Self-introduction after all this time
Hello, I am Tsuneko (catlover_mimi).
I would like to introduce myself now.
I am currently playing about 10 games posted on itch on Saturday nights from 20:00 (Japan time) and distributing them live on youtube.
I use a blue cat avatar.
I have been doing this activity for 190 times, and I have been distributing every week for 3.5 years, and the number of games I have played has reached nearly 2000.
In this article, I would like to write about why Tsuneko is doing this activity based on my experiences in the past.
When Tsuneko was a small child, he grew up in a household where his parents bought him a video game every few months to play.
Around the age of 15, a computer came to our house.
One day, Tsuneko discovered that he could play "free games" on his computer, and he started downloading and playing various games.
It was natural that PCs at that time did not have a graphics board, and the free games that were being made were mainly simple games with simple graphics and text.
However, whether it was because of these restrictions or the creators' own abundant talent, free games had eccentricities and mysterious persistence that were not found in commercially available games.
Tsuneko was captivated by such free games.
Among them, he became especially interested in and became a fan of a circle called Andy Mente.
Undiemente was particularly eccentric, had a cat element, and was full of challenging elements, some of which were online games that took several years to conquer and never finished.
It was around 2010 that I started seeing the term "indie game".
Nowadays, the term "indie game" encompasses everything from games made by medium-sized studios to games made by individual creators, whether commercial or hobbyist, except for companies that have released AAA titles.
However, back in 2010, I thought it was just a fancy way of calling free games because they were commercial, so I was surprised to see how far the term "indie game" had spread.
Many of the free games that were made by individuals at the time have become famous by reworking their own popular works for commercialization as indie games.
Cave Story and La-Mulana are good examples.
Incidentally, Tsuneko likes La-Mulana one of the best games in the whole world, both the free game version and the indie game version!
On the other hand, Jiscald, the creator of Andy Mente, made a booklet called "Free Game Spirit" around 2010, which was sold at coterie magazine fairs.
I don't remember the details, but I do remember that it was a pamphlet about his pride as a free game author.
Since then, Andy Mente has created "Game Maker War" a story in which a former friend of his makes it big with an indie game as an unsuccessful individual game creator, while he sells games on the street despite the interference of dogs, suspicious people, and a major game company.
The "Legend of the Strongest Free Game" was created.
In "Legend of the Strongest Free Game" a student at a free game school who always makes strange games and takes last place in the school's free game contest, he faces an evil army called "Justice" that wants to make all free games look like consumer games with beautiful graphics and easy-to-understand gameplay that will be popular with the masses. An RPG game was also created to fight in the contest against an evil army by creating chaotic but interesting works while being sabotaged.
Tsuneko grew up watching Andy Mente, so he began to seek out games that were full of strange but particular elements.
Incidentally, Tsuneko was a big fan of Andy Mente at the time and attended many offline meetings.
In a semi-autobiographical adventure RPG work called "Shinagawa Majin Gakuen" based on Jiscald's life as a free game author, which describes his encounter with Andy Mente fans and his fight against Justice, Tsuneko appears as one of the fans he meets under the name "Tsunegoro. He also became a fighter for Justice, following Jiscald's will.
Such undiemente is now selling indie games on Steam that are a bit weird but seem to be popular with the masses.
Tsuneko also became interested in other free games around that time, and happened to stumble upon a site called itch, where he started looking for games.
Of course, Tsuneko is still an Andy Mente fan.
At first, he intended to play only famous non-Japanese free games on itch, but settled on playing only some of the new games that were posted every week.
I'll talk about that next time!
Links to the works mentioned in the article
Game Maker War （ゲームメーカーウォー）
https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/10667
Legend of the Strongest Free Game（フリゲ最強伝説）
https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/7657
Shinagawa Majin Gakuen（品川魔人学園）
https://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/game/se428065.html
The latest Steam title World End Dinner
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1647190/World_End_Diner/