Doujin soft is software created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups, more for fun than for profit. The term includes digital doujin games (同人ゲーム), which are essentially the Japanese equivalent of independent video games or fangames.
Xseed Games is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. It later became a subsidiary of the Japanese game company Marvelous, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related materials.
Yuke's Co. Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka. It was established on 26 February 1993 by Yukinori Taniguchi. The company is best known for developing the WWE video game series, based on the professional wrestling promotion of the same name, until 2018.
The Silver Case is an adventure visual novel video game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by ASCII Entertainment for the PlayStation in 1999. It was directed, designed and co-written by Goichi Suda. A remastered version was released digitally by Grasshopper Manufacture worldwide for Windows and macOS in 2016, while a port, a physical release, for the PlayStation 4 was released by NIS America in 2017; a Japanese release of the PlayStation 4 version was released in March 2018 by Nippon Ichi Software. A Linux port was released in August 2017. A port for the Nintendo DS was also in development, but never released due to Suda's dissatisfaction with the final product. A port for the Nintendo Switch was released in 2021.
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to a lack of publisher support. The term is synonymous with that of independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.
Renegade Kid LLC was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was founded in 2007 by Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham, video game development veterans formerly of Iguana Entertainment. In August 2016, Hargrove and Watsham announced that they had split their operations, with the intellectual property rights distributed between each's own studios, Atooi (Watsham) and Infitizmo (Hargrove).
Muramasa: The Demon Blade, known in Japan as Oboro Muramasa, is an action role-playing game developed by Vanillaware for the Wii, and later the PlayStation Vita. The game was published in 2009 by Marvelous Entertainment (Japan), Ignition Entertainment, and Rising Star Games (Europe). The Vita version was published in 2013 by Marvelous AQL in Japan and Aksys Games in Western territories. Using a 2D side-scrolling perspective, the gameplay revolves around a beat 'em up fighting system, while incorporating role-playing elements such as leveling and questing.
Aksys Games Localization, Inc. is a video game publisher that specializes in translating and localizing Japanese video games for English-speaking markets. It was founded by Akibo Shieh in 2006. Some of its clients include Bandai Namco Games, Xseed Games, and Atlus USA. Aksys Games is best known for its involvement in the Guilty Gear series, as well as for publishing numerous Otome games in English. It has become a full-fledged game publisher with the announcement of Eagle Eye Golf for PlayStation 2, and has expressed a desire to publish for all current platforms from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.
Demon's Souls is a 2009 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 3 under the supervision of Japan Studio. It was published in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment in February, in North America by Atlus USA in October, and in PAL territories by Namco Bandai Partners in June 2010. The game is referred to as a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's King's Field series.
Yume Nikki is a 2004 adventure game created by pseudonymous Japanese developer Kikiyama. The player controls a girl named Madotsuki and explores her dreams, collecting 24 effects that change her appearance and equipment. Random events also occur throughout the game in the form of cutscenes and unique gameplay sequences. The game was developed using RPG Maker 2003 without a traditional plot or battle system. Gameplay instead focuses on exploration of the dream world.
Recettear: 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.
In the video game industry, digital distribution is the process of delivering video game content as digital information, without the exchange or purchase of new physical media such as ROM cartridges, magnetic storage, optical discs and flash memory cards. This process has existed since the early 1980s, but it was only with network advancements in bandwidth capabilities in the early 2000s that digital distribution became more prominent as a method of selling games. Currently, the process is dominated by online distribution over broadband Internet.
Atlus West, formerly known as Atlus U.S.A., Inc., is the North American publishing branch of Japanese video game company Atlus, primarily known for localizing games for both them and other third-party developers. Its first original role-playing game was Revelations: Persona on the PlayStation, described by staff as an attempt to break into the Western role-playing game market and establish the company's Megami Tensei franchise through its Persona sub-series.
17-Bit is an independent video game developer. The company was founded as Haunted Temple Studios in 2009 by Jake Kazdal, formerly an artist with Sega, to make games with a 16-bit era aesthetic. The name changed to 17-Bit in May 2012 with a logo designed by Cory Schmitz. Gamasutra described the team, based in both Kyoto and Seattle, as an example of successful indie cross-platform development for its work on Skulls of the Shogun. GungHo Online Entertainment became 17-Bit's house publisher in October 2014 as the developer worked on Galak-Z: The Dimensional.
Playism is a Japanese independent video game publisher operated by Active Gaming Media. Playism started as a digital distribution platform for PC games, launched in May 2011.
Zero Escape, formerly released in Japan as Kyokugen Dasshutsu, is a series of adventure games directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The first two entries in the series, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2009) and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (2012), were developed by Spike Chunsoft, while the third entry, Zero Time Dilemma (2016), was developed by Chime. Zero Escape is published by Spike Chunsoft in Japan, while Aksys Games and Rising Star Games have published the games for North America and Europe respectively.
Nyu Media Ltd. was 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.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Metroidvania-styled video game developed by Japanese indie studio ArtPlay and published by 505 Games. The game's development was led by former Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi and is considered a spiritual successor to the series. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, in June 2019, for Amazon Luna in October 2020, for Android and iOS in December 2020, and for Stadia in July 2021.
Trillion: God of Destruction is a Japanese role-playing video game for the PlayStation Vita. It is the first game in the Makai Ichiban Kan series of games. It was released on July 23, 2015 in Japan, March 29, 2016 in North America, and April 1, 2016 in Europe. Developed by Compile Heart and published by Idea Factory, the game contains several key staff from the Disgaea series of games.
