Tokyo Game Show 2026, a four-day gaming festival, took place from Thursday, September 17 to Sunday, September 20, 2026.
The Nakajima Seminar exhibition at the Tokyo University of Information Sciences booth showcased the student-developed game Fruit Factory.
Here is our interview with the developer, Mr. Kobayashi!
All interviews included in this article have been translated from Japanese.
Tokyo University of Information Sciences Nakajima Seminar Booth Report!
Tokyo University of Information Sciences exhibited in the Game Academy Corner.
Within the booth, the Nakajima Seminar showcased a VR game called Fruit Factory.
As soon as the game begins, fruit starts falling from above, and players throw each piece into its matching fruit box moving along a conveyor belt in what is essentially a sorting game.
It is a somewhat unusual genre, so what kind of vision did the developer have when creating it?
Let's hear directly from the developer, fourth-year university student Mr. Kobayashi!
Interview with Fourth-Year University Student Mr. Kobayashi, Developer of Fruit Factory!
― Is this your first time participating as an exhibitor?
Mr. Kobayashi: The university itself has exhibited for many years now, but this is my first time submitting and showcasing my own work.
When I saw the exhibition last year, I thought it would be great if I could return the following year as one of the exhibitors.
I never expected I would actually end up on the exhibiting side, so I am a little surprised.
More people have played my game than I anticipated, and my honest feeling is that I am truly happy.
― Could you briefly introduce what kind of game this is?
Mr. Kobayashi: Fruit drops down in a heap the moment the game starts, and you use the VR controllers to grab it.
Separate boxes for each fruit move along a conveyor belt, so the game is all about timing your throws to toss the fruit into the right boxes.
― The sorting game genre is still quite new, so what sparked the idea or inspired you to make it?
Mr. Kobayashi: The sorting concept itself happened completely by chance.
At first, I wanted to use cube-shaped fruit objects to make something like a balancing game, but that proved too difficult.
Just when I was about to give up, I saw the fruit fall and scatter all over the floor, and that exact moment made me think it might be fun to sort them instead—that was how it started.
― Could you tell us about the appeal of your university and department?
Mr. Kobayashi: I am in the Department of Informatics, and our university focuses primarily on information science, working with computers, game development, and similar fields.
At our university, after enrolling as a first-year student, you can choose from a wide variety of paths depending on what you want to do.
For example, even within informatics, some people want to make games, others want to do video production, and some want to focus on programming.
Even if you have not quite decided what you want to do yet, the curriculum is structured so that you learn the fundamentals in your first year and then choose the path you want to pursue from your second year onward, which I think allows students to have a very fulfilling campus life.
― Since you are currently a fourth-year student, what career path do you plan to take starting next year?
Mr. Kobayashi: I have secured a job as a systems development engineer.
Rather than gaming, I will be working on systems development for commercial and corporate use, and I hope to apply the knowledge and insights I gained through game development to my future work.
― Finally, do you have any message for younger students aspiring to follow a similar path?
Mr. Kobayashi: I had almost no experience making games myself, having only dabbled in it a little during high school.
Nowadays, you can find anything by searching online, and with the help of AI, you can get things up and running right away. So while there are difficult parts, if you have even the slightest interest, I want you to take that first step without hesitation.
Before you know it, you might unexpectedly find yourself showcasing your work at a booth like this.
I think the most important thing is to just give it a try if you have even a little bit of interest.
That concludes our interview with Mr. Kobayashi, the developer of Fruit Factory!