a level of polish and design to a casual market that is sometimes in desperate need of it.

“We’re hardcore gamers ourselves, to an extent. We know that to supply that market takes a lot of money, effort, and time. We don’t have the resources. Using our professional level development skills, we supply a different market,” says Kay.

When asked about his goals for the studio going forward, Caristino says, “James and I have very similar ideas when it comes to what kinds of games we wanted to make and how they should be developed. Our goals were basically to do just that, have fun while doing it, and hopefully make some money in the process. I don’t think our goals have changed much, we both enjoy what we are doing now and that was really what we were striving for.” （source:gamasutra）