![E285 [gingerBreadHouse]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E285-gingerBreadHouse.gif)
Welcome back to the Blog! It’s been a little over a week since we launched Doki-Doki Universe. If you’ve been reading the reviews and forums you’ll see that a lot of people have been charmed and perhaps a bit confused as to what to make of Doki-Doki Universe. It’s about as far outside the box as you can get, but quite honestly, that was the whole idea. We wanted to stir things up a bit, and offer a different type of gaming experience that had more heart and more humanity. I’m very happy with what we created, and the game is causing a lot of thoughtful discussion, which is a very good thing in this industry.
Oh right!! That’s not what I was supposed to write about (DOH!)… I’m supposed to remind you that Doki-Doki Mail, our new free messaging app is available now. You can use it to send playful animated messages to your Facebook friends on your PS4, PS3, or PS Vita and on iOS and Android devices. For PlayStation devices it comes as part of the free Doki-Doki Universe Starter Pack Download, and on iOS or Android just go to your normal app store and type it into the search bar. Here is a cute trailer put together by the folks at Sony:
THE CONTEST!
To get into the Holiday spirit, and also just for the heck of it, we are hosting a Doki-Doki Mail Holiday Card Contest starting today, and going until Sunday, December 22nd. Three lucky winners will receive a code for the Doki-Doki Universe Limited Edition Bundle for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita (which includes the Full Game, Starter Pack, 2 Personality Quiz Packs, 2 Story Packs, and 9 Deko Mail Packs – a super sweet deal!) If you have the limited edition bundle already, you can give this code to someone you like, and they will like you back.
To enter the contest, you will need Doki-Doki Mail, so if you don’t have it yet, download the Starter Pack for free on PS4, PS3, or PS Vita; or Doki-Doki Mail on iOS and Android. Create your best Holiday-themed message, take a screenshot, and upload to the contest thread in the PlayStation Community Forums. You’ll need to use a web browser to upload your screenshot since mobile browser image uploading isn’t available. We’ll then notify the winner via PSN message and the email address associated with the PSN ID you used to log in to the PlayStation Community Forums. The winners should receive their code no later than January 17th.
No purchase necessary. Must be 13 or over and a resident of the United States and the District of Columbia to enter. To see full contest info and rules and enter, click here.
To give you a glimpse into some of the fun dekos (emojis) you can find in Doki-Doki Mail, check out a few below. And don’t forget, there are additional themed Deko Mail Packs available on PS Store if you want more variety. We hope to see lots of creative Doki Holiday Cards soon!
![E2FB [shoppingRobot]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E2FB-shoppingRobot.gif)
![E68F [cowboyRockingHorse]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E68F-cowboyRockingHorse.gif)
![E29C [greenGuyOnSomething]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E29C-greenGuyOnSomething.gif)
![E2FD [internationalWomen]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E2FD-internationalWomen.gif)
![E70B [snowManHatparty]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E70B-snowManHatparty.gif)
![E286 [santaSneakingPresents]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E286-santaSneakingPresents.gif)
![E696 [seeSaw]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E696-seeSaw.gif)
![E287 [deadReindeer]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E287-deadReindeer.gif)
![E288 [menorah]](https://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/E288-menorah.gif)
If you decide to check out the free download of Doki-Doki Universe Starter Pack, or even better, play the full version, please come back here and leave some comments to we can see what you think; not just about how fun this game is or isn’t, but about where you would like to see gentler story-based games go in the future. What do YOU think will make games with more soul and more humanity work better? Do all gamers want action and challenge in all of their games? Also, what do you think of small indie-style games vs. bigger block buster games? What kinds do you tend to buy?
We hope you have a happy holiday filled with all kinds of joy and happiness and chocolate cake with extra frosting.
This is cool I’ll have to check this out & download it. And eventually get the game at some point!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah but not everyone’s on Facebook.
(Not being a jerk, just a Negative Nancy. Cute game, though.)
Any word on DBZ for psn
#3
God, why in the world would you ask about DBZ on a Doki Doki Mail post? Do you really think somebody at HumaNature Studios can help you? Sony pays attention to these posts to, but they’re not going to comment on something wildly off-topic like that.
Anyway, crazy internet commenter aside – I did want to leave some thoughts about Doki Doki. I really like the story and any attempt at mixing up storytelling in games and adding more humanity to a medium we often associate with shooting and fighting, is welcome by me.
At the same time, I really wasn’t a fan of how this game was packaged. DLC can be a tricky beast, but it felt somebody took a hammer to this game and packaged the pieces into different packs of DLC. When you first get the game, it is hard to understand what the different DLC packs really mean. Now that I’ve spent some time with the game, I wouldn’t have gotten the limited edition bundle since it included so many things I didn’t care about. Doki Doki mail is cute, but we have dozens of ways of sending each other instant messages already — do we really need another? Again, it is a cute idea but it feels tacked onto the game itself. I know ingame characters will send you mail, but a game about exploring a galaxy to discover your own humanity just doesn’t benefit from being able to send my Facebook friends messages.
Continued…
Continued form #5:
Also the gameplay is almost too simple. Every planet is the same, gameplay-wise it seems (admittedly I haven’t beaten the game yet), and the gameplay simply isn’t robust enough to maintain a galaxy’s worth of entertainment. I’d love to see a way of increasing the level of humanity and personal introspection in games without necessarily having to handicap the gameplay itself to achieve it. David Cage’s games are guilty of this as well — great pieces of art that have average-at-best gameplay bolted on to them.
Unfortunately, I don’t really have a solution – so I’m not being particularly helpful here. I have really enjoyed Doki Doki (though I tend to avoid the mail since it is so slow and pulls me out of the game), and I love Cage’s games as well as games like Lone Survivor or Journey, games that try to rise above the sum of the pixels that render them. It is just disappointing that so often, engaging gameplay takes a back seat to telling a personal story. Is there no way to merge them?
Congrats on the release of Doki Doki though, and I look forward to seeing what your studio does in the future!
I just love this game so much. It makes me happy to see an unconventional game like this get released and to have so much fun playing it and sharing silly screenshots all over the place. I recommend it to everyone i possibly can. Everyone needs to share in the doki-dokiness.
Well, if this game wasn’t overpriced to begin with, i may have bought it. And if it didn’t require stupid facebook, i might have cared about this contest.
According to psnprofiles I was the 16th person with the gold trophy :) I also wrote the trophy guide for it on the .org site…my first guide haha. Thanks for this fun game!
Can’t stop playing Doki-Doki. Great game… reminds me of Scribblenauts a bit.
I picked up Doki-Doki Universe up at launch, and am enjoying it quite a bit. Yeah, the gameplay is kinda simple, but I still like it, especially seeing the different interactions between the many characters. Oh, and the personality questions/quizzes are pretty cool too. All in all, it’s nice to switch it up every once in a while from all of the action-oriented games I usually play.
About the messaging system (Doki-Doki mail) I actually really like the idea, however I rarely use Facebook, so it’s of no use to me. Hopefully, someday in the future we can directly send messages to friends who either own the game or the mail app.
“Must be 13 or over and a resident of the United States and the District of Columbia to enter. To see full contest info and rules and enter, click here.”
Dang it. :(
@Oisterboy
It says your 13th on PS4.
what would really make games more in touch with humanity is more variety in input from the player (the human!) quizzes and fetch quests are fun but sharing an experience via interactive art is often hindered to one specific input type which limits creative input from the player. also personalization and soem sort of annonymous community feedback is somethign i have seen in games that really makes it feel full of life.
Dang I missed the contest, just found out about it, too bad it was only for a few days. :(
I love this game! I finished all trophies on my ps4 yesterday and am still playing it on my vita. It is a refreshing change from the usual!! I’m sad I missed the contest, but so pleased I got this game!! Thank you! I look forward to more releases from your studio :)
I ended up being the winner of this promotion. I just wanted to thank the entire Playstation Blog Team for providing us a chance to win such a fun and quirky game! Everyone have a great 2014.