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Japanese PC doujin are keeping indie games creative at Tokyo Game DungeonRetro consoles, coke bottles, and deliberate glitches
Retro consoles, coke bottles, and deliberate glitches
14 Indie Games We Can’t Wait To Play In 2023Watch on YouTube
14 Indie Games We Can’t Wait To Play In 2023
Nowadays platforms like Steam make doujin games and indies more accessible than they ever were in the days of the Spectrum or MSX. No longer do you need to fly to Japan to access the latest works from the many creators who make up this community. 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.
A 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. Zakuro Bento are a circle dedicated to creating adventure games and visual novels for women, and brought their latest title Romp Of Dump. 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. 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.
On the complete other end of the spectrum were titles like Rabbit Soft Worker’s 2019 release Lostword, an MSX Turbo-only typing RPG. 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. Yet according to the man behind RSW, Ko-Usagi, it was just a lot of spare time plugged into a platform they loved while growing up that made them want to make the game, and overcoming the hurdles in both development and accessibility was a big appeal in creating it.
Famires Date
Perhaps capturing the experimental nature of the form were the many projects that can never be experienced outside of the walls of the convention hall - at least not in the same way. Many titles on display were developed for a communal experience. It’s this tactility that brings to life projects like npckc’s Famires Date, all about handling a date on a budget, and which prints a real receipt using a Game Boy Printer at the end. Another game turned a used coke bottle into a rocket ship, shaking it as hard as possible in order to cause it to explode and fire into the air (with those scoring over 100,000 points receiving free chocolate), while Bear Runner Any% RTA modded a broken Famicom into a controller you smacked to ‘glitch’ a game and get the Any% record.
Then you have games like Make Friends, where the objective is as simple as its name suggests: make friends! But how do you do that? Obviously, you take a silicone head with a Vive motion controller inside and toss and turn it around in your hands to collect noses, eyes and mouths to create a face, before placing it onto mannequins on screen to create life. The results are as hilarious as they are horrifying, but it works. “I wanted to create something where the audience watching someone play it on a big screen is just as much fun as doing it yourself,” explained developer Kumagoro.
I see that question answered in the charming simplicity of Jin Japan, a parent and child duo stumbling through their first Unity demo with the support of every creator at the event. Larger events inevitably push developers like these away, emphasising that they’re industry events as opposed to community efforts, which in turn pushes away the community willing to support that journey. Teams like Jin Japan are a reminder of every creator’s origins, and the memory remained with me long after the event.
Bear Runner Any%
With so many individuals from all walks of life creating cool experiences, for no reason but that they want to do it, I doubt the pioneering, free-range spirit of doujin gaming is going anywhere anytime soon. It’s about creating something because you can, and regardless of whatever stands in your way, just to bring a smile to another player’s face. It’s an attitude that has drove the doujin scene for decades and helped reshape the industry in Japan, as titles like Touhou reshaped the relationship between game and fan, or brought mega-hit franchises like Fate/ into existence. And it’s a spirit which shone brightly at Tokyo Game Dungeon. Long may it continue.
