Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC) is a 2017 visual novel video game created by Team Salvato for computers and mobile devices. The story follows a student who joins his high school's literature club after being encouraged by his friend Sayori. Players can choose to develop a romantic relationship with Sayori, Yuri, or Natsuki. The club president, Monika, plays a major role in the game's story. The game has a unique structure with multiple endings and special scenes that become available after completing certain parts of the story. While it begins as a simple dating simulator, it becomes a game that breaks the fourth wall and includes horror themes.
Team Salvato, an American independent game studio, created DDLC over about two years. Dan Salvato, the team leader, previously worked on changing other games as part of a project called Project M. He said the game was inspired by his mixed feelings about anime and his interest in strange, unsettling experiences. The game was made free to download for Linux, macOS, and Windows, first shared through a website called itch.io, and later released on Steam. It became available for iOS and Android devices on December 10, 2025.
DDLC received praise for its use of horror elements and its unusual approach to the visual novel genre. The game also became popular online, inspiring many internet memes. A newer version, called Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, was released in 2021 for computers and several video game consoles, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. This version received mostly positive reviews for its added stories and console gameplay, though some critics noted it had few changes compared to the original.
Gameplay
Doki Doki Literature Club! is a visual novel. This means the game has limited player interaction. It uses still pictures of characters from the player's perspective, with some choices that let the player move the story forward. The story and dialogue are shown as text without voice acting. The game's narrator is the player-controlled protagonist, a member of the literature club who was invited by his childhood friend, Sayori. Choices made by the protagonist influence his relationships with key characters Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki, but these choices do not change the overall outcome of the game.
The characters interact with the protagonist through a minigame where the player creates a poem by selecting words from different groups. Each club member prefers certain words, and they react positively when the player chooses words they like. For story reasons, Monika is not included in this minigame. Based on the results of these minigames, the player experiences scenes with the character who liked the poem the most. Each story is split into three parts and an ending. After each ending, the game restarts with different story paths. At a certain point, the player must edit the game's files to continue the story.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! includes the full main story of the original game. It adds a "virtual desktop" that replaces the need to edit files directly, along with a soundtrack feature and several new "side stories." These side stories show the relationships between club members and explain how the literature club was formed.
Plot
The main character (whose name is chosen by the player) is invited by his friendly best friend, Sayori, to join their high school's literature club to help him feel more comfortable around others. He agrees reluctantly and meets the other club members: confident Natsuki, quiet Yuri, and outgoing club president Monika. Each day ends with the club members writing a poem and sharing it with the group the next day. As the club prepares for the school's cultural festival, where they plan to share their poems with others, Sayori tells the main character that she has depression. The main character helps either Natsuki or Yuri with their tasks—Natsuki bakes cupcakes, and Yuri paints banners. Both Natsuki and Yuri try to kiss the main character before he sees Sayori again. The main character can choose to tell Sayori he loves her or reaffirm his friendship with her. No matter the choice, the next day, Monika shows the main character a strange, dark poem by Sayori, filled with repeated words like "get out of my head." Realizing something is wrong, the main character rushes to Sayori's home and finds her gone, having taken her own life. The game ends immediately.
The player is taken back to the main menu, and all saved progress is lost. When starting a new game, the story repeats, but Sayori is missing, and the other characters do not remember her. Monika introduces the main character to the club instead of Sayori. Events are similar to the original, but the game becomes unstable: text becomes unclear, characters look distorted, and glitches appear often. Through dialogue and special poems, it is revealed that Natsuki is malnourished and abused by her father, while Yuri becomes unstable, obsessive, and harms herself. When planning the cultural festival, an argument happens about who the main character will help. After the player chooses Monika, Yuri pushes Monika and Natsuki out of the room and confesses her love for the main character. Whether the main character accepts Yuri's confession or not, she fatally injures herself. The game's broken script forces the main character to watch Yuri's body slowly decay over the weekend. When Natsuki returns, she is horrified by Yuri's body and runs away. Monika apologizes to the main character for the difficult weekend and deletes Yuri's and Natsuki's files, sending the player back to the main menu.
In a new game, the main character is in the literature club classroom, sitting across from Monika. She reveals she is a character who knows she is part of a video game and can control the game's code. She admits she tried to make the other characters unlikable to stop them from confessing love to the main character, but this failed. She confesses her love not to the main character, but to the player, because the player is real and not programmed. Monika will talk to the player forever about different topics until the player deletes her file. As she disappears, she initially yells at the player but later forgives them and restores the game and characters, except herself.
The game has two possible endings. In the traditional ending, Sayori becomes the club president and thanks the player for helping remove Monika. However, she quickly gains Monika's self-awareness, and Monika removes Sayori from the game to protect the player. After failing to fix the situation, Monika deletes the entire game as the credits roll, playing a song she wrote for the player. A message from Monika states she has disbanded the club because "no happiness can be found in it," but she thanks the player for joining. A more positive ending happens if the player watches all optional scenes and confesses to Sayori before her death. In this case, Sayori thanks the player for helping the club members, says goodbye, and assures the player the members love them. Monika plays the song without deleting the game. After the game ends, the player sees a message from the game's creator, Dan Salvato, explaining his goals and thanking the player.
If the player deletes Monika's file before starting a new game, Sayori becomes the club leader. Sayori panics upon realizing the game's true nature and accidentally closes it. When reopened, an image of Sayori hanging herself appears. If left on screen for 10 minutes, the words "now everyone can be happy" appear next to the image.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! also includes six side stories: Trust, Understanding, Respect, Balance, Reflection, and Self-Love, plus a shorter seventh story, Equals. These stories show how the club members met, their relationships, and how the club formed before the main story. Unlike the main campaign, the side stories do not include horror or discussions about characters being aware of their artificial nature.
Additional content, such as emails and files, is found in a virtual desktop. These tell of researchers from a company called "Metaverse Enterprise Solutions" using a virtual machine called "VM1" to create a simulated universe. The universe includes four entities, one of whom, "A," has special access to the system's code. Researchers studied how "A" would react to discovering its artificial existence, similar to events in the game. A second "control" universe was created where "A" is unaware of its special access, paralleling the side stories. Later, a small group of researchers, who call themselves "Team Salv," are mentioned.
Development
Doki Doki Literature Club! was created by American programmer Dan Salvato over about two years. It was his first game made for the video game industry. Before making this game, Salvato was known for creating the FrankerFaceZ extension for Twitch, for modifying games in the Super Smash Bros. series, and for designing custom levels in Super Mario Maker. Salvato wanted to make a visual novel because of his mixed feelings about anime, which he both liked and disliked. He noticed that many anime stories use common themes and focus on "cute girls doing cute things," which he believed could be both helpful and limiting for players. He aimed to make a game that would appeal to players, no matter their opinions about anime.
Salvato explained that the horror parts of the game were inspired by things that feel scary because they make players uncomfortable, not because they look scary. To create this effect, he designed a setting that seemed friendly at first but became unsettling over time. The characters’ behavior also changed, and eventually, one character was revealed to have taken control of the game. Salvato got ideas for the horror elements from games like Yume Nikki and Eversion. He wanted visual novels to explore more creative and different stories instead of relying on familiar plots. The characters in the game followed common anime character types and had Japanese names to create a pseudo-Japanese style seen in Western-made visual novels. The only exception was Monika, who had an English name to show she was different from the others.
Because Salvato did not have artistic skills, he used a free online tool to create early character designs. He knew these designs were not good enough for the final game, so he asked a friend who worked as a translator for Sekai Project to draw school uniforms and hairstyles for the characters. He then gave the visual design work to Kagefumi, who left the project early. After Kagefumi left, Salvato hired a freelance artist named Satchely to create the final character images. These images were made in parts to allow for more varied poses. The background images were first created as 3D models and then turned into 2D images by an artist named VelinquenT.
Salvato also wrote the game’s music. The main theme, "Doki Doki Literature Club!", is played on piano and flute with strings. Another song, "Okay, Everyone!", has five versions, each using different instruments to represent the four female characters. Monika’s version uses piano, Yuri’s uses pizzicato and harps, Natsuki’s uses xylophone and recorder, and Sayori’s uses ukulele. Most of the game’s music is calm and peaceful, except for two songs, "Sayo-nara" and "Just Monika," which have dark tones. The end credits feature a song called "Your Reality," performed by Jillian Ashcraft.
Release
Doki Doki Literature Club! was first released on September 22, 2017, on the website itch.io. It was later also released on Steam. The game is free to download, and players can choose how much to pay. If they pay a certain amount, they can get a bonus "Fan Pack" that includes wallpapers for computers and mobile devices, the game's official soundtrack, and a digital art booklet. The game's soundtrack was released on two CDs. The first CD has all the main songs from the game, and the second CD includes remixes and alternate versions of the music. On September 28, 2017, Dan Salvato shared an extra music track called "doki17.mp3" on the unofficial Discord server for the game. He described it as "an unfinished track that never made it into the game" and said it was "still somewhat pleasant." The soundtrack was later released on "crimson smoke" vinyl by iam8bit in early 2019.
In January 2020, Dan Salvato announced that new content would be added to Doki Doki Literature Club! but explained that this was not a sequel to the game. On June 11, 2021, Team Salvato and publisher Serenity Forge announced a premium version of the game, called Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, which would be released digitally on June 30, 2021, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Physical copies of the game for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 would also be sold online. On April 4, 2021, it was announced that PQube would distribute the physical version of the game in Europe. On the day of the release of Plus!, it was announced that the game would be localized and released in Japan by Playism later that year. Plus! was released for macOS on August 12, 2021.
The expanded version includes improved visuals in full high definition, six new side stories, 100 unlockable images, 13 new music tracks by Nikki Kaelar, Jason Hayes, and Azuria Sky, and a music player that allows players to create custom playlists or repeat a single song endlessly. The side stories take place outside the original game's story and show how the club members met and became friends. The game was moved from the original Ren'Py engine to Unity, which allowed new features and easier development across all platforms. Physical copies of Plus! were originally planned for release on July 30, 2021, but were delayed to the end of September and later October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 10, 2025, a version of Doki Doki Literature Club! was released for Android and iOS devices, using the Unity framework with few changes to gameplay.
On April 9, 2026, Doki Doki Literature Clue was removed from Google Play because it violated the store's rules about sensitive themes. Dan Salvato and Serenity Forge, the publishers of the mobile version, said they would work to get the game back on Google Play and explore other ways to distribute the game on Android devices.
Reception
The game was praised by critics and received a score of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on seven reviews. Another review site, OpenCritic, said the game was strongly approved by 71% of critics.
Steven T. Wright from PC Gamer called the game "a post-modern love letter to the genre it represents" and compared its way of breaking down the genre to games like Undertale and Pony Island. Robert Fenner from RPGFan noted that traditional visual novel developers, such as Key and 5pb., usually create long stories about a standard anime protagonist’s relationships with supporting characters. He said earlier games, like Hatoful Boyfriend and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, struggled to fully break free from genre conventions. Fenner stated that Doki Doki Literature Club! succeeded by using the Ren'Py engine in unique ways and including unexpected plot twists.
Reviewers said the game surprises players because it looks like typical eroge games. It has an anime-style character design and focuses on building relationships with characters. The characters are anime stereotypes, and their actions are shown through limited animations. The music is light, playful, and cheerful. Critics said these elements create the impression of a standard visual novel, making players feel connected to the characters. A reviewer from Jeuxvideo.com compared the game’s visuals to Everlasting Summer, another independent visual novel that looks professionally made. Critics noted that the game’s horror comes from breaking the player’s sense of control and creating feelings of helplessness through changes in the game’s world. Victoria Rose from Polygon said this approach was different from traditional horror games and films, where players remain distant from the action. Amy Josuweit from Rock, Paper, Shotgun pointed out that earlier visual novels broke the fourth wall by adding extra files or crashing the game, but Doki Doki Literature Club! instead destroyed files deliberately.
Tom Philip from GQ said the story sometimes felt slow, with long conversations about poetry. Fenner said the game did not pass the Bechdel test and made the protagonist a seductive character. However, he said the story is a sharp critique of harem anime and visual novels, showing that the characters’ actions are not fully driven by the protagonist but by the player’s role. Fenner also said the game, like Katawa Shoujo, risks making real issues seem like a fetish. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw from The Escapist called the game a "nice little idea with a memorable moment or two" but said it lacked direction after its main twist. Reviewers still said the story was successful and relevant. 8 Bit Rambles said the game explores love in a twisted, deconstructive way and called it an example of postmodern art.
The game is often described as a satire that breaks down the visual novel genre. Steven T. Wright from Rock Paper Shotgun said the game’s colorful world breaks apart but never directly targets players, instead showing that it is made up of artificial elements. The game is also seen as a critique of dating simulators and players who enjoy them. The creator, Dan Salvato, said he wanted to change the stereotype of visual novels featuring "cute girls doing cute things."
At IGN’s Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People’s Choice Award for "Best PC Game," "Best Adventure Game," "Best Story," and "Most Innovative." It was also listed on IGN’s "18 Best Horror Games of 2017" and named the 12th scariest game of this generation. Nerd Much? included it on their 2020 list of the "50 Scariest Horror Games of All Time." The game won the "Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award" and was nominated for "Trending Game of the Year" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards. EGMNow ranked it 16th in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017.
Cultural impact
Doki Doki Literature Club! was downloaded more than one million times in its first three months and passed two million downloads about a month later. Many well-known YouTubers, such as PewDiePie, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Etika, and Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan from the Game Grumps, created Let's Play videos of the game. The game inspired many fan-made modifications, including Monika After Story, which were created using the Ren'Py engine. Dan Salvato, the game's creator, praised the fan-made modifications, saying, "Thanks to the Ren'Py engine, DDLC is excellent and highly accessible for modding, something we hope continues for years to come."
Monika was liked by many fans and became one of the game's most popular characters. Memes, such as "Just Monika," were created about her. Salvato was surprised by Monika's popularity, saying he did not expect her to become so well-known. Salvato criticized a meme called "Trapsuki," which suggested that Natsuki was a "trap" because of her physical features, calling it "really disrespectful" and stating he "doesn't like to joke about people's sex/gender, much less try to convince others that it's not what they think."
Since July 2021, officially licensed Nendoroid figurines of the four main characters from Doki Doki Literature Club! have been made by the Good Smile Company. On October 9, 2023, Youtooz Collectibles began selling officially licensed figurines of the game's main characters (Monika, Yuri, Natsuki, and Sayori), designed by fans based on a competition held in June. The following day, the designer for Yuri's figurine revealed her design was based on Yuri's appearance in The Guy Trapped in Monika's DDLC, a 2022 proof-of-concept theme song for a potential animated series. The song was modeled after music from The Ghost and Molly McGee, directed and animated by Nick Dante, edited by Vannamelon, and starring CoryxKenshin.
Other officially licensed Doki Doki Literature Club! merchandise includes clothing and stationery from Ocean in Space, Spencer's, and OMOCAT, plushies and toys from the Sanshee Company, framed in-game artwork from Artovision, pin badges from The Yetee, and watches from SuperGroupies USA.
On June 26, 2018, 15-year-old Ben Walmsley, a fan of Doki Doki Literature Club! from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, committed suicide. His parents said he was drawing characters from the game and mistakenly believed the game was played online and that characters could send messages to his phone. While his family and a coroner linked the game to his death, members of the Doki Doki Literature Club! community and others suggested Ben likely had pre-existing mental health issues and found themes in the game relatable, rather than the game itself causing the suicide.
Days later, Victoria Derbyshire hosted a debate on her BBC News program about whether the game's 13+ age rating was appropriate given its mature content aimed at a young audience. This discussion led to broader conversations in the media and schools about the need for parental supervision of online content and greater awareness of mental health issues in children. Some critics argued that the parents were shifting responsibility for Ben's death onto the game rather than addressing his pre-existing mental health challenges.
On January 1, 2018, the main characters of Doki Doki Literature Club! were added as character skins for the titular character in Yandere Simulator, with Salvato's permission. Later that year, Monika also appeared as a DLC avatar in Gaia Online, but without Salvato's permission.