Hey! It’s Julian here. The team and I are super excited to share that yesterday, April 7, 2026, I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to lecture about Shujinkou at Waseda University (早稲田大学) in collaboration with Waseda Game Lab, titled:
Shujinkou™, JRPGs, and Innovative Language Acquisition Elements in Video Games
This was an especially important and exciting moment for our team and studio. As one of Japan’s most prestigious private universities, Waseda University provided a serious and respected stage on which to discuss not only Shujinkou as a deep and ambitious JRPG, but also the strong educational foundation that helps set the franchise apart from other indie games and JRPGs.At Rice Games, we continue to push the concept of Shujinkou forward on two fronts:
① As a rich video game experience for JRPG fans, and…
② As a thoughtfully designed creation that explores innovative language acquisition through video games – the opposite of gamification… something like “learnification!”
From major industry events like appearing at the GDC Concert to prestigious academic and educational spaces, we are proud to see the franchise gaining momentum across both sides of that vision. That momentum only strengthens our drive as we continue work on the second title in the Shujinkou trilogy and other projects that will help expand the IP.
We were incredibly honored by the opportunity to connect with students, professors, and researchers, share the creative and academic ideas behind Shujinkou, and continue showing how games, especially complex ones with deep narratives AND gameplay, can be both deeply engaging and meaningfully well-founded.More exciting news will be announced soon. Check out this post on our website.
Want to chat? Come join our official Discord Community here: http://shujinkou.community/
Cheers!
Julian