Leaderboard

The only magazine I'd subscribe to......... If I can be bothered.

Right guys I think the point has already come across for everyone and things are happening so...

Guy: I-I-It's not like I like porn games or anything, b-baka! Tay: Guy-kun, irete...

Hola. Somebody from your team posted about OELVN backgrounds on 4chan, and it reminded me that Violet Hill existed. I know your project lead, Helvetica Standard, manifested interest in inviting me onto your team - and while I opted to undertake another project, I'm currently considering working on a second project, for a few reasons. (The main two being that development of the project I'm currently on might take a significant time seeing as we have a lot to figure out and little organization or team present yet, and that I don't think I can work solely on one project/artstyle/theme over the entire summer without wanting to kill myself.) Anyway, this post is mostly to say that I've figured the best way to have a better idea of what Violet Hill was about was to download the demo - which I did. I'm not through with it (I have no idea how long it is, actually), but I've been through the intro sequence - up to the point where you access the map - and I started taking notes, because, er... I guess I just can't help it, when looking at hobby or fan projects. I assume criticism is something that could be helpful, anyway. No? Anyway. Here. A few things I noticed. (And imma sound harsh. I actually love your project, so don't take me wrong.) The Bad The writing is very flowery and dramatic There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but while I do love extremely dramatic narrations, it's important to avoid cliches. The way the narrator describes or reacts to certain things/situations feels very artificial, essentially much more like someone who is "trying to write about something" than someone who is actually "experiencing" or "thinking" something. The fact that the main character often uses elaborate and flowery figures of speech in narration, but also acts and expresses himself like a regular teenager at times, both in narration and dialogue (and the fact that certain figures of speech rely too much on cliches), makes him sound pretentious, overdramatic and unlikable, not smart and savvy. (And it's not the "good" sort of unlikeable, sometimes he simply comes off as a tool.) As a whole, the narration switches too much and too quickly between "eloquent and flowery" and "casual, direct and sarcastic". Off the top of my head, a few examples of cliches I saw: -Describing rain as a "sublime natural melody that washes away the filth of the earth" -"A short but exquisitely beautiful poem indeed." -The MC describing himself to someone else as a "mean cynical bastard" -In general, the MC being (imo) excessively vague about the words describing his past trauma, while still presenting it as something very serious and dramatic Dialogues are devoid of internal narration This is something that you rarely if ever see in books, because it makes for poor pacing. Dialogue will almost always be cut up by little bits of narration, either describing the thoughts of a narrating character, or providing insight on the external action in a scene. Since there's nothing of the sort (especially describing your protagonist's thoughts), the narrator doesn't feel present during dialogue - and that breaks immersion. Simply getting to witness the main character spit out replies to whoever he's talking to without having any idea of what's going on in his head severely disconnects the reader from the link they would expect to have with him. Artistically, some of the character expressions feel too stiff For example, this: http://i.imgur.com/cNVAccM.jpg?1http://i.imgur.com/5o8bPXr.jpg?1 is good. This: http://i.imgur.com/DCZFhf5.jpg?1http://i.imgur.com/1pGi9E2.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/x0znRUJ.jpg?1 is not. (For the first image, people don't generally narrow their eyelids while shouting or displaying clear, outward aggression. For the second image, I believe there might simply be a proportions/style issue, but the smile feels like it's much too wide for the proportions of the face, especially given how small the character's mouth is at all other times. For the third, the specular highlights on the eyes are simply way too strong, and give the impression that the eyes are either bulging out, or have been squished vertically from regular-size ones.) Another thing to keep in mind is that expressions should closely match the mood of a scene, and tone/intent of whatever is being said. For example, this expression: http://i.imgur.com/SIkf3PA.jpg?1 was used when introducing Rin. The dead, uninterested stare and slightly agape mouth would indicate that the character is very unreceptive, and likely in their own headspace, yet they're going out of their way to engage socially with a person they've never met - it doesn't really match. Some of the characters seem to have very "cookie-cutter" spritesets and personalities Basically, they look the same. Two of the first characters you meet, Rin and Akane, both interact in the exact same way when you meet them. They're both shy, calm, somewhat awkward, and seem to be perpetually carrying the facial expression of an archetypal dandere - something that looks a bit like :/ (Rin does get upset at the MC, but the way her introduction is carried out, that really doesn't seem like her dominant trait.) They also have very similar poses: front facing, shoulders perfectly aligned, knees bent inwards, with arms either falling flat or being presented in front of their stomach - and both occasionally raise a hand at shoulder/face level in a sign that tends to be a display of either politeness, friendliness or shyness/embarrassment. Their speech patterns are also noticeably similar - the best way I could describe Rin at this point (outside of forthcoming plot differences) is as a less cheerful Akane with a shorter temper. http://i.imgur.com/hxwEo3P.jpg?1 Expressions are different, but body language is almost the same! http://i.imgur.com/TCThcLq.jpg?1 Again, different expressions, but exact same body language. http://i.imgur.com/V16r3s6.jpg?1 And now they're making the same faces, too! And these are "expressive" expressions as well, not "neutral" ones that wouldn't vary much from character to character. I am of the opinion that this is a situation that should never happen. I've never put much thought into writing characters, so I may be speaking without experience here (and feel totally free to discredit me if I'm wrong), but I get the impression this might simply be happening because although both your writers and artists have a general idea of what they want each character to be like, since the VN is brand new, they might have simply not thought yet about how to *differentiate* each character. I basically feel like whichever characters end up being outed as too bland or similar after reviews could benefit from an additional design pass - think about body language, speech patterns, quirks, basically every way each character could distinguish themselves strongly from the generic "template" that all characters emerge from. The Good A good sound design and high-quality assets provide excellent immersion There's a lot of small details that aren't necessary for a VN to simply exist, but add a lot to the immersion by simply being there. From the ambient sound of rain, to the main character's cellphone buzzing (or actually displaying a cellphone model complete with caller ID), or having a falling rain animation over a background, I found a lot of very high-quality assets that came as a complete surprise. Lots of VNs would omit them, for example by simply displaying a spriteless background (or a background of a phone) to represent a phone conversation. I really, really like the way you guys are going the extra mile for all these relatively minor details, and it makes the game feel very polished and thought-out in that aspect. The general atmosphere of the VN is a lot darker I can still sense a clear preoccupation to add some charm, elements of humor and basically anything to "round off" the narrative and make it more than a Hollywood drama. However, as a whole, the VN has a somewhat gritty and somber appearance, which is refreshing because it's *not* the most common stereotype (everything seems to be cheerful and bubbly these days). This is something that's present in everything, from the narrative, art, music, heck, even color grading (which I love btw). It's consistent, cohesive, and imo should be your main selling point, because it's quite simply realized /well/. I also appreciate the flowery writing, though it's not always consistent and rife with cliches. It's generally decent (and definitely of workable quality), and that helps the VN stand out a little more. The overall production quality of the VN feels high Both the writing and art will benefit greatly from some additional polishing, but overall, your project feels a lot closer to something good than something bad. I'm confident you guys will be able to put out something great once you release. _______________________________________________________________________________ That's pretty much it (and yes, the good section is only shorter than the bad one because I try to provide examples of the issues I have, while the good points I found were much more general things, or didn't need as much explaining.) Lemme know what you think of all of that, and if you could use any of this criticism, or if I'm speaking complete bull and have no idea what I'm doing again.

So I've watched plenty of anime and read plenty of manga in the past years and I've started to notice a trend that has been developing in the course of all those years. When I began watching anime, in terms of romance anime, I was always hyped to see the protagonist with the main love interest, maybe because I was naive and just liked thinking "aw they like each other they should be together". But after a few hundred anime watched, I often now start off despising main love interests and always end up turning to the love rivals, even the ones I know have 0 chance of getting with the main character. And it's begun to pain me in the sense that nowadays most of the heroines I like and find interesting are never the main romantic interest and I can never bring myself to like the actual main interest most of the time. I always feel like the main interest is now plagued with tropes that make them appealling to the general public but to me they just feel like carbon copies, like hollow shells that have little personality and character depth, and I've started to become tired of a lot of the heroines I now see as main interests in the genre which makes for watching a lot of anime with romantic plots quite the painful task sometimes. Of course this is not to say I can't like all main heroines, there's always exceptions, but the majority really follows the trend. I feel like, while I genuinely usually only try to look at a character's personality, I can't help but notice that a lot of times rivals, just because they are rivals, or are characters with less chances to get with the MC, genuinely become more interesting to me based on their position in the story. This is also a major reason I've turned to VNs, so all my love for non main heroines can be fulfilled (at least in most cases). Does anyone feel this way? Do you find yourself liking the main heroine or the side heroines more?

What are those 2 other scary looking creatures? 3D world is a weird place

The key is the jealousy factor. The problem I have with most netorare VNs is that netorare is treated as sexual fetish material and the jealousy factor isn't properly leveraged. Good netorare can't be avoided with obvious choices, or there has to be consequences for avoiding it. In other words, it has to be experienced against one's will. School Days is an example of properly executed netorare, even though it was a minor theme.

Oh, when I said it's stupid it's only stupid from the consumer's point of view. Seems to works swimmingly for the publishers - Ubisoft still makes quite a lot of money. Most people who buy their games don't know or care that all they're buying is the divine right to download the bits.

"You young whippersnappers, back in my day those who got a cease and desist order and responded by ceasing and desisting were called rebels!"

Well, they do say that men do their thinking with an organ that isn't their brain.

That study was actually pretty interesting and also pretty depressing. Especially the part about people who don't read not taking part in other cultural activities. I guess the gap between normal riffraff and cultural elites like us is growing wider. Also necessary self praise for being from the country whose youth have the best reading skills in the world. The decline in reading is most likely the result of other readily available entertainment mediums. Why read books when you can read comics, watch Tv or do something that doesn't really require that much attention? I actually haven't read that many books in a while, mostly because I have been reading visual novels, playing games and such. It's really hard to find interesting books to read nowadays, most of the western stuff doesn't seem that interesting anymore. The only actual books I looking forward to reading are the Witcher ones, though I still read some other books very rarely. Oh, back to Visual novels. I think there is plenty of audience out there, despite the general amount of readers diminishing, we haven't just reached them yet. VNs are also pretty new medium in west considering so it's no wonder it's pretty unknown. The recognition has been growing rapidly in recent years and the release of bigger officially translated titles in popular platforms is sure to bring even more attention and more fans. Especially the titles released in Steam are going to get attention no matter what and hopefully change the general attitude to more positive one. The reputation of being only porn games is hurting. But I believe that visual novels will grow steadily much like every other medium has. We will still probably be pretty niche but that's fine as well.

Don't know if I'm just an anomaly here, but I don't read VNs for their fapworthiness

Well, obviously that's why h-scenes exist .

OH MAN you should see the crap posted to greenlight as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-p7mOl1xDE

It's also the date I got circumcised five years ago. Yay Goku!

Ah, ChuSinGura, so awesome. I don't think I'm ready to play it again yet, but that pic reminds me of why that story is so good.

Everyone just needs to learn Japanese. Then they can play all the VNs. Then we'll have more VNs to talk about. Problem solved. Batta bing batta bang batta boom.

Do you have any fav quote that you still remember after years of having played a game? (not visual novels!) Grim Fandango Planescape: Torment Max Payne --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Max Payne 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Max Payne Bioshock -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Legacy of Kain Chrono Trigger Half life 2 Mirror's Edge

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/blog/71-lovin-my-vita-loca/ Finally got up my first review: Aiyoku no Eustia: Angel's Blessing. Since this is my very first blog/review please give me all kinds of feedback and be super harsh so I know what I can improve on. I really want to have my own style about my reviews that's informative while also being a little silly and light-hearted

Almost done watching Oreimo 2, so ready to be done with Kirino for the rest of my life. But the Ruri love is real

Did someone say Supreme Candy?

He says about the yet to be released VN.

Explain to people that most VNs don't require most of your brain to be used when reading them.

@edwd2 Not really representative, lots of different demographics you got going on there. Nodame Cantabile and Hachimitsu to Clover are much more mature romances which are and have always been scarce. Go look at the year 2007 and you'll also find plenty of the same stuff you still find today like Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun, Moetan, Hitohira, Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo, etc etc. Sakurasou, Oreshura and Nisekoi are all shounen romances that aren't really meant to be super serious and if you've read the novels for the first two you'd know the plot does go somewhere after a while (Nisekoi is a lost cause though). KimiUso was actually pretty decent for recent years. Not denying there's a lot of great anime in the past, but I don't think this has to do with time periods at all, it's always been a present thing.

Reworking the writing, eh? While the writing is admittedly quite flowery, I like it that way. It doesn't quite fit unless there's some consistency, but I still like it. For example, if he talked like a teenager and then thought like that, or if he always thought and talked like that, then it would be very fine by me.

@toranth, just admit it, you simply couldnt resist be tempted by cute chicks & gore

C-c-c-circumcised? Plot twist : Goku was the one who did it 5 years ago

So I finally watched Plastic Memories, up until Episode 5. I'm loving the show so far.

Latooni is moe~~

@toranth, yeah the story & the horde of heroines are really great, same goes 4 its fd as well, but .... the difficulty level.......is quite something, you know. not wondering why up until now, there hasnt been made any attempt in picking it up, as far as i know. of course its fairly new, but.... reading it reminded me @my days in school trying to decipher caesar´s bello gallico

I would respectfully inform him that all the characters are in fact 18 or older and only look like they're high-school age by mere coincidence.

I could build Noah's Ark before I see a single development for gods sake.

Hii welcome and good luck on your project!

Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your stay! How did you find out about Katawa Shoujo? Also who is best girl? Have a moe:

Welcome to fuwanovel

Greeting, Fluxx-san Welcome to the Fuwanovel Forums . I'm pleased that I got to know you Sometime drop by on Fuwachat . Enjoy your stay.

May I join this? I will give some of my favorite ost on visual novel and some of my opinion. So, here goes 1. Final Boss BGM of Soukoku no Arterial Mutual Justice. Epic for Final Boss at each route (Although it may repetitive if you heard it for 100% completion). 2. Sengoku Rance Drivin' to the Dead. Sound epic mostly because it's your time to kick Xavier ass in middle game and this song is heard when you battling vs. Byakko (Most of the first player of Sengoku Rance will probably hearing it first at battle vs. Byakko anyway). 3. Midori no Umi OP. Calming, but make me rage like "WHY THE HELL THIS VN IS NOT IN ENGLISH YET???????" Sorry, just like express my anger lol (But the calming statement is right, so much I like to heard it many times). 4. Kara no Shoujo 2 OP. Same style as Midori no Umi imo (And obviously same singer, Shimotsuki Haruka). Waiting for the English release at this year by Mangagamer. 5. euphoria op. The violin is definitely will be not out of place if someone add it in Yoko Shimamura collection imo. As the game, well I better not touch it since it's not my taste mostly. But once again the OP is awesome enough to hear it again. That's all for now. I will probably add more in future

Can we get some citations for content that was sexist and harassing? Something more concrete than "those three threads that no longer exist" ideally >,> Or has everyone agreed that this place is actually sexist and harasses females?

One word: Narcissus If you don't want to be depressed, do not read that VN. You have been warned...

(Okay. I’m just going to talk directly to Lewy, but y’all can listen in and pretend I’m talking to you, too.) Hi Lewy. You look fabulous today. Hope you’re well. Anyway. Yes, thank you for bringing these things up. I really appreciate it when people speak up like this. This is kinda hard to answer. A lot actually has been done, Lewy, and Nay and I are still working on it fairly actively (Nay’s been busy the last 2 weeks, but we’re picking up). I realize you’re upset that the new front site hasn’t rolled out yet, but that doesn’t mean work has stalled. Nay is working on the coding, and I’m working on the new content. There’s actually a LOT that’s going into the new site which you may not expect. For example: according to Outlook, I’ve spent 53 front-site-dedicated hours in the last 30 days working on academy lessons, writing/rewording text assets, planning games pages, coordinating with companies and devs about outreach features, and, yes, drooling over Emi’s and Beato’s work and Nay’s themes : P. Nay’s put in significant time as well. I want the new site to be up just as much – maybe even more : P – than you do, but the fact of the matter is that we don’t want to put up a crappy product, and we need to make sure we don’t burn out. We aren’t a business. We’re a fan site. And it’s important to keep perspective if we don’t want to burn out. Oh, I’m calling hyperbole on this one : P. (But I love ya. I’m always kinda touched when you speak up about this, Lewy, because I appreciate that you care.) My honest reaction to this is to wonder if we’re both at fault: I recognize that I’ve done a poor job regularly communicating the cool stuff/updates we’re working on, but on your end it sounds like you haven’t been paying attention to all the stuff we *have* been doing. Fuwa’s traffic and engagement with the wider VN audience, and interactions with new VN players is likely at an all-time high from what I’ve been seeing lately. Consider some of the stuff we’ve done in the last 60 days, for example: We’ve started our own VNTS program on the blog which has become quite popular, built VNTL-Moon (a TL updates aggregator), negotiated with the demeteloaf and the other nice guys on /r/visualnovels (Reddit) to get our VNTS posts included in their weekly TL posts (which I’m really appreciative of), and we’re drawing in a lot of traffic to the other Fuwa sites with this focus on TL A step-wise overhaul of Fuwa’s SEO which has had a major impact on visibility in the US, Europe and some parts of Asia (this is still in-progress because it’s complicated and takes a while) We’ve hired an analyst to help us track and improve our social media presence (focusing first on FB) After torrents went offline we restructured all of the sites and submitted them for review to 5 different tests, and were validated on all 5 (aka: we’re clean, and we’re safe to invest in the site). This was coupled with work to make sure all the site staff are squared away with participating on the site We got a new forums theme (party!) Launched the IP.Blogs and IP.Content apps I’ve got us approved (or in the process of approval) for 7 different affiliate programs to help pay for hosting (will be implemented on the “Buy” sections of game pages, etc.) ~40 more hours have gone into building the VN Reviews hub (still a little left to go before we can launch it in a major way, tho) I’ve successfully corrupted zaka We launched the VN players mentor program (I’m in the process of following-up on that, and eventually I’ll write up a brief report in case people are interested in how well the program worked) Added 5 new blogs to the reviews hub, talking with 4 more Negotiating partnerships with a few other VN communities I’m ~60% done reaching out to TL groups whose patches we used to host, as promised in my reddit open letter We’ve spent ~10 or so hours helping connect skilled hackers/TLers/TLCers/Editors with projects Overhauled the dev boards, got the two dev blogs functional Got the recognition team up and running (and they’re doing a great job, imo) We’re negotiating with a half-dozen devs or studios to get reviews copies of games for the reviews team, and extra licenses for giveaways and contests I’ve failed to give Rooke the attention his PMs deserve (< is that a positive? Hm. Not sure. Maybe I’d have more compassion if it weren’t for a certain drinking game he enjoys.) We’re ~50% done prepping our Google+ launch Oh, gosh. It’s 1AM here and my brain’s a little fuzzy. The last thing I’ll mention is we’ve done a lot of experimenting with financial stuff, too, and how best to keep Fuwa in the black (< which hasn’t yet happened : P). This takes a lot more time than you’d expect. That’s not an inconsequential list, but there are probably a lot of people who weren’t aware that we were working on all of the above. I mean, I hope you’re impressed with that list : P. We’re a hobby site, Lewy. Nobody’s being paid to do this (I’m literally operating at a loss, and Nay, for example, has a substantial opportunity cost to code for us instead of working overtime and rollin’ in the dough), and I’d much rather we all work at a sane pace and not burn out than run forward and unbalance our RL responsibilities. Well, first of all, I didn’t realize that non-mods couldn’t post topics in the LC. That’s since been fixed. Apologies, Batman et. Al. That was a major oversight, and I do feel bad about it. You’re correct in that the LC has been pretty quiet lately, but that’s largely because we already decided on our priorities list and financial plan for Q1 2015, so there wasn’t a lot for us to talk about. We’re only just entering May (aka: Q2 2015), and I’m almost done drafting our next set of site priorities (read: project goals) and financial plan (I hoped to have it ready earlier this week, but a few devs have been slow to get back to me and I decided to wait so my reports would be complete). LC activity will increase when those are posted. That’s just the way these sorts of advisory committees work, Lewy. (In case you were concerned, the LC was made aware of the Q2 reports’ delay, and they knew the reasons for it, too.) Also, just remember that the LC is an advisory body for discussion about site issues. It’s not a decision making body. If you think a part of Fuwa isn’t working well, it’s the project managers (and then me) who have the power to change stuff. A quiet LC doesn’t mean their decision-making capacity is lessened in any way. I posted about this several days ago, and I’ll continue to work with the mods on the issue. Fuwa’s definitely growing, and keeping our best qualities (respect, friendliness, etc.) through the growth can be challenging. I think your worries are pretty normal. I’ve got them, too, from time to time. The best way I’ve learned to deal with it is to not focus on an abstract “Fuwanovel” – focus on the hobby and the goal to make VNs popular/support VNs in the West. All communities have problems, but we’ll be in especially bad shape if we start focusing too much on the meta-concept of Fuwanovel, and less on the hobby and our community goals. I do worry a lot about this and I’m being as proactive as I can in brainstorming this issue. I can’t talk about any specifics yet, but Fuwa’s actually hosting some fascinating and enlightning private discussions among VN community leaders about this issue. When they’re all completed, you’ll see a handful of posts go up on the blog about the conferences and ideas/discussions we had. Look. Nobody wanted this more than me, but Maef failed to turn in a completed application and – by Fuwa’s own laws – I couldn’t consider him for the job. I’m SORRY, but it wasn’t my fault. I’d be interested in hearing what you mean by this. I’m going to hold off in commenting yet because I think we’d be talking right past each other until you are a little clearer. Try to be as concrete as possible. That’ll help. A lot of people have been extremely cool and stepped up in the comments and said they’re going to help us keep the forums looking/working better. I just want to say that I’m really, really grateful for everybody who is meeting us halfway. I realize I didn’t get to all 10 points, but my brain is really, really tired and I think I should probably stop to let you respond. Thanks for posting, Lewy. I mean it. - Tay

You mean when the IRC was troll-bombing the forum in outrage about some rule? Or when we were having rice and noodle threads? Or when the whole unban run shitstorm unfolded? Fuwa is not going to shit, it's just going through the usual cycle where some older users feel at odd with the newer members, and where there's a discrepancy between the various groups that form themselves around the forum. (And actual VN discussion not being enough present on the forum also comes up every few months to be honest, it's always been pretty much the same)

Its a matter of purpose. I hate ASM for making GUI, but I love ASM when programming for NES. Besides, my all time favorite is Javascript, the most flexible and creative language in the world.

Well to be fair if time travel was possible people wouldn't be too eager to show the people from the past, it could create a paradox. If say the person who invented a time machine were to go back in time and everyone found out about it then the version from the past might have a different life and not be capable of creating the machine so he would never have gone back in the first place. Just because their is no evidence of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, the same could be said for all religions yet billions of people still believe in those. Well that would make sense in theory but what about the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in WWII if Japan had developed nuclear bombs and retaliated with them it would have started a war the likes of which have never been seen. Yet America decided to use such an advanced and dangerous technology it's safe to assume if presented with the same choice again only with time travel they'll make the same stupid decision.

Well, Never make sudden jerk reflex movements in your attempt to go into stealth mode or you may end up unplugging your headphones thus allowing your speakers to reveal to the whole room glorious erotic noises.

Wow, everyone looks great ! All right guys B):