How Steam changed Japan's doujin games from elusive treasures to international hits

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 12:28:59 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.pcgamer.com/how-steam-changed-japans-doujin-games-from-elusive-treasures-to-international-hits/>

"It's August 16th, 2008. The 11th Touhou game, Subterranean Animism, releases
today at Comiket, trying to buy a copy is an intense one. People queue in the
hot sun for hours before being crammed into the Tokyo exhibition hall's
cacophony of stalls. Hundreds of thousands of people will flock here over the
next few days, every one of them hot, bothered, and thoroughly dehydrated.
Finding Touhou creator ZUN's table amongst this flood before his stock runs out
is a feat in itself, but it's worth the sweat and exhaustion for the reward: a
freshly pressed CD containing a great shmup that. Braving the crowd and heat in
person is the only sure way to get one.

It's now 2022. Today, you, sat in your comfy desk chair—or perhaps curled up on
the sofa with your Steam Deck—bought and downloaded Subterranean Animism in
under a minute after casually browsing the hundreds of other doujin games
available on Valve's store and then carried on with your day. For anyone who
followed Japan's doujin game scene in the early 2000s, it's still surreal to
see some of the most underground games built for tiny, insular communities now
a button click away on Steam."

Share and enjoy,
               *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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