The creator of the game, Dan Salvato was working on the game for close to two years. Before creating this game, Salvato created modifications, or "mods", to "Super Smash Bros. Melee". At first, "Doki Doki Literature Club!" was released on itch.io then released on Steam. The game is free, but if you pay $10, you can receive the downloadable content. The game got more than one million downloads three months after it was released.