Movies

Dōjin soft, 同人ソフト short for "software", also sometimes called dōjin games 同人ゲ−ム) are video games created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups (referred to as circles), more for fun than for profit; essentially, the Japanese equivalent of fangames. Most of them are based on pre-existing material, but some are entirely original creations. They are almost always exclusive to the PC, but a few notable exceptions also exist for the Dreamcast, because of its very weak copy protection.

Like other shareware games, dōjin soft are typically available in "demo", "trial", or "体験版" form for free on the internet, with full versions available for purchase. It should be noted, however, that oftentimes these games are of high enough caliber that they rival commercially made products: one such 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 of Japan.

While most dōjin soft sales occur at anime and video game or anime conventions (such as Comiket), there is a growing number of specialized internet sites that sell them. Some titles sell well enough that their creators can make a full-time job out of their "amateur hobby". One particular circle, TYPE-MOON, has since become a commercial videogame developer and anime studio.

Dōjin soft companies

07th Expansion: specializes in visual novels.
Easy Game Station: produces a wide variety of games, primarily brawlers.
French-Bread: produces a wide variety of games.
Orange Juice: specializes in curtain fire scrolling shooters
Takase: specializes in 2D fighting games.
Team Shanghai Alice: specializes in curtain fire scrolling shooters
Twilight Frontier: specializes in 2D fighting games.
TYPE-MOON: former dōjin studio that specializes in visual novels.

External links

• ArmJoe: A dōjin 2D fighting game based on the musical version of Les Misérables. A fine example of the odd disparity between some dōjin's source material's medium and the dōjin's medium.(Japanese)
• Super Cosplay War UltraAnother 2D fighting game, in which Otaku dressed as anime and videogame characters fight each other.
• NTSC-uk looks at Dojin soft fighting games
• Dojinaroni News site on dojin soft (English)/(French)