Dylan Cuthbert is probably best known for his work on Starfox. However, he's also the president of Q-Games, which is where James Mielke was working at when he came up with the idea for BitSummit. Without the support of the folks at Q-Games, BitSummit might never have gotten off the ground. Cuthbert has answered some questions for us about BitSummit, talking about his own and Q-Game's involvement as well as how BitSummit has grown.
As the president of Q-Games, you've been involved with BitSummit since the beginning, right? What was your initial reaction when the idea for running a Japanese indie-centric event was brought up?
I thought it sounded a great idea as long as it didn't cost us too much time and money! It of course has ended up costing us quite a bit of time and money but it is worth every penny!
What has been your role(s) in the organization and running of BitSummit each year? Have your responsibilities changed much? How has the creation of JIGA affected your involvement?
I try not to get directly involved and just try to direct the overall production and structure. JIGA allowed us to make the whole thing independent of Q-Games and it ushered in a whole bunch of people as partners to share the responsibility. It takes a lot of effort to create BitSummit and the more the merrier! Before JIGA people would think it was just something that Q does, but really an event like this needs to be more collaborative and shared amongst a variety of indie developers.
Regarding BitSummit itself, what in your opinion were the biggest/most important changes from year one to year two and from year two to year three?
From year 1 to 2, the main change was size. We didn't realise how packed it would get. For year 3, the main change was the inclusion of the Indie Megabooth and the formation of JIGA. The combination of both really helped boost everything beyond our expectations.
This is the first year that BitSummit curated which games would be shown at the event. What are your thoughts on that change in particular?
Actually I think they've always been curated, it's just that this year we had so many entries we had to reject a lot more than usual so the curation was more important. We do want to work out a way to include more booths next year.
What do you think are BitSummit's greatest strengths and weaknesses?
It's greatest strength is the unifying power you sense between foreign indie devs and Japanese devs. Weakness-wise, we probably need more staff translators!
What has been the biggest challenge about organizing/running BitSummit?
Finding the time to deal with It all! We are full-time professional devs and running a show like this takes blood, sweat, and tears.
What has been your favorite thing about organizing/running BitSummit?
Seeing everyone visiting Kyoto, one of the best cities in the world, and seeing their reaction to all the very cool indie games in Japan. I also get to meet lots of people I haven't met before, some of whom are pretty interesting!
What if any effect do you think BitSummit has had on the Japanese indie scene in general?
I think we're already seeing a ripple - larger companies seem more interested in what indie devs are up to, and just going by the entry application count we are seeing a lot more Japanese devs going indie now.
Do you have any other thoughts on BitSummit and how it's changed over time that you'd like to share?
I think it's at a good size now and the management of it has gotten better and better. I think we'll see some nice changes in the way awards are assigned, and hopefully see a few more categories added too. We'll try to make it less of a last minute rush next year.
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