The research-based music game “Night Parade of 100 Demons” will be exhibited in “art bit - Contemporary Art and Indie game Culture”, a group show opening June 21st held in Kyoto (Japan) that features works of contemporary art that have a connection with video games, as well as indie games based on artistic concepts.
The game will also be showcased in the BitSummit Festival, Japan's leading indie game show, with an expected attendance of over 40000. BitSummit has featured game industry legends like Shuhei Yoshida (Sony Interactive Entertainment) and Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Enhance Games), and is supported by leading companies like Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Valve.
“Night Parade of 100 Demons” is the work of Dr Costantino Oliva, author of the critically acclaimed OTOGARDEN and Senior Lecturer at the , University of Malta. Starring popular yōkai (monsters and ghosts of Japanese folklore) “Night Parade of 100 Demons” is a freely available mobile app consisting of four minigames, affording different forms of extemporaneous musicality. The player is encouraged to experiment with musical possibilities, stimulating players towards a chaotic, improvised musical direction. Players get to drum, sing, and generally make a playfully loud mess, aided by raucous yet mysterious yōkai such as the tanuki racoon and the turtle-like kappa.
“Night Parade of 100 Demons” has already been presented in game conferences across Europe (Serbia, Austria, Spain), and is set to receive unprecedented attention in Japan. The game creatively interprets Japanese myths, adapting them to an artistic, experimental ludic context: a perfect match for BitSummit’s theme for 2025, which will in fact be "Summer of Yōkai". With a mix of industry focus and artistic experimentation, BitSummit and “art bit” represent the unique game culture of Kyoto and Japan, which for the first time will include a digital game fully developed in Malta.
