Curated by taste and lineage

A Japanese TV network's own coding class quietly shipped a farm game, where growing and shipping an antenna earns you more television.

Per the developer's own Steam description, Denpatou is a retro pixel-art farm simulation adventure: you plant an antenna in a field, grow it, and ship it once it has grown, earning as your reward the chance to watch a television program. The store lists three endings, Normal, Bad and True, and a Steam review puts one full playthrough at about three hours. It is the official original game of a BS TV Tokyo program, 東京パソコンクラブ〜プログラミング女子のゼロからゲーム作り〜, in which Nogizaka46 members 吉田綾乃クリスティー, 弓木奈於 and 林瑠奈 learn game programming from zero; Steam's own website field for this listing points back to the show's own page, and Steam reviewers credit トロヤ (Toroya) as the game's maker. Steam lists the developer as トロヤマイバッテリーズフライド and the publisher as 株式会社テレビ東京コミュニケーションズ, with every store language set to Japanese only. Released on Steam on May 16, 2024 for ¥980, not free and not in Early Access, it sits at Very Positive with all 59 of its 59 reviews positive, and every one of those 59 reviews is written in Japanese. One honest note on that score: 15 of all 59 reviews name the show, 東京パソコンクラブ, or a Nogizaka46 member directly (some name both), and 54 of the 59 reviews were posted within 14 days of release. The developer's content note on the Steam listing reads that the game contains text that may suggest sexual stimulation or intercourse, derogatory or vulgar language, and some disturbing descriptions implying suicide; of the 59 reviews, only one touches on anything sexual, and it is about a parody of a television program inside the game.

Published 2026-08-21

01First, the one feeling

Planting an antenna, watching it grow and shipping it does not pay out in more antennas or in-game currency but in a reward of watching an actual television program, so the store's own farm-sim loop of tend-and-ship is reframed as a loop that feeds you back into the show the game itself was made for.
With three endings, Normal, Bad and True, per the store, packed into a run Steam reviews put at about three hours, growing and shipping stops being the long-haul routine farm sims usually are and becomes a short cycle built for seeing more than one outcome.
The developer's content note on Steam flags text that may suggest sexual stimulation, vulgar language and disturbing descriptions implying suicide sitting inside a retro pixel-art farm game about antennas, so the writing carries a tonal contrast that the cute, farming surface does not prepare you for.

02Who this is for (and who it is not)

For you

You want the tend-and-ship shape of the farm life simulation lineage compressed into a single crop and a roughly three-hour run with three different endings
You are curious about a genuinely rare artifact: a farm-sim adventure made as the official original game of a Japanese TV network's own coding-education show, with Steam reviewers crediting トロヤ (Toroya) as its maker
You want to dig up something essentially unfound outside Japan: all 59 of its reviews are in Japanese and zero are in English, so it sits entirely behind that wall

Not for you

You need English or a non-Windows machine; the Steam version is Windows only, every store language and all 59 reviews are Japanese, with zero in English
You want a large, organically grown review base or a long game; 54 of the 59 reviews were posted within 14 days of release with several naming the show's cast directly, the store lists three endings and Steam reviews put one full run at about three hours, and there is no free version to try first

03The roots of this taste

100% positiveonly 59 reviewsno English support yet — yet almost no one has found it

デンパトウ (no official English title) Buried gem

Per the developer's own Steam description, Denpatou is a retro pixel-art farm simulation adventure: you plant an antenna in a field, grow it, and ship it once it has grown, earning as your reward the chance to watch a television program. The store lists three endings, Normal, Bad and True, and a Steam review puts one full playthrough at about three hours. It is the official original game of a BS TV Tokyo program, 東京パソコンクラブ〜プログラミング女子のゼロからゲーム作り〜, in which Nogizaka46 members 吉田綾乃クリスティー, 弓木奈於 and 林瑠奈 learn game programming from zero; Steam's own website field for this listing points back to the show's own page, and Steam reviewers credit トロヤ (Toroya) as the game's maker. Steam lists the developer as トロヤマイバッテリーズフライド and the publisher as 株式会社テレビ東京コミュニケーションズ, with every store language set to Japanese only. Released on Steam on May 16, 2024 for ¥980, not free and not in Early Access, it sits at Very Positive with all 59 of its 59 reviews positive, and every one of those 59 reviews is written in Japanese, with zero in English or any other language. One honest note on that score: 15 of all 59 reviews name the show, 東京パソコンクラブ, or a Nogizaka46 member directly (some name both), and 54 of the 59 reviews were posted within 14 days of release, so the review count leans on viewers who arrived through the broadcast rather than word of mouth that spread on its own. The developer's content note on the Steam listing reads that the game contains text that may suggest sexual stimulation or intercourse, derogatory or vulgar language, and some disturbing descriptions implying suicide; of the 59 reviews, only one touches on anything sexual, and it is about a parody of a television program inside the game. With 0 of its 59 reviews in English, it has not reached English-speaking players.

Give it your first pass

Harvest Moon The origin

The origin of this taste: 牧場物語 (Bokujo Monogatari), developed by Amccus and released in Japan for the Super Famicom, published by Pack-In-Video, known in English as Harvest Moon. Its Wikidata entry describes it as a 1996 farm simulation role-playing game, and English Wikipedia calls it one of the first games of the farm life simulation genre, also considered by some to be the first cozy game. The link to Denpatou is this site's own reading: neither Denpatou's developer nor its reviewers name Harvest Moon, but Denpatou's loop, planting an antenna in a field, growing it and shipping it for a reward, follows the same shape that the farm life simulation genre established, tending something in a field and shipping the result for a payoff. Where the two plainly differ: this Super Famicom original has no Steam release under this site's identifier, and is a separate work, by a different developer, Marvelous Inc., from the STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town remake also on Steam, so the origin here is anchored to the original's Wikidata entry. Denpatou compresses that farm-sim shape into a single crop, an antenna, and ties the payoff directly to watching more of the BS TV Tokyo program it was made for, across a run that spans three endings per the store, and that Steam reviews put at about three hours.

Give it your first pass

04Make this gem shine

If it speaks to you, check it on Steam and give it your first pass. Your push is what makes a buried gem shine.

See it on Steam

05The bloodline of this taste

Harvest Moon Root
デンパトウ (no official English title) You are here
- Read-and-build games another taste