Categories
Personal

PauseTalk, Five Years Later

It just hit me today that five years ago this month I held what I then called the “final” edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 85) in Tokyo — here’s the post I wrote to mark that end. That event took place on March 2, 2015, and a few weeks later (on March 31) I would be leaving the city I called home for over 15 years.

Hey, do you miss running PauseTalk?

Of course I do. Not only was it a fantastic way for me to meet so many creative people over the years, it also made for a very fun and inspirational monthly outing. Imagine hanging out at a nice cafe, enjoying a few drinks, and chatting with an interesting bunch of people — how could I not miss it?

So then why, you may ask, have I never done something similar here in Montreal? There are definitely a bunch of different factors that make me feel like it wouldn’t really work here like it did in Tokyo. I’d say at the top of the list is that, because it was mostly attended by foreigners, it acted as a sort of support group for creatives based in or passing through Tokyo. But there’s also a more personal reason. For me, the events were a way to connect around and celebrate a city that inspired me and that I loved so much. I loved chatting about what was happening in Tokyo — on the cultural front — and to hear opinions from others, either as fellow residents, or through the fresh eyes of visitors. That passion for a city is just not something I feel I have here, and so organizing a PauseTalk makes no sense to me.

So, we’re never going to see another PauseTalk event?

As I wrote in that farewell post, I know better than to ever firmly close the door on anything. I was happy to “press pause” on the series when I left, as I still think it was the right thing to do — and the thing I was hoping would happen, to see others take up the mantle through creative/culture event series of their own, did in fact happen. Last year I did have the thought that on my next return to the city I would have liked to organize an edition, but that return (which happened in November of last year, as part of a business trip to attend our Rainbow Six Siege Pro League Finals) was a bit too short to be able to do something. But as Connery ended up doing in 1983, it’s usually best to never say never.

Oh, and there is a reason that I’ve kept the PauseTalk web domain alive all these years.

Categories
Art Events Games Personal

GameLoop & GCX

Today was an enjoyable day, taking in Montreal’s annual GameLoop “unconference” — “unconference” in the sense that as a group we crowdsource the sessions for the day, with each session then acting as a salon-type discussion.

After leaving Japan and moving to Montreal, it’s taken a while for me to decide to start attending this sort of event again. It was a big part of my life in Tokyo — from running the PechaKucha Night series there, my PauseTalk series, and then other types of talk events and workshops I organized throughout the years (and then there are all the events that I attended as part of the audience).

But after the move, my new goal was to concentrate on my new career path (working in the games industry) — you could also add to that the lack of knowledge I had about the creative scene here in Montreal. Then, a couple of months ago I finally decided to check out one of the events organized by the Mount-Royal Gaming Society, Art-UP (also prompted by the fact that my friend Renaud Bédard was one of the presenters), and it not only scratched the itch I had to experience this sort of event, it also made me want more, both in terms of attending and in terms of organizing.

It prompted me to reach out to the person (Nicolas Marier) who was organizing the long-in-hiatus PechaKucha Night series in Montreal, and not only did we hit it off on our first meeting, but it looks like things are brewing in a positive way to reactivate the series.

I then attended the Canadian Gaming Expo, with a day of talks that I found to be hugely inspiring (mostly revolving around indie game studios) — and it was nice to see a few of those presenters as participants in today’s GameLoop event.

It’s good to be bathing myself again in this sort of knowledge sharing — something I try to participate in and push at work as well — and I’m hoping that I’ll get to have a hand in organizing and supporting more events here too.

Categories
Art

Faces

My friend Louis-Étienne Vallée — who interestingly, I’d see at my PauseTalk events whenever he was in town for visits, and then again in Montreal where he was based before I moved there, and now he finds himself having moved to Tokyo — is an illustrator whose latest project sees him obsessing with faces. He wants to draw more of them — especially within a community — so get in touch with him if you have suggestions. Via Canvas.

Categories
Art Events Photography

State of PauseDraw

The latest post up on the State of Tokyo site is a beautifully shot look at the latest PauseDraw event. It’s great to see the event get a nice bit of coverage like this, and big thanks to Alex for the PauseTalk mention — I miss doing those events too.

Categories
Games

Score Studios and The Last Guardian

15272141_10154747664519254_4827194968803665924_o

I remember a couple of years ago, at one of my last PauseTalk events, that I was asking my buddy James Kay — who runs the Tokyo-based Score Studios — what he was up to at the time, and that he hinted that the studio was working on something that I’d consider to be a pretty big deal, but that he couldn’t say more. Well, with the long-awaited release of The Last Guardian this past week, now we know. Score Studios created the engine and tools that were used for the game, which is indeed a pretty awesome bit of news for Score. I’m so happy and proud for what they’ve accomplished, and can’t wait to experience the game.

Categories
Web

Canvas Updates Creatives Listings

31210208365_42b7241f6b_b

As you’ve probably noticed, I’m a big fan of the Tokyo creatives community site Canvas, developed by my friend Mark McFarlane — and I daresay that PauseTalk played a small role in inspiring its creation (at least Mark was nice enough to say that). I like regularly going to the “Activity” page to see what projects people are sharing, and now they’ve just done a big redesign of the “Creatives” listing page, making it easier to get a quick taste of what each person does.

Categories
Photography

Tokyo Romp

14556771_1366557390034742_7119553244828586861_o

My friend photographer Genevieve Daniell is heading back to Tokyo for a few weeks — she used to be based there, and we met through my PauseTalk events — and she’ll be doing shoots while she’s there. She’s fantastic at what she does, and so book her while you can.

Categories
Art Events

PauseDraw for October 2016

14468738_973262366135830_1551530341624834154_o

The next edition of PauseDraw — PauseTalk‘s sister series all about drawing — is just around the corner, taking place on Sunday, October 16, at 16:00, at Shibaura House, the same place as last time (pictured in this post). As always, it’s hosted by Tokyo’s two favorite drawers, Luis Mendo and Adrian Hogan.

Categories
Art Events

PauseDraw

portfolio_type_pausedraw

Even though I’m no longer in Tokyo running my PauseTalk events, it warms my heart to see that its offshoot, PauseDraw, is still going strong. Unlike PauseTalk where talking’s the thing, the sister series is all about getting a group of people together to draw, draw, and then draw some more. Originally started by Luis Mendo (with a first edition in Amsterdam), he was then joined by Adrian Hogan once the series moved to Tokyo (along with Luis), and they’ve been going non-stop ever since. You can stay updated on upcoming PauseDraw events through its Facebook page and Twitter account — the next one takes place Sunday, September 11, 2016 (each edition usually takes place on the first Sunday of the month).

Categories
Debaser Uncategorized

Japan Indie Games Go, Go, Go

This is a post to celebrate the release of the Branching Paths documentary, which I just love so damn much.

Go buy it here.

So what’s this Branching Paths thing all about then? It’s a just-released documentary directed by Anne Ferrero that takes a look at the growing indie gaming scene in Japan. Unlike in the west, where indies have enjoyed quite a bit of success over the past 7-8 years, Japan is still in the early stages of an indie revolution, and Branching Paths does a fantastic job of illustrating what this nascent movement is looking like. Even better, it’s beautifully shot, and so also does a terrific job of acting as a visual tour of Japan from the perspective of games and the people who power that space.

But for me, it goes deeper. Seeing this now, after being back in Canada for close to a year and a half, it reminded me of a world I left behind. The film is packed to the gills with interviews of people I love and call friends, and so not only did it serve as a nostalgic reminder of all those people that I don’t get to hang out with anymore, but also of the spaces and events that I cared about when I was there (Picotachi, Tokyo Indies, BitSummit, Tokyo Game Show).

It even reminded me of PauseTalk, as the first time I heard about this project was from Anne, the director, who made a few visits to my events.

I love that the very early stages of an indie scene that I saw while I was in Tokyo has continued to grow, and is at a point now where I think there’s no turning back – we’re in for a lot of new and fun gaming experiences from Japan, directly from the minds of of a whole bunch of interesting creators. 

That’s something to be super happy and excited about.