Staying at home as often as most people have been over the past year or so is relatively new. But Japanese game developer Nito Souri had no such adjustment to make as he's stayed indoors for the better part of 10 years and didn't have to be convinced by the availability of a free Famicom or various companies hooking gamers up with freebies to get them to remain inside.
A hikikomori, which loosely translates to a modern-day hermit, Nito is just one of around one million people in Japan who identify as such. Typically, they isolate at home for six-month periods and don't go to school, work, or make contact with anyone other than family.
Per ITK, Nito only leaves his apartment to get a haircut and take out the trash, as well as any other activity that absolutely requires him to step outside of the comfort of his room. He gets all of his groceries and whatever else he needs delivered, eliminating the need to go shopping.
Nito became a hikikomori after finding it hard to land a job after college or become a novelist, as he'd aspired to be. He decided to return to his hometown and took up residence at his aunt's apartment, by himself.
Since then, he's learned English, started up a YouTube channel and learned game development en route to launching his first game with the help of a Kickstarter. The upcoming Pull Stay is, as you would expect, modeled around his principles and requires players to protect their hikikomori master by basically beating people who try entering his house for whatever reason.
The game releases on Steam in 2022.
“I had no friends in my hometown and felt rushed to become financially independent as soon as possible, feeling ashamed to go outside. So I became a hikikomori,” he told Kyodo News last year. “In the last 10 years, I was able to create whatever I wanted to create, so even if there were struggles, I enjoyed it.
Nito hopes Pull Stay will make him enough money to get him out of the house once the COVID-19 pandemic is over as he would like to try working away from home. In the meantime, he's likely going to continue leaving the house to get his hair trimmed.
Source: ITK