A new Kickstarter project aims to research and collect stories from the Japanese sector of video game development, hoping to tell the unsung tales of the country's companies and games.
Journalist John Szczepaniak is seeking £50,000 to create "a book with more Japanese developer interviews than any other; a wealth of untold anecdotes from Japan's video game history in English." He plans to travel to Japan this September, hire a translator and spend three months speaking with as many Japanese developers as possible. Szczepaniak notes that his interviews will focus on information previously undocumented and developers that have not already been widely interviewed.
"Given the global impact of Japanese video games, and the country's rich history which is seldom documented in English, I feel this needs remedying," writes Szczepaniak. "While there are plenty of books produced in Japan, seldom are they made available in English.
"There are so many Japanese developers from over the decades who have fascinating stories, but they don't have the opportunity to communicate with English speaking audiences," he added.
Szczepaniak writes that The Untold Stories of Japanese Game Developers will not be a "nostalgia trip," but rather a historical text for the English-speaking gaming community. Japanese developers already on board with the project include Resident Evil scenario writer Kenichi Iwao, Final Fantasy 10 co-translator Aziz Hinoshita and Bombjack and Solomen's Key developer Michitaka Tsuruta.
The campaign ends on June 30, and is currently sitting just above £9,000 of its £50,000 goal.
