WDoujin soft , also called doujin games (同人ゲーム), are video games created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups, more for fun than for profit; essentially, the Japanese equivalent of independent video games or fangames. Most of them are based on pre-existing material ("modding"), but some are entirely original creations. They are almost always exclusive to Windows-based PCs, but a few notable exceptions also exist for the Dreamcast, a console on which homebrew development was popular.
WAkatsuki Blitzkampf is a series of Japanese dōjin 2D fighting game, developed by the dōjin circle SUBTLE STYLE for Microsoft Windows. It first released in November 2003 under the name Akatsuki Shisei Ichigō , prior being finalized and retitled on April 30, 2007 as Akatsuki Blitzkampf. The title got a lot of attention in Japan and elsewhere for its high-resolution sprites and older style gameplay.
WAquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match is a 2011 2D arcade fighting game developed by Examu. It is a joint collaboration between Aquaplus and Leaf, who developed all the titles and featured characters. The "Dream Match" in the title references the characters of the game coming together from various Aquaplus titles, including Utawarerumono, Tears to Tiara, and To Heart.
WBig Bang Beat - 1st Impression - is a dōjin fighting game made by NRF based on the eroge Daibanchou: Big Bang Age by AliceSoft. Released in May 2007, the game borrows some elements from fighting games by Capcom and Arc System Works. In August 2011 the sequel Big Bang Beat - Revolve was released.
WChantelise – A Tale of Two Sisters is an action role-playing game developed by EasyGameStation for Windows. It was originally released in Japan in 2006 and an English version was released on Steam and GamersGate on July 29, 2011.
WChaos Code is a fighting game series developed by FK Digital and published by Arc System Works.
WCherry Tree High Comedy Club, known in Japan as Manken! (まんけん!) is an adventure game developed by 773 and published by Capcom. The game follows 17-year-old Mairu Hibisu as she recruits fellow students for her comedy club. The player controls Mairu as she meets new people, tries to finish her homework each day, and levels up her conversation topics. The game was first released in Japan in June 2010, with an English translation released by Nyu Media in April 2012. Two sequels were later released.
WCho Ren Sha 68K is a 1995 vertically scrolling dōjin shoot 'em up video game developed and originally published by Koichi "Famibe No Yosshin" Yoshida at Comiket for the X68000. Taking place in a ring structure, players take control of a space fighter craft to fight against an assortment of enemies and bosses. The game was first made for the X68000 due to its popularity in the dōjin and freeware development scenes, being influenced by several shoot 'em up games in arcades that also played part with its design process. The title was later ported to Microsoft Windows in 2001, featuring various changes compared to its original release. It was met with mostly positive reception from reviewers for its presentation, graphics, music and gameplay; criticism was geared towards various design choices but has since gained a cult following, serving as an influence for ZeroRanger (2018).
WCrimzon Clover is a vertically scrolling dōjin bullet hell game developed by Yotsubane and released at the 79th Comiket. Its name is a reference to the crimson clover, a species of clover native to Europe. Originally released for Windows on January 11, 2011 in Japan, a NESiCAxLive arcade version was released on April 25, 2013. An updated Windows version, entitled Crimzon Clover: World Ignition was released worldwide on June 6, 2014 via Steam, on December 3, 2014 via GOG.com.
WThe eXceed is a series of Japanese shoot 'em up video games developed by the dōjin circle Tennen-sozai (天然素材). The first game, eXceed was released in 2005, and the latest game, eXceed3rd JADE PENETRATE BLACK PACKAGE was released in 2009. The series is localized into English and published by Nyu Media.
WFortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone is a 2D side-scrolling action role-playing video game. The player takes the role of a sword-wielding girl named Arche who wants to learn magic.
W"GENETOS" is a freeware vertical shooter game or "shoot 'em up" developed and published by Tatsuya Koyama with an "evolution" theme. In GENETOS, the levels represent different generations in the evolution of shooting games.
WGlove on Fight is a doujin boxing video game released at the Comic Revolution 31 convention in May 2002 by Watanabe Seisakujo. The name of the game is a take on "Groove on Fight", which is a sequel of the Power Instinct series, though other than that the two games have very little in common. The game was developed to test routines that the programmer would use in Melty Blood.
WHatoful Boyfriend: A School of Hope and White Wings is a Japanese dōjin soft otome visual novel released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows and OS X. It was developed by manga artist Hato Moa's dōjin circle PigeoNation Inc., and is the successor of a Flash game of the same name she created for April Fools' Day in 2011. A free demo version of Hatoful made with the FamousWriter engine was released later that year, followed by a full commercial version released on 30 October 2011 at COMITIA 98, and an English version released in February 2012. An international remake by developer Mediatonic and publisher Devolver Digital, dubbed Hatoful Boyfriend HD in Japan, was released on 4 September 2014 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux and for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on 21 July 2015 in North America, and on 22 July 2015 in Europe, respectively. A port for iOS was released on 25 May 2016.
WHiganbana no Saku Yoru ni , subtitled The Unforgiving Flowers Blossom in the Dead of Night, is a Japanese manga written by Ryukishi07 of 07th Expansion and illustrated by Ichirō Tsunohazu. It was serialized between the May 2010 and November 2012 issues of Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine. 07th Expansion adapted the manga into a dōjin visual novel series, with the first game released on August 13, 2011 at Comiket 80 and the second on December 31, 2011 at Comiket 81.
WHigurashi Daybreak is a Japanese dōjin third person shooter developed by Twilight Frontier, first released on August 13, 2006 and is based on the popular visual novel Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The game is Twilight Frontier's first attempt in making a 3D game. 07th Expansion, the creators of the original franchise, assisted in making the game — most notably, Ryukishi07, the writer of the original game, provided the script for Higurashi Daybreak. Also, this game uses the same voice cast as the drama CD of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
WHigurashi When They Cry , known simply as When They Cry for the North American release of the anime adaptation before 2020, is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion that comprises the first two entries of the When They Cry franchise. The series focuses on a group of young friends living in the fictional rural village of Hinamizawa and the strange events that occur there in 1983.
WHong Kong 97 is a 1995 unlicensed fixed shooter video game developed and published by HappySoft, a dōjin game developer, for the Super Famicom. It was designed by the Japanese game journalist Kowloon Kurosawa, who said the game was made in two days. The game has gained a cult following for its notoriously poor quality, considered to be a kusoge in Japan.
WTouhou Suimusou ~ Immaterial and Missing Power. , commonly abbreviated as IaMP in English speaking circles, is a versus fighting game collaboratively developed by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice released in 2004. It is the first spinoff in the Touhou series, and it is numbered as the 7.5th installment as the game's events place between Perfect Cherry Blossom (seventh) and Imperishable Night (eighth), although it was released after Imperishable Night. After the success of Immaterial and Missing Power, the game was followed up with Scarlet Weather Rhapsody in 2008, the first of several Touhou fighting game sequels.
WKagetsu Tohya is Type-Moon's sequel to their earlier dojin visual novel game, Tsukihime, released in August 2001.
WKoihime Musō: Doki Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi is a series of Japanese adult visual novels and strategy video games primarily developed and published by BaseSon for the Windows and is based on the classic 14th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. The first game was developed by BaseSon, and was first released on January 26, 2007, for Windows as two DVD-ROMs, followed by a re-release on April 11, 2008, containing an extra CD-ROM.
WMagical Battle Arena is a crossover third-person shooter game developed by Fly-System in 2008. The game features characters from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Magic Knight Rayearth, Cardcaptor Sakura, Slayers, and Mahōjin Guru Guru.
WMelty Blood , is a visual novel and fighting game, co-developed by dōjin circles Type-Moon and French-Bread, originally released at Comiket in December 2002. It is shortened as simply Merubura (メルブラ).
WNarcissu is a free visual novel video game developed by the dōjin group Stage-nana, telling the story of a terminally ill young man and woman. It was made with the NScripter engine.
WNarcissu -Side 2nd- is the prequel to the visual novel Narcissu, produced by Stage-nana. A preview version was sold at Comiket 70 for ¥200, and has since been released for free download. On May 15, 2007 the entire game was released and made available for download on stage-nana's website. The English version was released on March 31, 2010 by Agilis, after "close to 3 years of blood, sweat, and hard work." Like the Japanese version, this release contains both the prequel and the original. The translation was done in Proportional ONscripter, a fork of ONscripter and a clone of Nscripter, which supports English text as opposed to Nscripter which in turn, doesn't. Additionally, Side 2nd includes both games' soundtracks accessible from the menu of the game.
WNyu Media Ltd. is a video game publisher known for localizing Japanese independent dōjin soft games into English. They were established in 2011 and released two batches of dōjin games that spanned genres including shoot 'em ups, beat 'em ups, platformers, adventure games, and action-RPGs.
WOf the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi , also known as AkaAka, is a Japanese visual novel that has been adapted into a manga series. The manga is published in English by Yen Press.
WRecettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is a role-playing game developed by Japanese dōjin maker EasyGameStation for the Windows operating system. The game follows a young girl named Recette, who is charged by the fairy Tear to run an item shop out of her house to pay off the considerable debt her father had accumulated before his mysterious disappearance; the eponymous shop is a portmanteau of the lead characters' names. In the game, the player controls Recette in several areas of gameplay, including bargaining and haggling with clients for goods, and accompanying an adventurer into randomly generated dungeons to acquire goods to sell, with the goal of paying back the debt within a fixed deadline.
WRose Guns Days is a four-part Japanese dōjin visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion and playable on Windows PCs. The first game in the series, Season 1, was released on August 11, 2012, and the fourth game, Last Season, was released on December 31, 2013. There have been six manga adaptations based on Rose Guns Days published by Kodansha and Square Enix.
WThe Story of Kamikuishiki Village is a satirical Japanese doujin resource management strategy game developed by HappySoft and published by Aum Soft that was released for PC-98 on June 29, 1995. Kamikuishiki Village satirises the Aum Shinrikyo cult and the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack orchestrated by the cult; a common misconception is that the game was produced by the cult as propaganda, whereas The Story of Kamikuishiki Village actually portrays Aum and the sarin gas attack negatively, mocking its members and showing footage of 'humiliating' media coverage.
WSuper Cosplay War Ultra (SCWU) is a freeware fighting game released by Japanese developer Team FK in 2004 for Microsoft Windows.
WTsukihime is a Japanese adult dōjin visual novel created by Type-Moon, who first released it at the Winter Comiket in December 2000. A remake is set for release in 2021. It has been adapted in 2003 into an anime television series, Shingetsutan Tsukihime, animated by J.C.Staff, and a manga series, which was serialized between 2003 and 2010 in MediaWorks' seinen magazine Dengeki Daioh, with 10 volumes released.
WUmineko When They Cry is a Japanese dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the Golden Witch, was first released at Comiket 72 for Windows on August 17, 2007; the game sold out in thirty minutes. The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, and the mysterious murders that befall them. Readers are challenged to discern whether the murders were committed by a human or of some other supernatural source, as well as the method and motive behind them. The eight main Umineko games are split into two sets of four, which are considered the third and fourth titles in the When They Cry series, preceded by the two sets of Higurashi When They Cry games and followed by Ciconia When They Cry.
WUmineko: Golden Fantasia, known in Japan as just Golden Fantasia , is a 2D versus fighting game developed and published by 07th Expansion. It is a spin-off of the Umineko When They Cry murder mystery visual novel series and was originally released at Comiket 79 on December 31, 2010. The game was ported to the Xbox 360 by Alchemist in October 2011 as Golden Fantasia X, including new characters and balance tweaks. An append disc for the original game, titled Golden Fantasia Cross, was released at Comiket 81 on December 31, 2011. MangaGamer released Golden Fantasia Cross to a worldwide market on December 8, 2017.
WUnder Night In-Birth is a 2D fighting game co-developed by Ecole Software and French-Bread. Since its initial arcade release in Japan, it received numerous version updates for adjustments and playable characters.
WVanguard Princess , also known as Vanguard Princess: Senjin no Himegimi is a Japanese dōjin 2D fighting game for Windows, developed by a single programmer and illustrator Tomoaki Sugeno nicknamed Suge9. The game was created using Fighter Maker 2nd was released for PC on June 26, 2009, and April 10, 2013 for OnLive.
WThe Witch's House is a freeware puzzle-oriented horror game by the Japanese game creator Fummy (ふみー), created using the software, RPG Maker VX. The game was first released in October 2012, for Windows and Mac.
WYume Nikki is a surreal adventure game by pseudonymous Japanese developer Kikiyama. In the game, players explore the dreams of the protagonist, named Madotsuki, where they encounter a number of surrealistic horror creatures and locations. The game was created using RPG Maker 2003, but lacks most elements commonly associated with role-playing games, such as battle, leveling up, and quests. The game's primary objective is to collect items known as "effects" that grant Madotsuki new abilities and allow players to progress to new areas, with the game ending after 24 of them have been collected.