6.17.2013

LINE characters occupy Shibuya this summer


If you visit Shibuya in July, You will watch the scene that there is occupied by LINE characters.


Today, LINE announced that they performed a character tie-up with SHIBUYA109 and PARCO for regional vitalization. SHIBUYA109 and PARCO are fashion-business buildings symbolizing Tokyo as well as Shibuya. They put it together during a summer bargain sale period and cooperate with LINE characters from July 4.


Huge advertisements of the LINE character are posted on the entire surface of their buildings and Shibuya Station, advertising buses run Shibuya, fancy goods shops of LINE are installed in buildings, movie advertisements of LINE are broadcasted in the JR trains. Of course this is promotion development, but this is activity to enliven a town of Shibuya, too. This is the first time that specific smartphone application occupies Shibuya.

6.15.2013

Voltage, developer of dating sim for women goes into the French-speaking world

Voltage is one of the representative developers of dating sim for women in Japan. They release many games in various mobile platforms. Furthermore, they provide not only the Japanese version but also the English version.

See Also:
Localization for North America of Japanese dating sim for women
Which do you like? JP style vs. North America localization

In addition to these, they go into the French market. Today, they released French dating sim for smartphones "Seras-tu Ma Princesse?"(Jp title:王子様のプロポーズ/ En title:Be My Princess).



This is their representative game. This was developed as contents for Japanese furture phone at first. Afterwards, it was provided on various platforms such as GREE, iOS and  Android. Users become a heroine and can simulate the love with characters of the prince. It resembles Novell game, and ending changes what kind of choice we do.

They translated only texts into French and left the artwork original. Japanese contents are received without localization in France somehow.
According to them, J-style dating sim for women gradually spreads among the countries except Japan. English version "Be My Princess" came first in the top sales of the entertainment category of US App Store and Asian 17 countries including Singapore.

Social city-building simulation game Pigg World distributes coupons in a virtual shop

Japanese Internet advertising agency Cyber Agent provides new O2O advertisement service in their social game Pigg World.


Pigg World is a social city-building simulation game linking virtual world Ameba Pigg. Users can play Pigg World with one's avatar of Ameba Pigg, too. Now, Cyber Agent suggests to users to build the virtual shop of Lawson of the convenience store in one's town of Pigg World.




It reproduces a real shop and users can let a resident work here.

Such an icon is displayed in a few minutes. When we clicked this...


We can get the discount coupon number of the roll cake. And we go to the real shop with this coupon number near at hand.


Lawson has a self-service electronic ticket dispensing system Loppi. When we input a coupon number on a screen of Loppi, the coupon that a roll cake becomes cheaper 30 yen is published.


Yummy! By the way, this is one of the popular sweets of Lawson.

Cyber Agent cooperated with many companies and shops until now in Ameba Pigg. Those most built the virtual shop and were to offer the virtual goods which reproduced real products. However, they offer the service that progressed from them more. They intend to promote the sale of the real product as well as virtual goods.

6.13.2013

Social game suit war: Japanese social game developer Grani fights against gloops entirely

A real-time battle is the prosperity now in Japanese social game market. However, it occurred in the reality world, too. I wrote that Japanese social game developer gloops charged Grani yesterday.

See Also:
New quarrel of social game in Japan: Social game developer gloops brought an action against Grani


Grani announced the press release about this today. According to it, they deny all the contents of the accusation of gloops. They insist that they developed all including specifications and the source code in themselves. Furthermore, they insist that gloops disturbs their business, and think about charging gloops reversely.

It is rare that an intense accusation battle happens in this way in Japan. This will become the fierce battle like their social games.

Know-how platform of the Japanese DIY---TECSHAR

I sometimes make figure models.

See Also:
I made "Nameko" figure

I wrote the procedure in vsmedia and here until now. However, I examine it to write it in TECSHAR from now on.


TECSHAR is a platform sharing know-how of DIY. Users can post procedure of every DIY such as Design, illustration, handicrafts, electronic work, 3D data, 3D print goods, gadget etc...(well, the things which readers of O'Reilly's magazine Make: seem to like). It just opened today, but has some post.

This is the first service of Japanese startup Techin. They perform service and a project about DIY mainly on a 3D print technology. They are going to provide education service "Tech In Academy" with upgrading of TECSHAR. In addition, Techin is the startup which Japanese serial entrepreneur Kazuma Ieiri established.