A brand new Japanese visible novel is gaining consideration for its inclusion of Google Maps and Street View. Rojimaga launched Our Hometown within the Alley on Steam on October 14, 2022. The recreation makes use of real-life panoramas as background places that the participant and heroine can go to.

The workforce’s web site revealed that Kita e (Northward), a collection of visible novels that Hudson Soft launched for Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 between 1999 and 2004, served as an inspiration for this title. Like the Kita e collection, Our Hometown within the Alley takes place in Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture, however with a selected deal with town of Hakodate. The participant and the sport’s heroine will attempt to go to as many landmarks in Hakodate as they will over the course of a weekend, with the common time for a playthrough starting from two to 5 hours.

There have been quite a lot of visible novels that includes real-life photograph backgrounds launched earlier in Japan, such because the Fuuraiki collection. But whereas these titles had the pictures included of their standalone builds, Our Hometown within the Alley distinguishes itself by using Google Maps and Street View.

After exhibiting descriptions of the real-life amenities, the sport will play a scene with the heroine, which additionally sometimes options quick-time event-based response decisions. Rojimaga additionally added warning that the restrictions of Google Maps API would possibly render the browser-based visible novel unplayable if there are too many participant periods through the day.

The Steam model of Our Hometown within the Alley is offered worldwide as of this writing with a price ticket of $4.99 within the U.S., however the visible novel at the moment solely helps the Japanese language. Outside of Steam, Rojimaga additionally sells the sport through its BOOTH web page for 500 yen. The workforce initially launched the title at no cost on September 27, 2022, earlier than it switched to paid gross sales and despatched public press releases.

Our Hometown within the Alley is offered on PCs. Rojimaga will launch the title on Android and iOS units later in October 2022. The growth workforce additionally introduced plans to create extra video games and companies that make the most of Google Street View.