📰 2023 October Zine Issue and Wrap-Up!
It's spooky season here, and I've got some treats here for you all! It's time to dive into the 2023 October zine issue of インディー通信 Indie Tsushin!
The zine is viewable in browser, and available for download in PDF, ePub, and MOBI formats. It is PWYW so anyone can read it! We really hope that you will check it out! Here's what's inside:
2023 October インディー通信 Indie Tsushin Zine Issue
Game Profiles
🎮 Terranova
We looked at Terranova by Studio Terranova. Follow the story of four high school girls navigating love, life, and friendship through their 2000s-era IM chats and online RP journals!
🎮 IGNISTONE
Daikon wrote about IGNISTONE by mono, a lighthearted roguelike action game focusing on timing your guard just right to parry attacks!
🎮 CALAMITY CREATURES
Daikon also wrote about CALAMITY CREATURES by kagirohi, an action and puzzle platforming game about climbing enormous mechanical creatures and dismantling them piece by piece!
🎮 Disc Creatures
We checked out Disc Creatures by Picorinne Soft, a creature-collecting game that combines tons of nostalgic charm with fresh new battle mechanics and story ideas!
🎮 実録パワフル野球拳スラッガー山田 (Jitsuroku Powerful Yakyuuken: Slugger Yamada)
Guest writer GSK wrote about 実録パワフル野球拳スラッガー山田 (Jitsuroku Powerful Yakyuuken: Slugger Yamada) by Digimeca Seisakusho, a hilarious 3D action game about the legendary martial arts known as, uh, baseball?!
Interviews
We have the following interviews in English and Japanese:
🎤 Interview with Studio Terranova
We were delighted to speak with CJ and Mabbees of Studio Terranova about working on the 2000s-era interactive fiction game, Terranova! We also learned more about interface dramas, memories of role-playing as queer teenagers on an early Internet, and participating in Global Game Jam from Japan!
🎤 Interview with mono
We got to speak with mono about making the colorful and satisfying action roguelike IGNISTONE!
🎤 Interview with kagirohi
We had the opportunity to speak with kagirohi about working as a solo dev on CALAMITY CREATURES, an action puzzle game that has you clambering over and dismantling enormous mechanical creatures!
🎤 Interview with Satto of Picorinne Soft
We got the chance to speak with Satto of Picorinne Soft about working on the retro-styled creature collect-a-thon game, Disc Creatures!
ICYMI
🎁 2023 Summer Collection
We released the June-July, August, and September issues into the 2023 Summer Collection! Get all three issues for $10!
🫙 勉強会ジャム // Study Buddy Jam
As of this writing, there are still a few days left to get started on the 勉強会ジャム // Study Buddy Jam if you haven't yet! Spin up a game engine tutorial, tutorial, sample game, or TRPG SRD and make something new!
📰 2023 September Issue
Check out the 2023 September issue and its games if you haven't yet!
🍸 Happy Hour!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and tune in every Thursday from 9PM for Happy Hour, a bilingual show introducing some indie games!
And now, a word from our sponsors
Just kidding! インディー通信 Indie Tsushin is ad-free, does not (and will never!) run sponsored content, and is mostly made by two people in their spare time. We write the articles, buy the games out of pocket, conduct and translate the interviews, lay out and edit the website and zines, pay for hosting and recording equipment, and so on. We do all this because we are gigantic nerds and hope that more people can play and appreciate Japanese indie games and their developers. We would gladly do it even if we never made a single yen from this.
BUT! If you enjoyed the zine, please consider paying for it! Any amount would be more than enough, and would go a long way towards boosting our morale and keeping us going. Not only that, it lets us pay guest writers to appear in the zine! If you can't afford to donate, don't even worry about it! Indie Tsushin will always be available to read for free and will never go behind a paywall. You can help us a ton just by sharing our articles and videos, or rating and reviewing our games and zines on itch.io. Thank you so much for all of your kind support!
We also have a Ko-Fi where you can make a one-time donation or sign up for our ￥300/month tier:
🙏 Thanks for reading all this!
That's all for now, but be sure to check the インディー通信 Indie Tsushin blog for the latest articles, subscribe to the RSS feed, and sign up for our monthly e-mail digest so you don't miss anything! Hope you enjoy the issue and games!
