With Steam's current Japanese Indie Games Festival going on, Valve has now shown us what I can only assume is meant to be Steam-tan.

Seems like a smart way to appeal to the community of doujin game devs and players in Japan and elsewhere. Also, I have no idea if any of those games are good, aside from La-Mulana.

Any recommendations?

D4 is on that list so there's that even though it's not really an indie game at all, at least by definition, due to initially being published by Microsoft. But hey, the more support Swery gets, the better!

I have bad news: she still doesn't exist.

The only games in that entire list I've even heard of are D4 and La-Mulana. I'm guessing the majority are trashy visual novels?

Edit: Just checked and it looks like mostly visual novels and shmups.

Did D4 ever get finished?

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae is pretty repetitive and short but you can't really go wrong for 2$. I thought that game was cool. I hear good things about 100% Orange Juice, but I have yet to play it myself.

@shindig: Just season 1 afaik.

@saturdaynightspecials: Kudos for that one.

If you like arcade-style shmups, the following games are good to great:

• Crimzon Clover
• Kamui
• Satazius
• XIIZeal

I think most of the other ones on there are pretty decent too, but those are the ones I've personally played.

I also picked up Artifact Adventure because it sounded interesting.

She is drawn very poorly.

Alot of these games have poorly dressed anime girls, I think there was one with cat ladies...

So... yea. I don't know if I love japanese indie games but by all means keep making them. I was going to find a choice quote from that cat-sex game but when I looked at the sale list I couldn't tell any of the titles apart (It's one of the 80 pictures of Anime girls with poorly translated title text) so i'll leave it to the imagination.

If you're at all interested in bullet hell shooters crimson clover is fantastic even if you've never played one before it has a beginner friendly easy mode and lets you continue infinitely. I also really enjoyed vulkaiser with it's neat 70s super robot anime aesthetic, it's also kinda newb friendly in that you have a health bar which refills between levels although unlike cc it will boot you back to the title screen when you die.

Gunhound is worth checking out too it's a lot like Cybernator on the SNES.

@AtomicOldMan Badly drawn anime characters go hand in hand with Japanese game sales if PSN has taught me anything.

She exists in my heart, that means she's real, goddammit!

@atomicoldman: She also looks more like an American girl in a kimono than a Japanese girl. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just an observation.

Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that that anime lady is an American doing a Japanese rendition of an American lady in a komono?

Look at the size of her hand.

@saturdaynightspecials said:

Steam-tan will always exist, as long as you believe.

Why do you think she's American? Because she's white?

Because if you're surprised that an anime character looks white, you have a long road ahead of you.

Yeah, on some level I really want to like Vulkaiser because its art looks so rad, but then there is the part where it's a shmup because all doujin games are shmups or VNs except for La-Mulana. I'm not great at shmups, nor do I wildly enjoy playing them except for the handful that are the pinnacle of the genre.

In my continued game making exploration, might grab Tyrano Builder, but Ren'Py has been what I've been starting to mess with since I like the flexibility of that (would want combat in something I make) and hey that's free. Which is nice on its own but also that means lots of people to help you when you have issues and with add-ons.

I just love the look of Tyrano Builder's interface though!

@syce300: Yeah its a bit confusing because half the sale is games published by Playism - their first big title was La Mulana - but theyve become Japan's Devolver Digital, at least for localized releases - so theyre mostly there as an avenue to get onto Steam at this point.

Whats the difference between a -chan and a -tan?

Wait im not sure i want to know.

@ripelivejam: It's a regional accent thing. Like saying "yous guys" or "y'all" or pecan (puh-CAHN vs. PEE-can)

@ripelivejam said:

Wikipedia suggests that it's how like, a small child might say it because they don't fully pronounce everything properly yet.

@duke_of_the_bump: I know that anime charactes look Japanese most of the time. That's why I'm pointing it out - she looks white. I'm on a phone or I'd expand my thoughts a bit more, but she really doesn't look Japanese to me, unlike the characters of, say, Parasyte or Psycho-Pass.

@believer258 said:

Ok, interesting opinion

@duke_of_the_bump: No need to be smart - as I said, was simply an observation.

This discussion always goes fun directions that don't involve people being told they are racist and think everyone looks white.

One Way Heroics is a pretty fun rogue-like game, and is certainly worth the price. I've heard good things about Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and decent things about Rime Berta, but haven't played either.

Yatagarasu with the deep discounts. Why is this on the list? That crustacean fighting game looks hella dope.

Forget that, her ear starts at the bottom of her fucking eye... it looks like it's melting off the side of her head.

YESSSSS. Crimzon Clover is so fucking good.

Today I learned: Devolver Digital is the distributor of a fuck ton of random films on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/devolverweekend2015

There's a part of me that wants to watch a movie called "Let's Ruin It With Babies."

"Also known as the story of every public place, ever"

(have not seen the film, no idea what it is)

It really is. I'm terrible at it, but I fucking love it.

@giantstalker said:

It's a movie about a young couple that doesn't have kids, apparently.

Stop making fun of Steam-tan. Steam-tan is pure!

Also, people should get La-Mulana. Frustrating as hell at times, but an excellent, underappreciated game.

Hitogata Happa is a game I'm obsessed with. The doll mechanic is an interesting twist (as you play you can switch between 12 types of "ship" which have significant gameplay differences), and I'm particularly enamored with the alternative modes (solo voyage & destiny 13) which kind of have a puzzle / strategy aspect to them.
I'm a total scrub re bullet hell so I mostly play on the easiest or 2nd easiest difficulty, but I get the impression that the challenge is there for people who are at a higher level.

Can highly recommend checking it out, it's going for $2.67

Post of the week.