📰 2023 February Zine Issue and Wrap-Up!

2023年 2月 24日

It is the last Friday of the month, which means it is time for the インディー通信 Indie Tsushin 2023 February zine issue!

Title card for the インディー通信 Indie Tsushin 2023 February Issue
Get it on itch.io Get it on Ko-Fi

The zine is viewable in browser on itch, and available for download in PDF, ePub, and MOBI formats on itch and Ko-Fi. We also have digital postcards and the Japanese interview editions (インタビュー特集) to download. It is PWYW so everyone can enjoy it! We really hope that you will check it out!

I have to confess that this month was quite tough for me health-wise. I do apologize for the slightly thinner issue this time around and for the long drought during the first half of February! I am so grateful to Daikon for stepping up and writing quite a few of the articles this month. I am working on getting my health back, so I hope that the updates are a bit more stable in March!

Anyway, here's what's inside:


2023 February インディー通信 Indie Tsushin Zine Issue

👑 Pickup! Tokyo Game Dungeon 2

Tokyo Game Dungeon 2

Twenty games we really liked from Tokyo Game Dungeon 2!

🎮 闇鍋人狼 (Yaminabe Jinro)

Title screen for Yaminabe Jinro

Game profile of 闇鍋人狼 (Yaminabe Jinro), a mobile social deduction game by uracon!

🎮 UCHU MEGA FIGHT

Title card for UCHU MEGA FIGHT

Game profile of UCHU MEGA FIGHT, a fighting game made in PICO-8 by uchuzine!

🎮 Violet Wisteria

Title screen for Violet Wisteria

Game profile of Violet Wisteria, a retro-styled side-scrolling platformer by KaniPro Games!

🎤 Interview with uracon

A screenshot from the game with Migiko facing the player and saying, 'I got it! I just need to talk to Hidari-senpai about the game they are absorbed in right now!'

We spoke with uracon about Yaminabe Jinro and their other works!

🎤 Interview with uchuzine

Screenshot of UCHU MEGA FIGHT character selection screen. The player chose Uchuzine and the CPU chose Marumoyo, who says, 'Hello! Will you play with me?'

We spoke with uchuzine about making UCHU MEGA FIGHT in PICO-8!

🎤 Interview with KaniPro Games

Screenshot of the Minotaur miniboss in Violet Wisteria. The Minotaur is swinging an enormous ax down in front of Wisteria.

We spoke with KaniPro Games about making Violet Wisteria and their deep love of retro games!

🎤 Interview with Farfama

Screenshot of city::ephemera. The camera is focused on a large orb in the foreground, while building-like structures reach for the skies in the background.

We spoke with Farfama about making city::ephemera, the INFINITE TEARS collective, and more!


Announcements

☃️ 2023 Winter Collection

Title card for the インディー通信 Indie Tsushin 2023 Winter Collection

I've bundled together the 2022 December, 2023 January, and 2023 February issues into one collection of zines that you can buy on itch for a minimum of $10! I'm trying to raise some funds to commission writers to contribute to the zine in future. This is still very much in the planning stages, but it is something I really hope to bring to fruition sometime this year! If you want to see Indie Tsushin grow, please consider getting the 2023 Winter Collection, or sharing it with people that you think would be interested in reading about Japanese indie games!

🍀 March events

Spring means lots of cool stuff to look forward to, like the Tokyo Indie Games Summit on March 4th! Daikon and I will be walking around and playing a bunch of games there. Follow us on Mastodon to see our live-toots about it!


ICYMI

🎪 Steam Next Fest Special

Click here for Part 2!

We streamed a two-part special feature of Happy Hour covering some of the demos we played during the 2023 February Steam Next Fest!

📰 2023 January issue

Title card for the インディー通信 Indie Tsushin 2023 January Issue

Check out the 2023 January issue and its games if you haven't yet! And be sure to look through our full catalog for more great stuff!

🍸 Happy Hour!

Nice Gear Games presents Happy Hour!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and tune in every Thursday from 9PM UTC+9 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 buying our zines! 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 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.

Support Indie Tsushin on Ko-Fi!

🙏 Thanks for reading!

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, follow our Steam curator account, 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!

Thanks for reading Indie Tsushin!

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