Digital Games Expo 2025 was held in Akihabara UDX on 9th November 2025. The event, which is also known by its Japanese name “Dejige Haku”, is dedicated entirely to indie and “doujin” games.
Official website: https://digigame-expo.org/
| What ARE doujin games, though? |
|---|
| “Doujin” refers to fan/hobbyist-created content, and doujin games are thus games created by fans and hobbyists.
Japanese hobbyists have been creating games for platforms such as the MSX and X68000 on a large scale since the 80’s, distributing them at events such as Comic Market (some even argue that the history of doujin games goes back as far as the 70’s).
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Japan thus has a rich history of independent developers and hobbyists working on games, as well as a large following. For the most part of their history, however, doujin games were mostly distributed on physical media at local events, meaning that they had low visibility outside of Japan. This has been gradually changing in recent years, with the advent of digital storefronts that distribute such games, and publishers willing to pick them up. Some famous franchises even have their roots in doujin games: For example, Type-Moon, famous for the Fate series and especially Fate/Grand Order which is one of the highest-grossing mobile games of all time, was first made famous by their doujin game Tsukihime (which had a retail release for its remake in 2021). The boundary between doujin and indie games is ambiguous, but the rule of thumb is that indie games are generally created to be products by professionals or semi-professionals, while doujin games are generally created by hobbyists for fun, but one can find many exceptions to this, and the difference (or lack thereof) between the terms is a frequent hot topic for discussion. Today, doujin games account for 5% of all doujin works altogether. While this might not initially sound like much, one should consider the sheer scale of doujin activity in Japan, with Comic Market 97 having 32,000 participating doujin circles, and a total of 750,000 participants in the event overall. |
While doujin games used to be mostly exclusive to PC, the ease of development in recent years has resulted in more diversity in platforms, and we saw games for PC, current generation consoles, retro game consoles, iOS, and Android at the event.
Due to the sheer number of participants, it would be hard to cover all of them, and so we are only able to cover a small fraction: Anyone who is interested in seeing more should check out the complete list of participants available on the official website (from this year on we are also listing the booth numbers alongside their names, so that you can find them on the list if needed).
Eisnid (B-07a)
Eisnid exhibited a demo for Iris Odyssey, a novel game set in modern-day Shibuya about an orphaned girl searching for her brother and a magic crime investigator pursuing a group of rogue sorcerers.
UNLIMITEAD GAMES (C-12a)
UNLIMITEAD GAMES had a demo of Variable Arms Frontier at the event. The game is an open world mecha action game in which the player takes control of a robot that can also transform into a plane form (similar to a VF from the Macross series), thus resulting in what feels like a mash between Armored Core and Ace Combat, with the transformation making it feel similar to controlling a Valkyrie in the PS2 games Another Century’s Episode 2 or 3.
YOKUNIKU (C-21)
YOKUNIKU was exhibiting Tenshikikou Shikkoubu Tamashii Kyuusaika (Angelic Agency: Soul Salvation Unit), a supernatural buddy cop mystery adventure game in which the player investigates paranormal cases, with sequences requiring investigation and deduction.
softoko (C-05ab)
softoko was exhibiting Voyage Router, a “navigation-based roguelike” with a sci-fi setting and focus on exploration using procedurally generated maps.
Tamatamaya (D-17a)
Tamatamaya was exhibiting Hako Ikusa, a 2D mecha action game inspired by titles like Assault Suits Valken and Leynos, which is already out and completely free, downloadable from the creator’s website.
(On that note, it seems that Gunhound is getting a new release as “Gunhound EXZ”, exhibited by Garuru Software/B-10b, but the booth was unmanned each time we went there meaning we were unable to ask questions about it)
Witch Hat (B15-a)
Witch Hat had a demo for Adventurer’s Guild Reception, a game in which the player, as a receptionist for a fantasy world’s adventurer’s guild, is tasked with matching quests to adventurers that fit them.
YumeKakigori Team (B-06ab)
YumeKakigori Team exhibited YumeKakigori, a novel game in which the player runs a shaved ice (kakigori) store in a world without color, finding out more about the world and their customers by serving shaved ice which expresses thoughts and emotions.
MUTAN (X-04)
MUTAN exhibited Sofia in Exchange for Lies, an adventure game in which the player takes on the role of a psychiatrist who has to remotely interrogate a girl with multiple personalities who is a suspect in the murder of a presidential candidate.
PhotonSystem (D-07b)
PhotonSystem showed off their new game, NonetBeat, a 3D hack-and-slash action game with sandbox-style stages and destructible terrain.
Kabushiki Kaisha FORCES (E-06a)
Steel Knight’s Armis, the mecha roguelike with Vampire Survivors-like gameplay (a simple but satisfying combination) was also exhibited at the event.
Kousei Dojo (D-01a)
Kousei Dojo was exhibiting their fighting game KenGeki Cross Zone, which has a focus on aggressive gameplay.
Action Palette (D-21ab)
Action Palette was exhibiting Ordealis: Edge of Struggle (formerly known as Ashen Blade), a game consisting solely of boss battles with Sekiro-like combat and a focus on parrying (that being said, this writer managed to clear the hard difficulty mode without parrying a single time).
Three Gears (D-02b)
Three Gears was showing off Project Gears, a belt scroll action game with retro 32-bit era graphics, unique systems inspired by car customization, and stylish action like the ability to slow down time and drift around enemies.
Project ICKX (Y-01)
#デジゲー博 2025。設営完了しました！
秋葉原UDX4階 Y-1ブースです！
なお動画の機体はY-1。 pic.twitter.com/iTDC4al1RR— EFFY開発チーム (@effy_staffs) November 9, 2025
Project ICKX, which specializes in Ace Combat-style flight action games, had a bunch of their existing games for sale. Vertical Strike: Endless Challenge, which allows the player to pull off all sorts of crazy post stall maneuvers, is available in English on multiple platforms such as Steam and the Switch, and their classic sci-fi flight action game EFFY will be coming to Steam as well.
As always, the Digital Games Expo was filled with passionate developers who clearly love working on games, and even a quick glance yields all sorts of unique and fascinating games.
As stated before, the sheer number of participants means that this article is only able to show off a small fraction of what was available at the event: Anyone whose interest was piqued by the snippets here should definitely check out the complete list of participants available on the official website.
Check out our report on last year’s Digital Games Expo too!
Digital Games Expo 2024: Showcasing Japan’s creative indie games
