It’ll cost $14.99 USD/€15,49/£13.75/CDN$ 17.99 and be available in English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. We’ll launch with a 14-day 10% off sale.

See you then!

We'll announce the specific date closer to release. Stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy a few new clips in our latest trailer.

Subscribe now

Hey You, Pikachu! is often referred to as one of the worst Nintendo 64 games of all time, yet was also incredibly innovative! The ‘90s already had pet simulators like the Tamagotchi, Dogz PC, and the pet rock. But never a 3D Pikachu with voice recognition! In the game, talk to Pikachu through a puffy yellow microphone as you explore the world together. Forage, fish, and enjoy snack time– just make sure to tuck him into bed at night! All the little details of pet ownership in the game truly made Pikachu feel real.

The rating is understandable due to lousy voice recognition (anybody remember shouting “PIKACHU!” into the mic, peppered with expletives?), but Hey You, Pikachu! truly felt special for its time. You can still see its influence on games like Nintendogs and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. It’s a reminder to try new ideas, even if Metacritic gives it a 57% rating!

The Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon series shows that repetitive themes don’t have to go, but some changes can help. Rune Factory has the classic farming mechanics of Harvest Moon, with the added magic of a fantasy RPG. In addition to a new battle system, you now have mythical creatures for livestock and can romance elves and mages. Its aesthetic features high fantasy architecture with pastel watercolors. Suddenly, your mundane farm story becomes a romantic fairy tale!

Our last pick is World of Warcraft, an action-adventure MMORPG literally centered around fighting. Yes, that doesn’t sound very cozy, but it includes comfy tasks. Explore dangerous dungeons to… collect the hottest fashions and cutest pets? Or, complete fearsome quests, like cooking a giant pot of soup with everyone in town! You might even end up making lifetime friends after joining a party or guild. Though WoW has had its ups and downs, its classic, yet unusual gameplay is memorable.

Will Danchi Days stand out in a world of cozy games? In hopes of doing so, we’re working hard to combine tradition and innovation, like the great games that came before us. One important step is to have every aspect of the game built by a passionate developer.

mogumu brings nostalgic joy with her adorable, candy-colored, pixel art aesthetic! It perfectly portrays Japan’s Y2K Heisei era, with memories of clear pink Game Boy Advances and aqua flip phones. sandy powder imbues the story with her creative writing, and personal experience living in a danchi. Each neighbor carries her distinct voice in a story that’s a mesmerizing mix of cozy and heavy. Melos Han-Tani brings the world to life with enchanting electronic music and meditative gameplay. Savor the moment with Sense Games — pop bubbles and splash puddles, instead of fighting for first place.

Finally, our most important priority is to make Danchi Days an enjoyable game for players like YOU! We treasure your thoughts and feedback. Our game is a loving tale set in Another Danchi, and, hopefully, not just another cozy game.

~ Olivia (From the Danchi Days Team)

Trigger warning for the discussion of heavy themes (Alzheimer’s disease, alcoholism, death, depression, eating disorders, racism, and ableism).

By Olivia (Danchi Days Marketing Team)

What makes a game “cozy,” and what makes a game “heavy”? Cozy games evoke feelings of comfort: dream worlds with attractive scenery, where players relax through the mechanics. A game with heavy themes is quite the opposite, incorporating difficult or controversial topics. Naturally, a game that combines both cozy and heavy themes might not work. What happens if it does? As Blendtec famously asks… Will It Blend?

The devil’s advocate says, absolutely not! A cozy, heavy game lacks a traditional target audience. If somebody likes Dark Souls, you wouldn’t recommend Nintendogs to them. Or would you? Surprisingly, a Dark Souls player might share the same enthusiasm for collecting equipment as they would for dog accessories. When a familiar genre is blended with the unfamiliar, it feels comforting yet new. Cozy games are often criticized as unrealistic, and heavy games as too realistic. Mixing both can create a balanced, distinctive story.

Danchi Days uses this dichotomy by combining a bright summer vacation with societal sorrows. It is a challenge, as the game must maintain this direction throughout its production. Luckily, similar games have succeeded before! Let’s discuss a few of these.

Other Cozy and Heavy Games

Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube is a beloved cozy game for many. It doesn’t get more cozy than starting life anew in a forest of cute animals. But wait! Your new house comes with debt, so it’s straight to work to pay it off. Meet your rude neighbors, who act like… animals. Shake a tree and bees chase you into a pitfall. Reset the game and a disgruntled mole, Resetti, screams at you. How is this cozy again?

The key is that the struggles lead to gratification. You feel achievement when you pay off your debt and decorate your beautiful home. Grumpy neighbors turn into friends, the town grows, and chores become meditative. Like a real cozy day, magic moments exist within the mundane. Interestingly, a criticism of the series’ newest installment, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, is that it feels less alive. Resetti retired because auto-save took his job, and neighbors are not as argumentative. Problems were eliminated, as well as the fun. Animal Crossing shows that tough moments can actually make cozy games more cozy, as long as they are relevant or purposeful.

Harvest Moon 64 for the Nintendo 64 brings to mind adorable box art, with a farmer and his puppy running in the sun. The friendly rating “E for Everyone” is stamped on the front, but on the back is a “Use of Alcohol” warning. This is a preview to Karen, the stunning daughter of the vineyard owner… who is a heavy drinker, argues with her dad publicly, and runs away if you don’t befriend her. You can meet Elli’s sweet grandmother, but she doesn’t stay around forever. Even marriage isn’t permanent, as your wife can threaten divorce!

Yet, memories of the game are overwhelmingly pleasant: picking flowers for your partner, brushing cows, or napping in lush fields. It’s cozy, but sprinkled with the relatable bleakness of real life. You embrace the slow life, with gentle references to issues like rural brain drain and addiction. Maybe that’s why the company’s motto when you boot up the game is “Natsume: Serious Fun.” We love that Harvest Moon 64 balances heavy scenes in a cozy game meaningfully, and hope to achieve that in Danchi Days.

Lastly, Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak for the Game Boy Advance, and indie titles Consume Me and Fishbowl, are examples of games with cute aesthetics but serious themes. Hamtaro features colorful graphics and huggable hamsters. Very cozy, until a demonic hamster starts breaking up relationships. Friends stop talking, and couples separate due to his trickery. You must work with your friends to repair broken bonds, and learn how to compromise. The cuteness lightens the presentation of heavy issues, while maintaining a clear message.

The upcoming games Consume Me and Fishbowl are also wonderful at blending cozy and heavy themes. Consume Me is a puzzle game with adorable graphics, like a sparkling-eyed heroine and smiling food slices. Yet, the main character shows how she feels the exact opposite, battling an eating disorder and body-image issues. Fishbowl is a slice-of-life game with whimsical pixel art that draws you in. Meanwhile, the story addresses the death of a loved one, complicated childhood memories, and how to process them. Danchi Days also hopes to seamlessly blend heavy themes within a welcoming environment.

Danchi Days balances cozy and heavy themes throughout its gameplay. The cute, pixel art aesthetic, lovingly created by our artist, mogumu, presents an optimistic setting for a Y2K Japanese summer adventure. The creative mechanics of Sense Games encourage players to sit back and enjoy life’s precious moments. And the unconventional narrative delivers both laughs and serious concerns about society.

In a world with neoliberal values that promote productivity and competition, social issues like an aging population, ableism, and racism continue to fester. Danchi Days asks controversial questions, softened with a cozy setting. Should aging or neurodegenerative diseases always be feared? Why do adults fear being perceived as frivolous or unproductive? What would the world look like, if technology wasn’t heavily utilized for economic growth?

Oftentimes, the answers are not black-and-white, and Danchi Days embraces the gray. We hope you’ll find your own answers after playing Danchi Days!

Follow us on Bluesky and Twitter.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3312850/Danchi_Days_Demo/

(There are thoughts from team member Melos Han-Tani at the bottom, too.)

This is a 60-90+ minute demo we put together over the past few months. It’ll also be available during Steam Next Fest and leading up to release. It’s a “Chapter 1”-style demo - you’ll be able to meet the main characters and experience the first parts of Danchi Days’ world… who will be your favorite neighbor to meet??

We hope you enjoy what we (sandy powder, mogumu, Melos Han-Tani) have brought together as the core development team of ‘gingham games’! Additionally, we’d like to thank flankoi for the Simplified Chinese localization, and Puchun Hsueh (JUN) for the Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) localization. Thanks to mushbuh, Olivia, ume, Ryo Adidharma, Mooncat Games and Neon Noroshi for marketing assistance, and of course, our many playtesters who are credited in-game, and the content creators, streamers and writers who have supported us by streaming or covering our demos to this point! Melos would also like to shoutout longtime collaborator Marina Kittaka for helpful conversations on the game’s design and art direction.

Melos’s Thoughts…

Hello! It’s Melos. I’m co-designing, programming, doing music/sound for, translating (JP to EN) and giving story feedback for Danchi Days. I wanted to talk a bit at length about the demo - about things that are harder to capture in our marketing and public presence.

Loosely put, as purely a game, you could think of Danchi Days as a fusion of JRPGs, Visual Novel, Japanese-style Adventures, Action, and Puzzle games. It’s not strictly any of these - there are no battles, no fights, no hardcore puzzles - it’s sort of a organic thing of its own. If you’re familiar with my work with Marina Kittaka at Analgesic Productions, I think you’ll know what I mean by “Organic thing of its own”!

The game is also a fusion of our team's other interests. Of course, some of us live in actual Japanese danchis, so we’re able to do ‘field research’ every day simply by going outside (…or observing from the window.) Just on the story side, with sandy powder's influences, there's the wide body of Japanese nonfiction essays, academic works, independent manga and comics, mainstream manga and anime, girl's anime, or the fields of education and pedagogy, etc. The game’s backbone - themes on aging society, dementia, senior care, work - which underlay all the characters and their quirky presentations - come from these interests and research. Many of the characters are sparked by ideas found in reading or life, which lends them all a genuine uniqueness and humor!

With the art, mogumu has a ton of experience as a professional illustrator, drawing on all sorts of influences, in particular, the art and characters of games like the unique cartoon style of Maple Story, the Harvest Moon series (especially the character spritework done in Mineral Town), Tomodachi Life and the playful emotions of Hamtaro games - all of which is felt most powerfully in her ability to come up with unique character designs via sandy powder’s specs and descriptions

It’s thanks to our experience and interests that have made it possible to craft a bunch of memorable characters (and world).

Story Presentation & Internet

On the game side… Danchi Days has the character and dialogue presentation reminiscent of ensemble-cast-driven VNs, with a focus on the character portraits, emotion and sound, and a majority of text being delivered through dialogue. To balance that out, the internet’s writing is more essayistic, first-person, blog-ish. The RPG aspects come into play with how cutscenes are staged, and how characters develop and travel with each other (arguably this stems more from manga/anime/storytelling in general)

With the in-game internet, there's influence from the real-life early Japanese internet, revivals of personal sites, but more importantly, the inclusion of the internet serves a vital design role of allowing players to access information nonlinearly and at their own pace - while also acting as an organic way of finding hints and deciding what to do.

Our reference was the game Uki-Uki Carnival’s internet and how they used their game’s internet to present their character and worldbuilding info.

Framing and Pacing

The framing structure of reviving a festival also takes notes from Uki-Uki Carnival, although loosely, this style of adventure is found in other Japanese games, where a simple framing goal is used to shape the more important thing (character interactions). E.g., collecting Love in MOON/Chulip, money in Giftpia, delivering bread in Doki-doki Poyacchio, making memories in Boku no Natsuyasumi, finding flowers or something in Sylvanian Family…

What's helpful with this is that the base task is so simple (invite as many characters as you can), and it contains an implicit marker of progress, but more importantly, that simplicity dovetails with a slice-of-life setting, leading you to meet dozens of unique characters and follow the story of Hoshino, her grandmother, her father, childhood friend Rio, and mysterious kappa festival assistant Moro-Q.

The tight pacing of the game is influenced from my work on past adventure games. Something interesting is always happening, or you have a lead on something to do. This is not really from a big to-do list dangling in front of you, or being bombarded with setpiece after setpiece. The pacing is achieved via intersecting and overlapping systems. In Danchi Days’ case, you're either progressing the main story, exploring the 2D world, talking to characters, browsing the internet, or playing a Sense Minigame.

Exploration and Sense Minigames

In a reading-heavy game like Danchi Days, it’s nice to balance that out with periods of not reading. So the game has you explore its setting of a Japanese danchi: parks, buildings, plazas, hills, forests. To aid in this, the screen aspect ratio is deliberately focused on individual rooms with low-res pixel art. This makes it easier to give each room a sense of place, while keeping the world navigable.

It’s important to me that in-game maps are designed from some sort of real life reference. When designing the maps for Danchi Days, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from walking around many real-life danchis and Japanese neighborhoods, with their wide variety of verticality, hills, trees, weeds, and built aspects. I hope this approach to the map design can help convey the sense of the danchi and also make it easier to navigate the world.

But importantly, this sort of approach to map design lends a simplified way to read the environment for clues or interactions. And perhaps if you find the right interaction, you can start a Sense Minigame…

These Sense Minigames play an important role, in that they tactiley let you experience some of the things protagonist Hoshino is experiencing in-game. To do so I went with a puzzle-action approach, loosely inspired by some of my design work from the Anodyne series’ dungeons, Sephonie’s Linking Puzzles, and Angeline Era’s simple-to-learn bumpslash. Some helpful feedback and discussions with other designers helped me come to the realtime grid-based movement.

Basically, the point of this simple movement is that it’s a simple form of interaction that doesn’t need to be explained outside of initial tutorials and simple commands like “Bump trees and touch notes!”. I took some influence from Warioware here and how it’s very easy to figure out how to play each microgame, either instantly, or with a few rounds of failures.

What’s nice about taking this approach - over bespoke minigames with their own rules and controls - is that it lets players more quickly understand the kind of sensory/tactile ideas we’re going for. Tapping condensation of glasses to make large droplets, listening to sweeping brooms, etc. We can and do describe that through text and audiovisuals, but it’s also nice to give it the physical dimension.

Because you can only move or bump, the minigames don’t need much tutorializing (contrast Mario Party where you have to learn the rules each time!) “Moving and Bumping” are so abstract that it’s relatively easy to convert a narrative idea (“find a four leaf clover in a patch”, “listen to toilet pipes”) into a minigame. This helps the games organically fit into a mostly exploration/reading-focused game.

There’s another trick to the design, which is that one move = one energy, and each minigame has limited energy to use. This limitation lets the minigames have an inherent puzzleyness to them. While the games are balanced to be easy to clear, there are optional goals in the demo’s postgame where you’re rewarded for clearing games with fewer moves. This “simple to pick up, complex to master” is what drives the minigames to feel approachable to beginners, but not boring to the experienced. There’s intentionality to the design, so you have to engage with it in some way.

Each of these systems, from the dialogue to exploration to internet and minigames is - grammar-like in that they can be combined or tweaked in various directions while feeling organically like you're just in the "world of the game called Danchi Days"!

I hope you enjoy our demo (leave a review! Share it with a friend!) and please look forward to the release in 2026!!

- Melos Han-Tani

BIG NEWS... Streamers and Content Creators can play the Danchi Days Chapter 1 Demo NOW! (The public release is coming soon)

For access, contact us via DM on Bluesky or Twitter - or via e-mail at danchidays@gmail.com. You'll be able to experience the start of Hoshino's journey to revive her neighborhood's summer festival - and meet some of her friends and family along the way!

Check out the demo page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3312850/Danchi_Days_Demo/

As for everyone else, hang tight for just a bit longer - thanks for your support!

- The Danchi Days Team (Melos Han-Tani, mogumu and sandy powder)

How did we choose to interpret “Neighborhood?” Well, Danchi Days is full of neighbors to meet, help and learn from! Here’s why we think Danchi Days fits:

• A game with mechanics (Looking, Sensing, Using Items, Talking, Exploring) focused on taking in the details of everyday life in a present-day neighborhood

• Each neighbor has their own webpage, giving details about how they choose to live and express themselves to others. We took influence from proto-neighborvanias like Uki-Uki Carnival with this idea.

• Neighbors also know some other neighbors: perhaps they are friends, relatives, or even rivals!

• Characters are also members of small groups with similar interests

• The game is all about inviting these neighbors to a summer festival!

By the way, we’ve been reaching out with keys for streamers/youtubers/video makers for the exclusive demo. Want to play? DM us on Bluesky or Twitter.

Also, check out our new fancy website.

A public demo will be coming out later this year. Stay tuned, and wishlist the game on Steam!

The demo consists of roughly 15-20 minutes of content, with a short little story exclusive to the demo. Otherwise, NPCs and websites are from the final game.

If you’re a fan, it’ll be a bit longer before we release the demo publicly… hang tight! We’ll be using content creator reactions and feedback to make a better game in the future.

In the meantime, here’s a quick little preview of the demo…

Thanks for your support! Hope all your end of 2024 is going well.

- Melos from the Danchi Days team

2 months ago, sandy, mogumu and I officially revealed Danchi Days to the world through a trailer and Steam page! The past few weeks have been challenging getting a demo ready for a show. But now that time of struggle is behind us… and we have a shiny nice demo in English and Japanese 😊

Here’s a little sneak peek if you haven’t seen it yet.

Pulling together a demo can be challenging, because you have to get a LOT of stuff together! It’s like prepping your ingredients for cooking. Clickable images, receiving e-mails, getting bookmarks to people’s home pages, searching keywords to find pages… truly, it really adds up. Well, let’s just say it’s a relief it’s all working now 😅

Coverage in the West

We actually received fairly little coverage from the English-speaking world in the past two months! We were surprised given the game’s generally positive reception, but maybe that’s how competition is nowadays. I’m personally a bit disappointed because I thought that an angle of a game set in Japan, by an Asian woman with Japanese background, would be pretty interesting - especially in contrast to the generally male-led Japanese game industry - or the games featuring romanticized takes on Japan.

But… I guess that wasn’t the case. It’s possible that people just need to see a demo first? On the other hand, Japanese press has been pretty warm to the game.

Well, based on fan reception in Japan I still have faith that word of mouth can help us out, so I’m still hopeful. I do have to shoutout that we did receive some coverage from Payton’s Corner Youtube channel alongside other cozy games. We’re very gracious for the attention!

Other than that, we were accepted into Cozy Quest 2024, a Steam Event which will be starting in about a week. Keep an eye out for the event!! We’ll only be in it with our store page, though.

Digi Game Expo 2024

Last weekend we got to present Danchi Days at Digi Game Expo 2024, in Akihabara!

This was a fun event. It’s been a while since I’ve shown a game at a show before, so I forgot how fun it can be to meet fans and meet other developers, both doujin and indie.

All three of our computers (and our secret 4th Journalist Steam Deck) were occupied almost the whole show! We got to observe about 60 new people play the game, even meeting other people who were fans of one of Danchi Days’ main inspirations, Uki-Uki Carnival.

So what was in the demo? It’s quite short, and gives a taste of the writing, world and game mechanics of Danchi Days. It’s a demo-exclusive scenario not in the final game, where, after Hoshino learns a few tutorials from Moro-Q (the kappa), she encounters a Certain Webpage. Its negative portrayal of Hoshino’s home danchi motivates her to go and invite people to the summer festival. After you invite some people, the demo ends… before revealing that there may be malevolent forces at work in the world of Danchi Days…

In addition, players got to explore a bit of the internet, as well as experience some item puzzles, and our Sense Games!!

Ah, Sense Games… the mystery of Danchi Days. What, exactly, are they? I’ll save the details of the Sense Games for another time. However… they were consistently a highlight for players!

Player Reception

We were lucky to receive positive feedback online, as well as even some articles, after the show. Let me translate a few for you.

Danchi Days was great!! It made me think about when I was a kid, hanging out at my friend’s house in a danchi. The game has cozy vibes, so I’d recommend it to any Boku no Natsuyasumi fans. (Streamer)

Danchi Days really lived up to the name “Danchi Days”! Great art and vibes, but I particularly loved the music… soo moving. (Fellow gamedev)

Tried out Danchi Days mostly because they follow me here. And… on top of the great art, the gameplay and dialogue were really well-done, too! Only got to play 10 minutes but I’m already a huge fan. (Player)

In Danchi Days, a 6th grader and a kappa with a cucumber allergy decide to revive an aging danchi! Yes… revive the danchi’s summer festival and invite a bunch of people! The pixel art, atmosphere make for a really cute game, and the retro feel of the in-game internet was charming as well. (Writer)

Even in the demo version there’s already a wide variety of events. Looking forward to the release!! (Let’s Player)

Saw something amazing today! A family of four came to play, and the mom first tried it. After losing, the older brother took over, and when the daughter said “I can’t see!!” the dad lifted her up… and finally, when the brother won, they were all delighted!! For me, a guy who just plays single player games… this was indeed a dazzling sight… (Localizer)

I got to play Danchi Days!! It was really really good!!! The cozy, charming world, the detailed tutorials… they were all great! The mini-games were all unique, fun and felt really polished! I’m looking forward to the release~ (Fellow gamedev)

I was able to try out Danchi Days!🌻 Moving the characters around the beautiful pixel art environments was fun, and I was immediately absorbed. I want to play more!! The shocking ending made me even more excited for the release🥒 (Fellow gamedev)

Danchi Days already has the makings of a masterpiece!! A girl deciding to revive an aging danchi… such a great concept! Seems like she has to invite a lot of people to succeed. I can’t help but cheer for her… this game is one to watch!! (Michinori Ozawa, Soul Caliber 4/6 producer)

I played this on the recommendation of a streamer! The tutorials were easy to understand, and it was a really relaxed, cozy game. The minigames were fun too, and the staff at the booth were really kind. (Player)

We’ve also received some coverage (with a bit more still to come!)

• Indie Live Expo

• Famitsu

• Game Spark (Detailed Interview!)

• Game Spark (coverage)

• Frontlinejp

• Gamemakers

Me and the team are really pleased at the reception from fans, and I’m happy that we’re on the right track. Already, we have lots of ideas on how to push the the game into even more exciting and surprising territory. Personally, for me it can get easy to feel down about a game not getting big, but these shows are good reminders that the point of any art making is really that human connection through collaboration with teammates and sharing with players.

As for our fans in the English world… it may be some time before you’re able to get your hands on it. Alas! But we might reach out to influencers with a demo this winter, so keep an eye out!

(This interview reposted from Game Dev Journey. Thanks for interviewing us!)

(Check out the game on Steam:) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3107530/Danchi_Days/

Meet the Team

sandy: Hi! I'm sandy, the writer, assistant game designer, and Japanese community manager for the team.

mogumu: I’m mogumu, an illustrator based in Toronto. I’m doing the art for Danchi Days and I also design goods that I sell online at yogurts.net . I like looking at and collecting cute things. 

Melos: Hi! I'm Melos - Tokyo-based, I'm acting as producer and do the music, programming, sound design, and lead the game design. I'm also doing the English localization. I've worked on games like Anodyne and Angeline Era.

About The Game…

sandy: Danchi Days is a summer adventure game about reviving the local summer festival. As you invite characters to the festival, you explore the danchi (Japanese mass housing complex), get to know the characters' quirks and desires, and explore the internet.

mogumu: It’s a really cute looking game with funny characters but the relationships with family and friends in the world can be really serious, relatable and touching. 

Melos: A lot of our game's lineage comes from offbeat Japanese adventures like MOON, Hamtaro, Uki-Uki Carnival, Boku no Natsuyasumi - but also the sense of exploration and discovery takes influence from action-adventures I've worked on like Anodyne 1+2, Angeline Era. It's a simple-to-pick up game, quite cute, but carries a lot of intentionality in every aspect to its design. I think it'll leave players looking more closely at the daily lives they lead!

HOW DID THE IDEA FOR THE GAME COME ABOUT?

sandy: I wanted to make a game similar to my favorite GBA game from my childhood, Sakura Momoko no Ukiuki Carnival. The game was never localized outside of Japan, and not that many people know about it, even though it's a really fun game! With Danchi Days, I want to recreate the charm of the game but also add our own unique twists.

Melos: Living in Japan, sandy and I developed a hobby of "sanpo" - taking walks around the neighborhood or to new places. I've always been looking for ways to take from these experiences and express them in the context of a game with exploration. I've had various ideas , some of which appear in my other in-development game Angeline Era, but Danchi Days is the closest to these sanpo-influenced ideas. The year we had the idea for Danchi Days we also decided to move to a danchi.

HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN AND WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?

sandy: The journey has been moving along quite fast! We started working on the game in May 2024, then we were able to announce the Steam page with an announcement trailer in September 2024. Now we're getting ready for our first Game Show in Japan in November 2024.

(Melos Note: As of republishing this on Substack, we actually just did this show and will be posting about it soon)

Melos: Both sandy and mogumu are new to game development, but it's been smooth getting them up to speed as they are both lifelong gamers (and we've known each other for a long time.) We chose Unity! Mainly due to my familiarity as I've done a bunch of 3D/2D games in it. It's an extremely flexible and powerful software.

WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?

sandy: The biggest hurdle has been the initial game design. We had a brainstorming phase of what the basic gameplay will be. During this period, we had days when we felt unsure about the game, but after a while of back and forth, we were able to arrive at a strong gameplay mechanic.

Melos: Other than the prototyping and pre-production (especially with the sense games), I would say the weeks leading up to a first reveal and the weeks leading up to a first public playable are usually pretty tricky - there's just a lot going on with all aspects of the game. Also I'm working on two games at once which is hard... but other than that I would say the game itself has been pretty straightforward. With the design we are paying a lot of attention to making the invite quests feel solvable within the game, as well as trying to not fall into too many "fetch quest game"-isms.

(Melos Addendum: I would say that figuring out the sense games was tricky. As were the past few weeks leading up to our vertical slice showfloor demo. But playtesters and showfloor players love them!!)

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR PEOPLE DOING THEIR OWN GAME PROJECTS?

mogumu: I guess my advice would be that if you feel stuck and frustrated, just stop and take a break, go outside for some fresh air or do something that you enjoy, for me that’s reading comics or chat with a friend. It’s a lot easier to come up with solutions when you’re not feeling stressed.

sandy: This game would not have been possible without Melos Han-Tani (main game designer, programmer, and music) and mogumu (art). So my advice is to find friends who also want to make video games and make one together! Our team is achieving things that would not have been possible if I were doing this alone! I'm so thankful for their dedication.

Melos: Work with friends! Experience comes with time. And generally just being open to new experiences is always helpful.

(Melos addendum: Working in a team is useful as it makes it easy to feel accountable to actually finishing the game and its various milestones.)

ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?

sandy: Danchi Days has a really cute and nostalgic aesthetic, but we'll also be dealing with some serious but important themes in the game, like aging and dementia. We hope we can redefine the cozy game genre in new ways, so if that sounds appealing, please wishlist Danchi Days! Let's go on a summer adventure together!

mogumu: I feel lucky things have been going smoothly so far and that I get to work with experienced and motivated friends. :) Thank you for interviewing us!

Subscribe to Danchi Days news for free / wishlist it on steam! / subscribe to our youtube

Subscribe now

Hello, Melos Han-Tani here - Danchi Days (hereon DD) programmer/designer/composer. I'm here to explain what I mean by DD being a "Post-Cozy" game!

What do I mean by "cozy"?

The "Cozy" in "Post-Cozy" refers not to 'cozy' the adjective, but to the historical category of Cozy Games which has grown substantially over the past few years. Why call Cozy Games a "historical category?"

Let's look at this recent Wholesome Games Twitter Post:

It asks for "a common feature in wholesome or cozy games that you think doesn’t fit the vibe." Responses include:

• Time pressure

• Combat

• Tough dexterity mini-games

• Endlessly-growing farm/business management

If you categorized these, would you call combat and time pressure 'cozy?' Probably not! Despite this, there are many widely-loved Cozy Games that contain these. That is, Cozy Games and cozy (the adjective) are distinct. As Cozy Games matured and expanded, many mechanics became common, whether or not they were cozy.

So, when I say DD is Post-Cozy, I mean that it's in conversation with Cozy Games, and arguably even a Cozy Game itself, BUT, distinct enough in certain ways that are worth noting by also calling it “Post-Cozy”. The game appreciates what Cozy Games have accomplished for the gaming community, but also wonders where else the category might be able to go by drawing in other influences.

Is Danchi Days a Cozy Game?

So yes, confusingly, Danchi Days IS a Cozy Game (in some ways). It has a slice of life setting, there are colorful and bright aesthetics, there's a lot of emotional warmth and humor… but there's a lot that distinguishes it from the popular notion of Cozy Game that's worth mentioning.

Yet, DD is also (confusingly, I admit) a Post-Cozy game.

Here's 4 reasons!

1. The Narrative Themes and Setting

The game's internet, characters, dialogue get at themes and moods that are arguably not cozy. Everything in the game is based on something or someone encountered in everyday life or reading, and of course that includes darker aspects. A large portion of the game is exploring webpages, and the internet, after all, is a complex place!

Furthermore, the game has a more historically situated setting than usual, taking place in real-life Japan, so I'd pin it as historically situated in a more realistic way than an idyllic rural setting. For example, DD's Japan has the same history of danchis (mass housing) and the society's aging problem.

Of course, realistic settings and darker themes do exist in other Cozy Games! But I would say that, like in Danchi Days, that is not the case on average.

2. Game Influences

Cozy Games have generally incorporated influences like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, The Sims, My Time At Portia, Stardew, Slime Rancher. There's arguably an overlap with so-called "Casual Games" for phones/browsers in the way many progression or quest systems work (E.g. Disney Dreamlight Valley.)

In DD's case, we are working from other influences, which I’d loosely described as "off-beat adventures". Games like the Japan-only Uki-Uki Carnival, (about inviting people to a festival and exploring the internet), or Doki-Doki Poyatchio, a '90s PS1 Japanese game about delivering bread to a fantasy town. Or the wildly popular Mother series.

There's also influences like Opoona, MOON, Attack of the Friday Monsters or Boku no Natsuyasumi and Hamtaro which have seen some mild popularity in the West, but are not common influences on Cozy Games.

sandy powder, the other game design lead, is from Asia, and so draws on a different cultural background in terms of books, manga, life experiences. For myself as game designer, I'm drawing on a lot of other games as well including my own games (e.g. Sephonie, Anodyne 2) which are unique spins on the ideas of adventure and puzzles.

With all that in mind, from the game design standpoint, it feels like we're working from a different source of influences than average, hence why Post-Cozy feels like a good description of DD. While we play and enjoy Cozy Games, there's a lot more that we need to account for when describing the game accurately.

3. Mechanics we don't have

Cozy Games often tend to have some of the following

• Farming, Gardening

• Growing a small business/town

• Gathering Resources to Craft via exploration/combat

• Loosely-tethered-to-real-life Setting (in the sense of Animal Crossing)

• Creature Collecting/Raising

• Sandbox Mechanics

• Friendship/Dating Point Mechanics

• Cute Graphics

• Quirky Characters

DD has a few - Cute Graphics, Quirky Characters, but not really any of the others.

4. The Sensing Games

There's also the Sensing Games (above - song is placeholder BGM, Encantamiento by Chancha Via Circuito), which are a kind of novel game mechanic meant to tactilely convey different things you 'sense' in the world. It’s like ‘flavor text for your fingers.’

In the above video, you’re sensing the scent of trees. By pushing around the trees, you can smell the trees faster. You lose Focus (the star bar) as you move, so you need to be economical.

This system is influenced by my work as a designer on Sephonie's Linking Puzzles (which try to convey creature relationships through puzzle language), Anodyne 1&2's 2D levels (which convey emotion or character through action-puzzle langauge), and the level design philosophy of Angeline Era (conveying emotion/lore through enemy layouts and spatial design), as well as some other ideas I've had, such as the "Fastgame" (a 2D action-platform game, inspired by emulator fast-forward, where you must sometimes play at 4x speed, which creates much different tactile textures.). It’s also inspired by some similar games like Warioware.

With the Sense Games, I really want to ask: what are minigames we can use to characterize the sensory experience of real life, other than e.g. literally making a game about bringing your nose close to trees? Much like how abstracted pixel art can make our minds fill in the blanks as to what the game world is like, I wonder if the same can happen with ‘abstract’ games like the Sensing Game.

In Conclusion

In short, you can think of DD as a game that is a Cozy Game in some respects! Certainly you'll feel right at home if you're looking for a game to wind down or chill out with. But, at the same time, we're exploring in other game design directions as well. In other words, Danchi Days could, confusingly, be called a "Post-Cozy Cozy Game."

Now, if that sounds interesting… wishlist the game on Steam!! Keep an eye out for some things later this year…

Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Yg7u5MQcqT

We’re excited to bring you the first trailer for Danchi Days!

The Steam Page is also live, so please check it out! We worked hard on it and hope it’ll build your interest for the final game sometime in 2026.

In the meantime, join us on Discord! Or subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t yet:

Subscribe now

Haven’t heard about Danchi Days? Here’s some info…

In an old danchi (Japanese housing complex), there used to be a yearly summer festival. Alas, the residents have aged, and the once-loved tradition is now on hold. But our protagonist, Hoshino, decides to revive it. Hand out flyers to let everyone know the festival’s back!

There’s 100 people to invite, from all walks of life! Some might agree to go immediately - but others have problems to solve. It's not necessary to invite everyone, but the more, the merrier!

Search keywords to find your neighbor’s personal webpages, and learn their quirks and desires. The info you find may help with festival preparations. You might find a quirky minigame here or there, too!

Use your Sensing ability to observe the rich world of the danchi, and discover something new! A tossed-aside cigarette butt tells a story, and the fragrant scent of trees hides the sneaky presence of a mosquito. Inspired by the Y2K, GBA eras, Danchi Days is a summer adventure filled with mystery and surprise.

Inspired by games like Hamtaro, EarthBound, MOON Remix RPG, fans of those eras will feel right at home! But there’s not only nostalgia - adults and kids alike will find Danchi Days to be a fresh, intriguing game, full of emotional ups and downs.

Hey everyone! This is Melos Han-Tani (Anodyne series, Angeline Era, etc) from the Danchi Days team. We started this newsletter for people who want to follow Danchi Days’ development updates and get important updates like trailers, demo and full game releases.

(Wishlist Danchi Days now! 🌟 https://store.steampowered.com/app/3107530/Danchi_Days))'

Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Yg7u5MQcqT

If that’s you… then subscribe for free here!!

Subscribe now

Not familiar with Danchi Days yet?

It’s a cute, “Post-Cozy” adventure game where you’ll laugh, cry, and feel awe while inviting characters to a Japanese Summer Festival! You can surf the internet to learn their quirks and desires, and use your senses to uncover the unseen wonders of its Y2K, GBA-inspired world.

We’re taking inspiration from various games, from Hamtaro, MOON, Phoenix Wright, Japanese cult classic Uki-Uki Carnival, to games of my own like Angeline Era and Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. Look forward to Danchi Days!

The team behind Danchi Days is sandy powder (writing (JP)/design), mogumu (art) and myself (code/music/design/EN localization).

Here’s an earlier introductory post I made on my Substack.

Here’s a quick gameplay preview:

And a screenshot of the internet for good measure.

We’re on most social media as well. Our Steam Page is coming soon! (It will be live sometime this month..)

Twitter

Instagram

Youtube

Tumblr

TikTok

Subscribe now