Incorporating dementia and community in a video game | Interview with the Team Behind “Danchi Days”

Last summer, I witnessed a fantastic Dames 4 Games showcase which showed off so many cosy and wholesome games that we can look forward to.

One game that stood out to me was this delightfully colourful game called Danchi Days. And then I noticed that this game focuses on an elderly family member dealing with dementia - a topic not often touched when it comes to video games. I knew I had to speak with the team behind this game to learn more so I had the great pleasure of speaking with sandy powder (Writer and Co-Designer) and Melos Han-Tani (Co-Designer, Music, JP to English Localization, Programmer, Story Assistance), two members of gingham games, the developers of Danchi Days.

I came across Danchi Days during a Dames 4 Games showcase back last summer. What can you tell me about the synopsis of Danchi Days?

sandy powder: Hoshino, a twelve-year-old girl, moves back to the danchi (mass housing complex) to live with her grandma, who has dementia. 

To cheer her grandma up, she decides to revive the local summer festival. To hold a successful summer festival, she needs to invite as many neighbors as possible! The game is about Hoshino’s adventure in her neighborhood community.

I truly commend you and your team covering such a heavy topic like dementia in a video game. You don't often see/hear topics like this discussed in this medium, whose idea was this and what can you tell me about the origins of this idea?

sandy powder: When I started to brainstorm the story, I initially only had this idea: the protagonist will revive a summer festival, but Melos advised me that the protagonist should have a stronger motivation. 

Then, I came up with the idea that she would be doing it for her grandma, who is living with dementia. I have several family members who are or were living with dementia, so the topic feels close to me. 

A lot of works (movies, novels, games, etc) that deal with dementia tend to have a tragic angle. Of course, dementia brings some difficulties to both the person and their families, but I wanted to tell the other side of the story too. Dementia can actually also bring joy and creativity. I hope I can tell that side of the story through Danchi Days.

How long have you all worked on Danchi Days? Did you encounter any obstacles or issues during this game's development? If so, how did you overcome them?

sandy powder: We’ve been working on the game since April 2024, but we haven’t been working on it full time. One challenge for me as the writer was to come up with unique ideas for the characters (I’m aiming for one hundred). 

Actually not working on the game full time has been beneficial for me because I get so many ideas from my full time job as an English teacher in Japan. My job requires me to read lots of books for my classes that I teach and hear many different opinions from my students. 

Having this opportunity helped me brainstorm many of my ideas for Danchi Days during my longer breaks away from school. Another issue that we’ve faced is related to marketing. Because of the heavy themes the game deals with, we are not a conventional “cozy” game, but our initial marketing was not able to convey that very well. 

Since receiving some feedback on the demo, we improved our Steam store descriptions to more accurately describe the game, so we are thankful for all the feedback from players. 

Melos Han-Tani: Logistically I had to figure out how to create tools that could easily import the writing into the game so sandy doesn't have to interface with Unity too much, as well as tools to help with making the many cutscenes. I've also had to be a bit more of an art-direction-collaborator on the art than my past games since this was mogumu's (the artist) first game, so I've had to think hard to explain my intuitions about the art in words. Other than the marketing and demo deadlines it's been a pretty smooth project! I expect keeping track of all the characters and events to be challenging but it should be doable as I've released other huge games in the past.

What do you hope to achieve with the upcoming release of Danchi Days?

sandy powder: I want to introduce and spread the concept of the “danchi” (mass housing complex) to the English audience! Danchi is not well-known outside Japan yet, but it really is a unique piece of Japanese history and Japanese life today. By picking this setting, I hope Danchi Days can help our players think about neighborhood and community - two very important topics that are relevant to anyone looking for a better way to live together. 

Melos: Danchi Days has an organic approach to adventure and text-heavy games that I think will be refreshing, in the sense that the way the game feels to play is not necessarily because we set out to make "an adventure game", but to think of a combination of mechanics/systems that mesh together in order to communicate the social fabric of Danchi Days' world. I hope players will enjoy interacting with these various forms of reading and play!

When can we expect Danchi Days to release and are there any plans for the game to come out on other platforms?

sandy powder: We are working hard towards releasing the game some time in 2026! We will release first on Steam, but we do have plans to release it on consoles in the future.

I would like to thank sandy and Melos for their time and honesty, I wish them and the wider team at gingham games as well as publisher Analgesic Productions every success with the launch of Danchi Days!

As always, please visit the Steam page for this game to wishlist it and keep on top of any updates and their general website.