Speed Dating

How a background in speedrunning helped create cult hit Doki Doki Literature Club

Dan Salvato is the creator of Doki Doki Literature Club. The innocuous seeming, free-to-play visual novel took the internet by storm last year with its devious manipulation of anime clichés and players alike. Salvato, previously best known among the speedrunning community, has now been thrust into a mainstream spotlight. Here, we discuss DDLC’s success, and how his niche interests have shaped his outlook, and output, as a game developer.

How did you get into speedrunning? 

In college. I think speedrunning comes from a desire to get the absolute most out of a game that you love, that you’ve probably already beaten a thousand times. I saw a video onEbaumsworld of someone beating Super Mario Brothers 3 in 11 minutes, and all these Super Mario 64 speedruns. And I got involved with the Super Smash Bros Melee community, which introduced me to Twitch. I thought about finding one of my favourite games that I could speedrun. But I never really took the plunge until I was putting off studying for finals one night, and decided that it would probably be a good time to sink hundreds of hours into a new hobby.

How did that lead to a modding career?