Borja: Indie Game Dev in Japan – Culture, Music & Collaboration

The South Africa-born, Japan-based manufacturer and artist ghostpops, who collaborated with Borja on the soundtrack of “El Panadero,” in a 2022 image posted on his Instagram. (Thanks To Peninsula 360 Press).

While independent programmers can’t contrast their very own capability to that of market giants, they contend for the very same room, for the very same cash– and consumers often turn nose up at independent computer game.

Early Aspirations and Studies

Originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, Borja examined programming at the Facility for Industrial and Service Innovation Researches (CETIS) and took Japanese courses at the close-by College of Guanajuato. Even then, he had his aspirations and eyes set on the land of the increasing sun.

The Charm of Indie Video Games

Probably that’s the key to the charm of independent video games: They’re constructed out of the straightforward impulse to develop, to achieve something, to provide the world something that really did not exist in the past. The pleasure of sharing one’s culture, fears and ideas is the driving pressure behind independent works like The Baker, and that’s priceless.

After he released “El Minero,” a Japan-based, South African producer and artist executing under the name ghostpops came to be interested in his work and supplied to team up, bringing an one-of-a-kind interpretation of Mexican music to “El Panadero.”

Collaboration and Cultural Comfort

Borja said that while the call of his homeland was strong as a foreigner in Japan, he discovered comfort in traditions like the event of Obon, a regional day to remember departed enjoyed ones and use them food, altars, lights, and offerings– a wonderful parallel with the Day of the Dead that assisted him conquer nostalgia.

Making video games is a very risky venture; also in countries with federal government support, there’s no assurance that the game will redeem its financial investment, let alone generate a profit. Why make independent video clip games?

Life as ‘Code Ape’ in Tokyo

With his shows level, he landed a work in Tokyo as a “Code Ape, a dreamer in IT … a traditional techie,” he stated in an interview with Peninsula 360 Press. “I had the chance to discover just how normal, middle-class Japanese people work.”