Despite being highly inaccessible (it’s not ported to modern PCs, so an emulator or original hardware is a requirement), it’s a labor of love, with detailed pixel art, a randomly-generated map, a surprisingly-deep and a battle-system with magic, and more - all wrapped in a seemingly-simple exterior. On the complete other end of the spectrum were titles like Rabbit Soft Worker’s 2019 release Lostword, an MSX Turbo-only typing RPG. It even incorporates Live2D to introduce a bluff and risk-reward mechanic to playing blackjack against your fellow jailmates, making it an impressive effort for the small team. A card game-based mystery set in a high-security prison for the worst offenders, it's created with Unity and brought to life with expressive animations using Live2D technology. Zakuro Bento are a circle dedicated to creating adventure games and visual novels for women, and brought their latest title Romp Of Dump. While far from the scale of more well-known events like Comiket or the indie gaming halls of Bitsummit and Tokyo Game Show, this event was aiming to be something distinctly different: a small-scale event by and for the doujin scene, sharing work just because you can or, in some cases, because these quirky games can only be appreciated by a crowd of ‘your people’ - in this case around 1200 people, including exhibitors.Ī number of established doujin circles (a group of like-minded fans creating content together) used Tokyo Game Dungeon as a space to showcase their past and future work. January's Tokyo Game Dungeon followed its initial incarnation this past summer. Jet Cola, played by shaking a bottle of Coke They won’t be the money-spinning masterpieces many studios can justify investing in, but they’re fun. While most know doujin titles as esoteric ideas using characters from larger IPs (with questionable regard for copyright), it's a home of experimental oddball ideas in small-scale sandboxes that couldn’t exist otherwise. Burning a CD-ROM of your amateur project to sell at a doujin market is a right of passage. Whereas the indie market’s evolution has defined independent development in terms of the scale of production and inception away from the major studio model, doujin games in Japan define themselves by being unique experiments produced by and for like-minded fans. It’s with this in mind that Tokyo’s latest doujin event, Tokyo Game Dungeon, held its second event in the heart of the Hamamatsucho business district, bringing everyone from professional indie teams to doujin circles to mom-and-daughter duos into one place to share their craft and celebrate their passions.ĭoujin games stand apart from indies in part by their purpose and definition. No longer do you need to fly to Japan to access the latest works from the many creators who make up this community. Nowadays platforms like Steam make doujin games and indies more accessible than they ever were in the days of the Spectrum or MSX. It is the doujin gaming scene that helped major studios like Fate/ studio Type-Moon, and franchises like 07th Expansion and Touhou Project, flourish in a way that would never be possible otherwise. In Japan, the doujin markets of Comiket and beyond serve as a home for hobbyists to make, sell and share their creations. It's not entirely wrong, but it has obscured decades of hobby development that was once at the forefront - not just the stories of BBC Micro solo-development stars, but similar ones of hobby development from around the world. With online distribution further helping games like Bastion, Journey and World Of Goo to flourish, the definition of the indie game became: a title with big ambitions and creativity grown from small budgets and teams. While it would be unfair to ignore the hobbyists programming experiences in BASIC on their ZX Spectrum or similar, it’s commonly accepted that indie gaming as we recognise it today has its roots in the early days of the internet and the Y2K boom, when Flash, Gamemaker Studio and similar tools allowed things like Cave Story and N to grow. To track the public understanding of modern-day indie gaming is to look at the small-scale independent development scene through an Anglo-centric lens.
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