KAYAC Inc.[J] has released a smartphone transportation game application called "Go Go Cargo" for North America, and it's a free download at App Store and also Android Market.

"GO GO CARGO" is a simulation game in which the player serves as an operator of an express company and delivers the requested load by designing a transportation route across the tracks. As each designed delivery route carries a load more efficiently, the delivery area is expanded, with the goal of becoming the "transportation king." They are going to add actual US' places in the map.

"Unity" is a game engine for developers.
A map and GUI (graphical user interface) that lets you use many scenes simultaneously and control multiple cameras. Particle physics bring the track to life, with train smoke and a lively town that looks real.

The fundamental way of playing of GO GO CARGO
1) Choose Quest, choose a load and its delivery route, and send a load to the destination.
2) If a load is successful, you earn experience and money. If a delivery route is designed well, you get bonuses such as better gas consumption.
3) The map of the delivery area can be reset for each new attempt.
4) Try to clear the entire delivery area.

GO GO CARGO features
Try to make the best designed track across all areas, such as price, speed, load size, and other aspects.
A maximum of 32 tracks can be owned.
If you have a friend, you can work toward common goals and use each other's maps.
Your friends can earn experience and reliance points, which can increase their rank to get additional bonuses and gifts.
You can also customize the different towns by bringing decorations to them on the train. You can plan your towns freely after each trip.
You can earn many titles, but only the best can become the Transportation King.

Download：
Android https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kayac.gogocargo
iPhone http://itunes.apple.com/app/id469051412?mt=8

Tags: Android, iOS, Japan, USA by Maki Omori
No Comments »

Kayac Inc. [J] has released “THE KING OF FIGHTERS ENCOUNTER,” an iPhone social game application working with location information, which allows you to have battles with characters of people who pass by on the street in real life.  Download is free.

“THE KING OF FIGHTERS ENCOUNTER” is a game app based on the popular title “KING OF FIGHTERS.”  The user chooses their favorite of all 21 fighters and sets their “Skill,” and can then enjoy a “Pass-by Battle” with a user passing by on an actual street.  By defeating bosses and raising levels from repeated battles and training, gradually more characters can be used, and the type of skill that can be set for each character is different.  Also you can send messages to former opponents, get an area ranking, country ranking, and world ranking, and use it in tandem with Facebook by inviting Facebook friends to battle.  At the moment 21 characters are available but this number is planned to increase from here on.

(C) SNK PLAYMORE

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Tags: Japan, Social game by Chiho Komoriya
No Comments »

Brandon Hill, the CEO/founder of San Francisco-based web consultancy btrax, gave us an invitation to potential presenters and attendees at a must-join tech start-up demo event that will take place next month.

As of this writing, four start-ups of Kayac, Chatwork, J-Grab, and Conyac have passed the first screening.   Entries to present are acceptable until May 20.

Here's some of what we have covered the previous event. (including Ustream video)

• Live: Six Japanese Tech Start-ups Present At SF NewTech Japan Night
• Event Report: San Francisco Japanese Tech Entrepreneur Night

Who's Brandon Hill:

Born in Hokkaido, Japan.  He has a Japanese mother and a American father.  Prior to founding web consultancy btrax in San Francisco in 2004, he was attending San Francisco State University where he started his carrier as a designer and programmer.

SF New Tech:

It is literally a tech start-up's demo and presentation event that takes place monthly at a nightclub in San Francisco.   The event celebrated its 5th anniversary last month.   Some events in a year feature start-ups from outside the US., which are titled like Belgian Night and Japan Night.   btrax is deeply involved with organizing Japan Night.

In light of the Japan’s worst disaster, web tech startups are giving the nation of Japan some hope for normalcy and economic recovery with their efforts to go global. In fact, the entry point for web tech globalization seems to be San Francisco.  In a local SF article, San Francisco was named as the second-fastest growing city in high-tech employment, with 65 percent growth over a five-year period.  The whole region which includes San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco supports over $48 Billion in payroll.

Last year we wrote about a first of a kind tech event featuring Japanese start-up web tech companies called SF Japan Night. This year, the organizer, btrax, Inc. a multicultural Web agency, is going to hold the event again this year.

Last year’s SF Japan Night event was the capstone of a week of Japanese tech events and was a huge success. Over 500 people attended the week long event with over 300 people just showing up for SF Japan Night alone. One of the presenters, myGengo received seed funding after the event from the Dave McClure’s incubator program 500 Startups.

This year’s event hopes to be even better with many start-up companies from Japan showing great interest including a company including Kayac. Kayac Inc. is a Japanese digital agency with a strength on developing games and apps and plans to go public within the next year.

In partnership with SF New Tech, btrax hopes to continue the theme of helping Japanese web start-ups go global. Brandon K. Hill, president/CEO of btrax, said “We are again excited to help organize this event and with the great interest in sponsorships we hope to defer the web start-up expenses.”  In fact, Mr. Hill told us that the event just received a sponsorship from NTT Investment Partners deferring a portion of the event’s costs.

This is one of the better platforms for Japanese web start-ups to begin their global journey. btrax works on coaching the start-ups in various aspects of the event, from developing a presentation style to coaching on how to answer business model questions that the SF Tech community audience typically asks. This gives Japanese start-ups an opportunity to interact with the SF Tech scene which is debated to be the hottest tech venues in the world. The btrax team helps the applying companies by providing a free feedback report on their services and if selected the presenting companies will get a more comprehensive feedback from the event’s audience.

Mr. Hill is also planning to hold "International Startup Night" in 2011, and a couple popular companies from SF Japan Night could get a chance to present and compete with other global start-up from around the world.

If you are willing to sponsor please contact them at sfjapannight@btrax.com and if you are willing to apply for demonstration please do so from here.

Tags: Japan, News, USA by Masaru IKEDA
No Comments »

Kanagawa-based funny app developer Kayac introduced Reengo, a VoIP app for the iPhone that allows you to place a call to your Facebook friend without dialing the number.   According to TechCrunch Japan[J], the company chose Facebook from available options as an integration platform because they would like to spread the app out globally.

As of this writing, the app is available only on the Japanese AppStore, however, it will be released internationally as soon as their server-side environment stands by for possible heavy load.   That will be happening in a couple of days, they say.   They're planning to introduce the app for the Android handsets in late-May.

Tags: Japan, News, Service by Masaru IKEDA
No Comments »

A Japanese startup Kayac released mixi [J] application "Unko Enzan [J]" for educational purpose. This is an arithmetic learning application for the primary-school pupils. However, it has funny characteristic. Poos are featured on all problems.

"Unko Enzan" means "Poo Arithmetic" in Japanese.

Can you solve this problem?

"If a coiled poo has a diameter of 16 cm, how many centimeters is the perimeter of the coiled poo? You may assume the coiled poo is a circle. Pi is 3.14."

The answer is........

50.24 cm!

How about this?

"Toru's weight is 47.5kg, and his poo is 230g. How many Toru's poos are the weight of him equivalent to?"

The answer is........

About 206.5!

You are asked ten problems. When done, you will be awarded with titles according to the number of correct answers and time. I was able to answer only six problems correctly! Primary-school math is difficult!

According to the KAYAC's web page [J], they say, "Poo is a magic word for primary-school children. It is an universal motif and will work even 100 years later".

It was developed as an iPad application at first. However, because of too many poo images being used on it, it was rejected by Apple for its App Store. So, they released on Mixi.

This application only supports Japanese at now. In addition, a Japanese feature phone is necessary to register Mixi. I wish they support multi-languages and make an Android application.

Tags: Japan by Chiho Komoriya
2 Comments »