And so we come to the final part of our exploration of Steam’s Comiket sale — a well-hidden set of discounts on a wide selection of Japanese doujin titles in celebration of the biannual Comiket doujinshi fair.

The games available in the sale run the gamut from danmaku (“bullet hell”) shooters to visual novels and represent a fine selection of what the growing Japanese indie scene has to offer. Thanks to partnerships with publishers such as Nyu Media and Playism, Japanese games are a growing market on Valve’s platform — it’s a shame that this sale was not given wider visibility through a front-page promo slot, however, meaning that it may well have passed more than a few people by, and missed a great opportunity to introduce more Western-centric gamers to the cultural output of our friends in the Far East.

Never fear, though, as you’ve got until August 18 to discover some new favourites from among the available titles. Today’s selection presents the last few titles we haven’t covered as yet. You can check out the previous three posts here on MoeGamer to find out more about the titles we haven’t covered today.

Let’s get started!

Continue reading Treasures of Steam’s Secret Comiket Sale, Part IV →

By now, if you’ve been following MoeGamer this week, you’re hopefully aware of Steam’s Comiket sale, in which a selection of Japanese doujin titles are available for significantly reduced prices in celebration of Japan’s famous biannual doujinshi fair.

It’s a sale that, despite there being a dedicated page for it, Valve has seen fit to all but ignore so far as promotion is concerned — there’s not a whiff of it on the store’s front page. We’re not going to let that stand, though! The doujin titles on Steam represent some great examples of the burgeoning Japanese indie development scene, and supporting them sends a great message both to the doujin circles responsible for developing the games in the first place, and the localisation companies who have brought these titles to the West.

Today, we’re going to take a look at another selection of games available in the sale. Hold on to your wallets!

Continue reading Treasures of Steam’s Secret Comiket Sale, Part III →

If you’ve just joined us, it seems that Steam is holding a sale in celebration of Japan’s biannual Comiket event, during which the prices of various Japanese doujin (indie) titles are considerably reduced — yet, bizarrely, there is absolutely no mention of this sale anywhere on the platform’s front page.

Never fear, though, because even if Valve isn’t going to shout about this extremely generous sale on a selection of great games, that doesn’t stop us celebrating it.

Yesterday, we took a look at a selection of some of the games available in the sale. Today, we continue our exploration with another group of fine titles, all of which are well worth your time and money — particularly at these ridiculous prices.

Check out the full sale selection at this link, and hit the jump for further thoughts.

Continue reading Treasures of Steam’s Secret Comiket Sale, Part II →

There’s a Steam sale full of Japanese doujin (indie) games going on right now in celebration of Japan’s biannual Comiket event, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing about it; it hasn’t been publicised anywhere on the platform’s front page.

Instead, it’s seemingly relying on word-of-mouth to spread — a little disappointing for a platform that has, historically, allowed both big-name and small-scale projects to shine through front-page promotion. The reason for the sale’s lack of promotion isn’t entirely clear; perhaps it’s due to the perception of the titles involved in it as “niche interest” rather than games that will appeal to a broad slice of Steam’s audience. And that might be fair enough in some cases — but it’s also a squandered opportunity to expose these games to a much wider audience.

So let’s take the time to explore what’s in this sale now and do at least a little to address the issue. You can find the sale’s page at this link, and after the break, what you can expect from a selection of the games involved, with more to follow throughout the week.

Continue reading Treasures of Steam’s Secret Comiket Sale, Part I →