Rice Games is a game studio based in San Diego and Tokyo, best known for Shujinkou™, a JRPG that integrates optional Japanese language learning into a full-scale adventure. Founded in 2018, the studio develops its games in-house with a remote team across the USA, UK, Germany, Latvia, Australia, and Japan.

Shujinkou has earned strong critical recognition, including a 90 Metacritic score, an 89 OpenCritic average, and a Best Hidden Gem nomination at the 15th New York Game Awards. It has also been featured by PlayStation, ranked among Inverse’s Best RPGs of 2025 and Noisy Pixel’s Best Indies of 2025, and named Best Smart Game of the Year by Digitally Downloaded.

In 2026, music from Shujinkou was performed at the GDC Festival of Gaming Concert Medley, and Rice Games founder Julian Rice gave a lecture on Shujinkou, JRPGs, and language acquisition at Waseda University. Rice Games continues to build Shujinkou as both a serious video game franchise and an educationally grounded project.

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