7 Questions with the Danchi Days developers!
A quick roundtable with sandy, mogumu and Melos
(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!
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