If you've ever thought about living and working overseas and you're interested in the game industry, then you've probably considered Japan.

Although Japan no longer dominates the world game industry as it once did in the 1980s and 90s, there's still a lot of creative development going on. Games still get published here that would garner no publisher interest in the West. That sums up my primary reason for coming to Grasshopper Manufacture, the company I am currently working for in Tokyo.

I came to know of Grasshopper through the games it published in the U.S., beginning with Killer 7. I was attracted to the avant-garde style of the title -- a twisted story, experimental graphics, and mind-bending sound and music. While that game was able to be published in the United States, I couldn't see an immediate future where a similar title would receive funding in the U.S. due to the business climate.

Advice on Heading East
If you really want to come to Japan or any foreign country to work, my advice is to get experience in your home country first. Your skills are much more marketable, especially if you will be working in a foreign language you have not mastered, if you can come in with a high level of job competence and skill. Before coming to Japan, I had been a professional game programmer working in California with the talented group of developers at Nihilistic Software.

With over three years of professional experience in the industry, including shipping my last game as lead gameplay programmer, I realized it was time to give working overseas a shot. You only live once, and I had heard so many good things about the personal benefits of living and working abroad.

That said, I had to give up a lot to get here. If you've established a life in your home country, it's not easy to uproot everything, leaving family, friends, and most of your possessions behind. I can't see my parents or friends with any regularity. I sold my precious Honda Accord V6 coupe, all my furniture, nearly all my electronics, and nearly all my books. I really miss having my game and movie collection that I often used for reference when thinking about game design. I spent a lot of personal money shipping heavy design and programming books overseas by plane. Moving your life to a new country far away from home is not something to be taken lightly. Think about whether it's something you really want to do and have the ability to do. Clearly, in my case I thought it was worth it otherwise I wouldn't be here today.

Inside Grasshopper Manufacture, employees are surrounded by artwork
that promotes the forward-thinking company culture.

When I was first considering moving to Japan seriously, while still living Stateside, I had settled on Grasshopper specifically as a company I was interested in finding out more about. At the 2007 Game Developer Conference, Goichi Suda (better known as Suda51) was scheduled to give a talk. I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet him, so I introduced myself before the conference session in the broken Japanese I was able to speak at the time. The first step to professional networking with a contact that has no idea who you are is to get out there and introduce yourself well.

I began to communicate with Suda via email, but due to the language barrier I initially did not hardly ever connected with him directly. Grasshopper employs a bilingual public relations specialist, Naoko Mori, who did a great job helping me with my early communication with the company.