A bit of a correction of Touhou's "doujin" status.

[Touhou Fan]

In this thread http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=1434.0
I saw this comment.

wait wait wait isn't Touhou technically doujin to begin with

I have to say it because someone else will say it and they could be bad

I believe calling it a doujin game is a misnomer. Doujin litterally means "fan made". When a game is based on content from an anime, movie, another game, etc, then it was made by a fan of whatever it was based on. Thus it is a fan made game or "doujin game". However Touhou games (except for a VERY FEW like Megamari and Super Marisa World, etc) are actually NOT based on anything. Touhou is an original game series that started on the old Japanese computer PC98 (which was made by NEC). Because it is original and not based on something else, it is NOT a doujin game. However because it was made by an individual making it on his own time at home and not an employee working for on it for a game making company, it does have a certain special category it DOES fit in. they are considered to be a "home brew" games. However, while most home brew games are free, the Touhou games aren't (except maybe the PC98 original 5 games).

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

Doujin litterally means "fan made".

No, it literally means "same person", with a connotation of "clique" or "circle" (as in, say, "sewing circle") and refers to any amateur self-published work, be it based on existing material or not. A large segment of doujin works are fanworks, but being a fanwork is not a requirement to be classified as doujin.

[Touhou Fan]

No, it literally means "same person", with a connotation of "clique" or "circle" (as in, say, "sewing circle") and refers to any amateur self-published work, be it based on existing material or not. A large segment of doujin works are fanworks, but being a fanwork is not a requirement to be classified as doujin.

Thanks. I never knew that. I learn something new every day.

Then that means basically that doujin games are "home brew" games?

[Drake]

Doujin, homebrew, indie, all the same thing.

There may be a certain amount of confusion due to both doujin games and fanworks/spinoffs of doujin games being called the same, in english. This is because the spinoff games are still technically made by a solo group, so it's still doujin.

[Touhou Fan]

Doujin, homebrew, indie, all the same thing.

There may be a certain amount of confusion due to both doujin games and fanworks/spinoffs of doujin games being called the same, in english. This is because the spinoff games are still technically made by a solo group, so it's still doujin.

Never heard of "indie" before. How did that come to mean home made games?

[Drake]

It's just an abbreviation of "independent".

[Alice Fact]

also homebrew never ever ever ever correlates to free. ever. it just means the developer doesn't care about money as much as a big business does. he still doesn't like when you pirate, but he won't try to kill you over it (though some professionals are worried less about piracy and more about people actually getting the game, as well)

and yes I do believe the first 5 games are "free" (probably more like abandonware or something), you just have to do some things to get them to work