Mar 13, 2014 6:30 AM

Gallery: Inside Japan's Indie Games Fest, Where Crazy Is Mandatory

Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
01
kimura-double
Veteran developer Yoshiro Kimura of Onion Games was the only double-winner at BitSummit.
Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
02
nplusplus
Raigan Burns (L) and Mare Sheppard, the team behind N++

Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
03
messe-entrance
BitSummit 2014 was in a much larger venue for its second year.
Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
04
84booth
8-4 showed Western indie games that it will be translating into Japanese.

Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
05
shcocooococo
Shcocooococo uses a lotion bottle as a controller.
Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
06
LED-fighter
A homemade LED console with a built-in fighting game.

Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
07
luke-kickstarter
Kickstarter's Luke Crane told the crowd the pros and cons of crowdfunding a video game.
Photos by Daniel Feit/WIRED
08
sensui-xbox
""This is our first presence at BitSummit and it's been going really well," said Microsoft's Takashi Sensui, head of the Japanese Xbox division.

The Hollywood Color Nerd Who Shot Knives Out Explains His Viral iPhone Camera App

The Chromagraph Camera app costs $13 dollars and processes iPhone photos with the same color math Rian Johnson’s cinematographer, Steve Yedlin, uses for film.

Reece Rogers

There’s a Free Video Editor Inside Google Drive That Anyone Can Use

You may not have noticed everything Google’s free software suite offers—especially a web app called Google Vids.

David Nield

I Tested Dozens of Space Heaters—These Are the 8 I’m Hot On

These portable heaters will heat a room quickly, quietly, and safely.

Matthew Korfhage

The Only Gaming Laptop I’d Buy for Under $1,500

As prices escalate on gaming laptops, there’s really only one affordable option still around: the Lenovo LOQ 15, which offers a better performance and display than its competitors.

Luke Larsen

What Democrats Can Learn From New York’s Data Center Moratorium

With a number of anti-data-center candidates poised to win on Tuesday, New York provides a glimpse at the tensions around actually having to do something about the digital infrastructure.

Molly Taft

The Best Travel Mugs for Coffee That’s Going Places

These top picks from brands like Ember, Owala, and Hydro Flask are built to last, keeping your drinks hot and your mornings smooth.

Boutayna Chokrane

Chatbots Are Leading Hikers Astray, With Dangerous Consequences

Outsourcing planning to AI can lead people to surrender their own critical thinking, which can have potentially deadly results in places like the backcountry.

Christine Peterson

Googlebooks Have Arrived. You Should Buy These Chromebooks Instead

While Google is heralding a new series of laptops called Googlebooks, Chromebooks are sticking around—for now. These are the ones to consider.

Luke Larsen

A Newly Discovered Trail of Cosmic Debris Illustrates How the End of the Solar System Could Look

A dying star 1,600 light-years from Earth is surrounded by two rings of gas and dust that astronomers believe are the remnants of the planetary bodies it once hosted.

Jorge Garay

Spooky New Infostealer Malware Uses AI to ‘Autodox’ Victims

Named “Volta-Autodoxer,” the recently uncovered malware uses AI tools to collect troves of data about victims, from login credentials and credit card numbers to Discord sessions and UberEats receipts.

Lily Hay Newman