Denpa Narratives is an unranked denpa narrative jam, featuring stories that pay homage to titles like Jisatsu no Tame 101 no Houhou, Tsui no Sora, Sayonara wo Oshiete, Shizuku, and Subarashiki Hibiki, amongst others. Please read one of these entries and consult the rest of this page before asking questions about what denpa is, or what we’re looking for.
You do not have to make visual novels, though visual novels are highly preferred. There are no prizes, and we will not be judging the entries, though we will be moderating to make sure the content does not violate the rules. This is an 18+ jam, and if you are found to be under 18, we will be disqualifying you from the jam.
We highly encourage and favour eroge (lit. tl. erotic game)! Though non-eroge content is allowed, this may not be the place for it, as the denpa titles we wish to pay homage to are all works of eroge. Though, please remember to indicate on your page in some way that you have made NSFW content.
The jam runners also reserve the right to remove games with offensive (i.e. bigoted) content at their own discretion.
There is a hard upper word limit for entries as the hosts will be reading through them. This hard upper word limit is 25,000 words. There is no lower word limit.
You are free to work on old projects, or to start early, as long as you don’t submit finished entries within the first two weeks. This is for moderation purposes.
Denpa (電波) is a Japanese word that means “radio waves”/”electric waves”. Originally, the term was used as a derogatory word describing conspiracy theorists, after an infamous series of murders where the perpetrator mentioned “radio waves” had supposedly told him to kill people. Originally used akin to the term “cognitohazard,“ denpa soon became the label of a sub-genre of cult classic visual novels fusing psychological horror with erotica / pornography—often with themes of insanity / schizophrenia as well as mass psychosis, cults, suicide, murder, as well as ero-guro.
Three major works of denpa that defined the sub-genre are:
Additionally, Shizuku (Drop) is also considered important to the history of denpa.
Among English speakers, the term “denpa” is heavily debated on, but to save the debate, this jam will focus on works that are directly inspired by visual novel works of this subculture and period. We’ve also made a few denpa visual novels ourselves, so please take a look at those and those made by our friends if you would like a stronger understanding of what this jam is trying to do.
Jam organiser games:
Games made by friends:
Since denpa is fairly abstract, it also helps to look at some misconceptions about the genre. There is a sub-genre of music, also referred to as “denpa,” that features retro computing visuals and deep roots with otaku culture, but is not synonymous with the visual novel sub-genre. While the term denpa does literally mean “electric waves,” it is more metaphorical, as you’ll notice many denpa works do not literally contain electric waves.
Similarly, other sub-genres of horror: liminal spaces, backrooms, analog horror, SCP, and other creepypasta are distinct, emerging from different scenes and cultural contexts, often with extremely different authorial intent behind them. Surrealism by itself isn’t enough to be denpa. If you choose to incorporate elements of other genres, we ask you to incorporate them alongside inspiration directly from the VN Denpa subculture.
Collaborative writing alternatives to Google and Microsoft:
Visual novel resources:
Other lists of resources:
Images/Photos
Music
Off-site team building on Fisher's forum (make sure to read the rules properly prior to joining the forum!):
Those are just some of many. Feel free to go looking for more!
Thank you to kuruma (車) for help with the art!
