Most of the Japanese indie games we know of can’t really be brought up here, if you know what I mean. Those that are appropriate to mention outside of the darkest parts of the internet have been trickling onto Steam over the past year or so, and now they may just have a home on Rice Digital.
Geraint Evans, director of Zen United and man behind Rice Digital, feels that Japanese indie games (doujin games) are misunderstood. I have to agree.
I mean, when the first thing I mention about Japanese indie games is that there are those we can’t talk about here. That implies they are for adults — but to be honest, most of the indie scene over in Japan isn’t explicit in the least. Visual novels, adventure games, shmups, and platformers are popular genres for doujin developers. And no, not all visual novels are eroges.
Evans hopes to make doujin/indie games more accessible to the UK audience through Rice Digital. The site is currently modest in its selection, but it will grow in time as Evans gets his hands on more licensing rights. We’ll have to stick to Steam and other niche sites over here in North America for now, but the promise of something like this being available here is enticing.
Source: Edge Online
