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is software created by
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese hobbyists or hobbyist groups (referred to as " circles"), more for fun than for profit. The term includes digital , which are essentially the Japanese equivalent of independent video games or fangames (the term "''doujin'' game" also includes things like ''doujin''-made
board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
s and card games). ''Doujin'' soft is considered part of ''doujin katsudou'', for which it accounts for 5% of all ''doujin'' works altogether (as of 2015). Doujin soft began with microcomputers in Japan, and spread to platforms such as the MSX and X68000. Since the 1990s, however, they have primarily been made for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
. Most ''doujin'' soft sales occur at ''doujin'' conventions such as Comiket, with several that deal with doujin soft or doujin games exclusively such as Freedom Game (which further only allows games distributed for free) and Digital Games Expo. There is also a growing number of specialized
internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
sites that sell ''doujin'' soft. Additionally, more doujin games have been sold as downloads on consoles and PC stores such as Steam in recent years, through game publishers such as Mediascape picking them up.


Digital ''doujin'' games

''Doujin'' video games, like ''doujin'' soft, began with microcomputers in Japan, such as the
PC-98 The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or simply , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit Personal computer, personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2003. While based on Intel processors, it uses an in-house architecture making it inc ...
and PC-88, and spread to platforms such as the MSX, FM Towns and X68000. From the 90's to 00's however, they were primarily exclusive to
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
. In recent years, more doujin games have been released on mobile platforms and home consoles, as well as other operating systems like
macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
and
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
. Though ''doujin'' games used to primarily be for home computers, more ''doujin'' games have been made available on gaming consoles in recent years. There are also doujin groups that develop software for retro consoles such as the Game Boy and
Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...
. Like fangames, ''doujin'' games frequently use characters from existing games,
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
, or
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
("''niji sousaku''"). These unauthorized uses of characters are generally ignored and accepted by the copyright holders, and many copyright holders also issue guidelines stating that they allow ''niji sousaku'' as long as their guidelines are adhered to. There are also many ''doujin'' game titles which are completely original. While there are no statistics on the ratio of ''niji sousaku'' to original titles for doujin games specifically, as of 2015 88% of ''doujin'' altogether (including doujin games) was ''niji sousaku'' to some extent, with 63% being purely ''niji sousaku'' and only 12% being completely original. Example is Rockman Ciel, later release in form as novelize by PrejectRCL. ''Doujin'' games typically did not get released outside Japan due to language barriers. Recently, Western publishers have been picking up these games for release in other markets, with one of the first known successful examples being '' Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale'', developed originally by EasyGameStation in 2007, and then localized and released by Carpe Fulgur in 2010 for English audiences, which had a modest success with over 300,000 units sold in these markets. ''Recettear'' release on the digital storefront
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
, which at the time had begun opening its catalog to third-party developers, further helped to introduce ''doujin'' to the West. This approach has been used to bring other ''doujin'' games, particularly visual novels and dating sims, to the West. Some titles sell well enough that their creators can make a full-time job out of what is typically an amateur hobby: For example
TYPE-MOON Type-Moon (stylized as TYPE-MOON) is a Japanese video game company, best known for their visual novels, co-founded by author Kinoko Nasu and illustrator Takashi Takeuchi. It is also known under the name for its publishing and corporate operation ...
and 07th Expansion originally released games as doujin games. One game, French-Bread's brawler '' Ragnarok Battle Offline'', a homage/ spoof of the MMORPG '' Ragnarok Online'' so impressed Gravity Corp., the original game's designers, that it has been given an official release outside Japan.


Notable digital ''doujin'' game companies

* 07th Expansion: specializes in visual novels, most notable for '' Higurashi no Naku Koro ni'' and '' Umineko no Naku Koro ni'' * ABA Games: specializes in shoot 'em ups with an abstract look. Most of their games are open source. * EasyGameStation: produces a wide variety of games, from brawlers to role playing games to strategy games, most notably released '' Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale'', the first ''doujin'' game to be distributed on the
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
platform overseas to great success * French Bread: former ''doujin'' studio that specializes in 2D fighting games * Team Shanghai Alice: specializes in curtain fire scrolling shooters, most notable for '' Touhou Project'' * Twilight Frontier: specializes in a wide variety of games including fighting games and platformers *
Type-Moon Type-Moon (stylized as TYPE-MOON) is a Japanese video game company, best known for their visual novels, co-founded by author Kinoko Nasu and illustrator Takashi Takeuchi. It is also known under the name for its publishing and corporate operation ...
: former ''doujin'' studio that specializes in visual novels most notable for '' Tsukihime'' and '' Fate'' franchises * Yotsubane: Creator of shoot 'em up '' Crimzon Clover''


See also

* Demoscene * Fangame * History of Eastern role-playing video games *'' RPG Maker''


References


External links


Event report on doujin/indie soft event Digital Games ExpoBordersdown (formerly NTSC-UK) looks at ''Doujin'' soft fighting gamesJohn Szczepaniak on The Escapist looks at the ''Doujinsoft'' genre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doujin Soft Video game culture Popular culture Unofficial adaptations Fangame Video game development Fan labor