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Hello. My name is Nao Kasukabe. Japanese "Dojin" group called "Fruits-Jam" made VN game, "Ona-Ken!” and is trying to sell it in Steam and other market in the West. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=503649142 However, they donno anything about the VN community outside Japan and cannot speak English very well. Unfortunately, you can see their lack of English ability in their game... So, I am kind of responsible for marketing their game instead of themselves because I can speak English a little better than them. And I am also interested in communicating peple across the pacific. I will plunge myself in this community to know you guys sometimes later. Please feel free to ask me anything if you have something to tell me or want to know about Japanese VN. Also. Fruits-Jam was interviewed with LewdGamer and will be published later. We are looking forward to listening what you think about the interview, See you later... @Nao_kasukabe

Katatsumuri's Sakura Angels stream Today 19:00 CDT/ 18:00 CST The second game in a franchise of cheap fanservice, improbable situations, shoddy writing, and a "large" variety of plots Plot Description: Two girls, blessed with magical powers, are faced with the task of saving the lonely protagonist from the clutches of a mysterious witch and ancient evil, sealed away long ago by his ancestors. What does this sorceress want from our protagonist? [Description directly taken from Steam] Sakura Angels: the second game in the (now no longer) borderline pornographic Sakura franchise of VNs, will be streamed by yours truly from 19:00 CDT, to the point whenever I am done with it and never have to touch it again. It probably hasn't been made clear already, but I do not house any kinds of feelings of love for the Sakura franchise, so any potential viewers will have to expect several things outlined below. What you can expect from the stream: -Frustration -Exasperation -Insults aimed in Sakura Angels' general direction -The absence of any kind of VN streaming experience -Potato quality live commentary -Actual Sakura Angels gameplay Stream is over http://www.twitch.tv/the_evil_snail Note: the Stream Advertised here is going to happen due to a bet made between me, and another member of Fuwa. Yes, It's happening, ****, I told you so.

Nice to meet you, Nao! I'm really glad to see Japanese developers finally reaching out to western audience in such straighforward and honest way. If there's anything you want to ask, feel free to do so and we'll try our best to help as much as possible! You're propably familiar with Steam already, therefore I'd like to talk about itch.io instead. It's an online distribution platform very similiar to Steam, which was mainly aimed at indie developers (they're a bit similiar to japanese doujin circles). It offers almost everything Steam does, but it also has a couple of notable advantages: It's completely free. You don't have to pay any fees to publish your games or use their services and there are no adds, either. Itch.io uses open revenue sharing and "pay what you want" model, which means they earn their money from online transactions, for example - if someone buys your game, itch.io takes 10% percent of the transaction (industry standard is usually 30%), but it can be anything, since you're able to actually set the ammount you want to give them. "Pay what you want" means your can earn more, since the customers are free to pay you as much above the minimum value set as they see fit. In other words, even if you release your game for free, people can still pay you as a form of support. No restrictions on the type of content published. This might be the biggest and most important advantage over other platforms, especially in terms of eroge. You're allowed to publish adult content, as long as it's legal. The only thing you need to have in mind, is that certain payment providers don't allow transactions for adult-oriented content. In case of itch.io - Paypal doesn't, but Stripe does. Great services and ease of use. Itch.io offers a variety of tools; you don't have to worry about website or storing, as everything's hosted on their servers. They offer a unique way of distribution, by providing a fully-customizable web page for each product you publish. They collect usage information and statistics, so you can actually see how popular your game is, how many times it was downloaded and how many copies it sold. It also handles all the complicated technical stuff related to hosting and selling your game. You can generate download keys. Itch.io publishes your game in the exact way you want it to get published; there's no DRM involved. itch.io does not restrict it's services depending on the country. All of the services are available in the same way across the whole world. Depending on the payment providers, you can even receive money in your currency. itch.io allows your derivative works to be sold as well. Got a game soundtrack, or an art book? No problem! You can sell/distribute other variety of products tied with your games/franchise in the same way as your games. I hope this helps; You can always check their FAQ and developer's guides for more information. In that sense, itch.io does look like a heaven for japanese doujin circles. Aside from Steam, there's GOG as well, which works in the same exact manner as Steam, but offers DRM-free downloads. At the moment, it's growing to become the biggest competitor to Valve's Steam. If you're also familiar with TeamSpeak, we actually own our (somewhat) official Fuwanovel channel, where you can chat and talk online with some of our community members (I and OriginalRen frequent it often). If you're interested, but still unsure how it works, feel free to PM me and I'll instruct you how to install and configure it to work. You could even try to encourage mr. Kobushi, if he's interested to hear from western fans like us. From my experience, there's nothing better than getting directly in touch with people to discuss things and enjoy a good time. I already followed you on Twitter and I'm eager to hear more from you. I wish you and your team best of luck in your crusade to bring more great games and conquer the overseas' market ( ｡>‿‿<｡)

I think some people here are getting a bit carried away. Don't take advantage of Nao's naivety to pitch your own private projects that won't be useful to FruitsJam commercially. o.O;

Hello and welcome Nao : ) Sanah's overview of the Western VN world was very good -- make sure you file that away for future reference. This site, Fuwanovel, is mostly geared towards fan community around visual novels (VNs). It's maintained a steady growth for the last three years and if at some point you want some help learning how to engage site users I'd be happy to send you a guide I wrote. As far as the business side of the Western VN world goes: I'm not associated with the other companies, but I know a lot of people in all of the big companies and communities. If you need help making contact with someone, or want some help figuring out who to contact, let me know, alright? I'm happy to answer any questions or help : ). In any case, welcome to Fuwa! Glad you're here : )

Hi, Nao! I joined up with Fuwanovel as soon as I saw you post this topic to Twitter. I've been pretty excited about Ona-Ken since I found out about it and read the English demo. I'm happy that you've been so open with your new western audience. I'm also glad to see the LewdGamer interview is up. I've been waiting for it. It's a very interesting read. I hope you'll consider bringing the other Ona-Ken games to the west. The other games in the series look really good, too. Unfortunately, my Japanese isn't very good, so I can't read them very well. Hmm... There's a post in there that says the game is uncensored at DLsite. The demo had mosaics. I don't really want to necro the topic since it's been a while since anyone's posted in it, but while we're talking about the game, anyone care to clarify? Is the full game censored or not? I would think it would be censored if only for legal reasons. I can understand if it's a money issue and you only want to pay for a translation, but remember that a company like JASTUSA can also offer some additional advertising and even bring the game out uncensored since, as far as I know, you're unable to sell the game uncensored from Japan by law. But they've probably mentioned that to you already if you've spoken with them. If you paid for a translation from them and nothing else, how would you release it to the existing version at DLsite? Would there be a patch for people who have already bought it? Any thoughts?

Currently working on spread ideas. I came up with this rough draft for those of you who haven't been frequenting the stream: Suggestions are welcome. It's really hard coming up with a solid idea I can use as a "format" for the rest of the guidebook.

Welcome to the forums. The VN community outside Japan consists of a number of semi-separate groups, this site is mainly frequented by the eroge fans. Otome fans, and developers mainly visit other communities. The translation of the game would need a bit of work, but that’s understandable - Japanese to English, and English to Japanese, is an incredibly hard process to undergo (the 2 languages are incredibly different.) It’s good to see them acknowledge the issue though. Good luck to FruitsJam, and good luck with your marketing efforts. Argggh! My eyes! >.<

Hi Nao, nice to meet you! It's nice to see someone from Japan post here on the forums. I'm wondering if you might be interested in a live interview about your thoughts on the VN market in the west and in Japan. From reading your post, you seem to have decent knowledge about the market and would love meeting up for a coffee sometime. I am originally from the United States, but am currently living in the Japanese Tokyo area myself and have been for the past year or so. Any interest in having a meetup to talk about VNs or just, hell, hang out? Let me know. Feel free to send me a private message or reply in the thread. OriginalRen

Agree on the music. I also don't think the artwork is all that great. And the character development isn't particularly deep, either... Little Busters gets a 4 and this gets an 8, there is no justice in this world.

Welcome guys This is a casual review of Air - standard edition, having played all 3 heroine routes plus "Summer", and "Air". The translation I used is by Sheeta, and not Gao-gao translations (sorry). I have seen the anime version a long time ago and I barely remember any details from it. I heard that the VN is better and so I tried it. After finishing the VN, I double down on that statement. Some background: Air is released by KEY after Kanon, and before Clannad. I'd classify the game a Nakige, much like Clannad After Story. The game has the theme of Summer, compared to Kanon's winter. I'm not sure if Clannad had a season theme. Art: Key style. I personally like KEY style. I cannot really comment on the intricacies of the art and the CGs. I do think the number of CGs are quite few but I'm just spoiled. Music/Sound: It's ok. There are a couple of memorable and catchy tunes (Minagi's theme) but nothing too bad, nothing too fantastic. Story: I don't like the fact that I'm forced to play the other two heroines to unlock Summer+Air. Kano's route felt like a massive filler. Minagi's route is decent, while Mizusu's route felt just like Little Buster's Rin route is when playing it for the first time --- stopped short of the climax. Overall the heroine routes suffer from an unbearably SLOW development. I drowned on slice-of-life with what seems like 80% of the game. Literally felt like only 3 sentences out of a day in Air contributes to the advancement of the plot. It's quite anachronistic to make this comparison but, Air feels like an unrefined Clannad. If you are a KEY fan, you will see elements of KEY style in Air. The humor is hit-or-miss, not as good as Clannad or LB. Tension build-up was way too slow in Air, which is something they vastly improved in Clannad in my opinion. The highlight of the whole game for me was Summer route. It contained tension from very early in the route and kept me hooked from start to finish. I'm not sure if going through two unrelated filler arcs was worth getting to Summer. But I would say this route even trumped the final route "Air", and is the main bone of the game. Summer is very impactful. Most of the final route "Air" was mostly a repeat of Misuzu's route and it's quite unpleasant to go through the slice-of-life elements again with barely any change on the narration... The story line outside of "Summer" arc only spikes in drama at the end. Tension in the mid-route is almost non-existent. The mysteries are so-so. As for themes, I'm not really good at analyzing but I will try. The setting takes place on a rural town, and as such cell-phones and modern technology doesn't exist as much. By playing Air, you get a sense of the laidback countryside, with its elderly. The setting is so simple there's nothing eyecatching or interesting. But simplicity in itself seems to be what the setting conveys. Sky and flying are the main aspects of the story and there are countless references to it in-game. There are some great quotes all throughout the game, but I wasn't engaged too much with any kind of philosophical stimulation. I'm sure there are countless other themes that the game conveyed but I won't bother brainstorming at this point. Scores: I'm not going to try to come up with arbitrary number for every category but I will give this VN an overall score of 6-7; meaning I will put it in the AVERAGE category. I have played or watched so much slice-of-life stories that I'm just numbed to the majority of the scenes here. Usually at that point, if there are no main plot developments happening, then humor is the only one that keeps me going. Air's humor is spotty as I mentioned before. Will I recommend this? If you like other KEY titles and its narratives, and are a fan of drama --- then yes. If you are a beginner or new to the Visual Novel scene, play this one later. There are countless numerous other better VNs than Air. Part of the reason I have survived through this game was because I was already a huge fan of KEY (having replayed Clannad like 4 times). As a standalone game it's so-so, not a bad VN, but not superb. And so I leave you with a few more quotes.

So I discovered the Achilles Heal that will prevent the Sakura series ero revolution from taking Steam by storm. How do i instal the uncensor patch

Of course I remember you! I am positive you were one of the participants in many forum games, like the WWI one, and you welcomed me when I joined this site. You were one of the last ones, typical snail. Speaking of snail, your avatar is always snails. I remember a terribly important "competition" where two people tried to make your snail Christmas oriented, while you rhymed about trying to choose one.

Very nice to meet you, Nao - as others have stated before, it's really great to see the international VN community as a whole start to come together like this. Before a year or two ago communication was low between Japan and everywhere else in terms of VN development, and even today the OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel) community is perhaps arguably still pulling from a chunk of anime tropes while still figuring out how exactly to get these things finished in a reasonable way. Depending on how you look at it, the genre is still perhaps in its infancy from an international perspective. A good majority of the OELVN market seems to be low-mid level quality stuff pulling at things they think the VN audience might want at random, usually incorrectly. The closest thing we have to stuff like, Fate/Stay Night, Umineko or the MuvLuv trilogy developed outside Japan would have to be Katawa Shoujo, though you could certainly call it a stretch to compare the two groups regardless. Oftentimes you'll find some of them tend to underplay the importance of the writing itself, so keep that and the translation quality as a priority and I think you'll do reasonably well. Personally I'm the kind who would rather bash the audience in the gut emotionally, though that depends on the tone of the story as a whole. Anyway, I wish you and your team good luck in your endeavors! Please try not to get discouraged - things may perhaps be confusing at first but hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy these soon enough

It seems fuwachat and fuwa confession thread will provide most of the ship and proof of them now

Confession: I played League for the first time since January from 2pm yesterday to 5AM this morning. League is unhealthy for my well-being. xD

lol just saw this on reddit. Good luck ^-^ I'll come if I have time ;")

OTP

Zeb x Velo officially confirmed.

Guys please don't post inflammatory comments here.

The Fuwanovel reading club is a pretty niche thing. Join in if you want to practice your English or something, but I wouldn't consider it useful from a marketing or community engagement perspective. Here's the companies, communities, and resources you should be familiar with. Localization companies JAST USA: The oldest company in the business. They focus on high-profile professional releases. MangaGamer: Established as a joint venture by several Japanese eroge companies, they have the highest throughput of the three companies. They release a variety of visual novels. They try to offer something for everyone. Sekai Project: A startup that's managed to grow really fast. Their focus is non-adult and doujin titles. Communities Fuwanovel: A site dedicated to creating a friendly environment for new and veteran players to discuss VNs. They have an official blog that maintains a translation status log of VN projects, including fan translations and official releases. Visual novel subreddit: A subsection of the news site Reddit dedicated to visual novel news and discussion. News and discussion tends to focus on non-adult titles and story-focused eroge. HongFire: A large site that spans the full range of anime culture. The Hentai game section focuses on titles with gameplay and sex simulators. This community likely has the strongest overlap with the DLsite customer base. Others: There's probably other major or minor communities I don't participate in or that I don't feel are relevant. News LewdGamer: A startup site dedicated to eroge news. Resources VNDB: The definitive English resource for information on visual novels. Also has message boards that get a lot more traffic than it would appear from the number of responses. Edit: The LewdGamer interview with FruitsJam is fantastic. I recommend that everyone vaguely interested in FruitsJam read it. I helped come up with the questions, but the Director gave some very informative responses--the answers were far more insightful than I had expected. Nao should link the interview in the OP.

Some Monster Musume for you all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrQHbCclmA

Becoming a women magnet (like rains ) would be a start

Hello and welcome, famous person

This is the thread we had discussing your game on the site earlier, if interested: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/11479-this-game-has-been-greenlit-by-the-community/

Wait a minute... This isn't the Ritty thread!

Since when did anyone care about a girl's age in a porn game?

TFW google chrome asks you "Do you really want to open 120 tabs?" and you reply Yes

None of the major plot points of Cartagra are carried over into KnS but three of the characters (the protagonist and the main heroine, and one of the police detectives) do show up and they play a mildly important role and deliver some moments that are greatly diminished without playing Cartagra first. Apparently KnS2 has more characters from Cartagra and it sounds like it might connect the two in a more significant way.

I made an Amane one a while back and was about to go on a mad theme making spree but Windows 8.1 apparently didn't like me messing around with system files to be able to make custom themes so I had to stop

cartagra I can't remember the route but it was the nightmare one, it was really fucked up and scary, (all the routes are good but not as scary) kara no shoujo cross channel if you can handle the slow pace and doing the same thing 100 times you will be rewarded by this novel

Finished reading Mio's route in Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki, thus completing everything currently translated. EDIT: btw Eclipsed, I approve of your current avatar, nice choice

It's true that both the number of games and the ease of their access have ballooned off the charts in the last several years, thanks mainly to the proliferation of simple platforms for distribution. I think it's a little misleading to classify it as a bubble, however, since it isn't as if the cost of creating the games is vastly outpacing their potential for revenue. If anything the opposite is true, with the highest potential for revenue growth being realized in the mobile market where the average game is less complex to develop and play than an average game from ten years ago, yet has the potential to make more money due to the increased size of the video game audience. A small number of AAA titles with budgets in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars exist, just as they have in the past. A large proportion of releases today (both indie and non-) are done on budgets of thousands of dollars (or zero dollars and just the investment of some time and talent). The very existence of the two extremes, plus everything in between, seems healthy overall, as compared to an exclusive club where you're either a huge publisher with millions to spend hiring teams of hundreds of people, or you're one of the people working for those publishers, or you're nothing. It's now highly possible to be small or independent and successful, something that hasn't been this true since the early to mid 90s during the original popularity explosion of PC gaming. Of course, it's equally possible to put in a lot of effort and time and fail utterly, but that's true of every healthy industry. Intense competition raises the level of the products and benefits the consumer.

I went to see the Love Live movie, and these were my spoils I left with (I had to trade to get the plaque)

I always managed to keep myself free of distractions by reading school textbooks.

I believe Jade is asking if a blind girl will be ok with him being ugly.

I hope I post in right thread, Which not be freely to movie it to right thread. So I want to say thank you for all they so translate VNs game and for they so have plans to translate VNs Games, Thank you very much Of all my heart, the are Thanks to there at I can play VNs Games in english. And I want to say thank you to these company. ~Mangagamer~ Thank you very much Mangagamer for translating VNs Games and for to translate these amazing VNs Games very much. Its Thanks you at we can play Da capo 1-2, Princess Evangile and so on, I'm very happy for to play these Games and I'm really looking forward to your upcoming Games very much. And I respect there for what there do and I'm proud Of there. And its not only that but there take your work very seriously and make good progress with translating VNs Games because Of it and there dont delayed your Games eighter and that make me very happy. So thank you very much for all work there did and for the work there are doing. ~JAST USA~ I dont have much to say but thank you for the all VNs Games there have realished and thank you for the upcoming VNs. But I have some critic to say. I dont feel there take your work seriously and there are not realised much VNs games eighter. And not only that but there delayed your VNs Games and there take long time for translating VNs Games. Which there have not enough translator, profreader and editor so Would I understand. Which there dont have enough translator, profreader and editor so its possible to Ask for them and I'm sure many want to help there. Which there have enough so dont I understand Why it take time to translate games. I mean seriously Mangagamer have realished more VNs games out puplic than there have and we must not wait one-two year before we can play english VNs Games. So I things its about time there take your work seriously and try to translate faster. Beside Of that I'm very happy for your VNs Games and I'm enjoy playing them very much. So thank you very much. ~To other translator ut there~ I want to say thank you to there for translating Games and try to complete the english patch, I understand its not easy translating VNs Games and how hard it must be. I'm respect there for all ther work and I'm proud Of there. So I want there to try their best to translate VNs Games and keep doing good work with it. I know there are doing their best for translating VNs Games self at there must be busy with real life. I support there Of all my heart and I'm looking forward to play upcoming english VNs very much. So that was all I want to say and one more thing, I dont say these things because I'm going to quit play VNs Games. I'm saying this because I want to lift something from my heart and for to give translator kick in the back, so they can feel at I'm and others are happy for their work. So Should they be in slump, so can they read this and try to Get spirit back to translate Games. So that was all. Novel21

"Sakura Swim Club didn't sell as well as the earlier Sakura games so we removed the porn from our new game."

I especially remember at how annoyed you were that it was moved here, the Coliseum of Chatter, where these people can talk at will without an iron fist of moderation You do? I see... Too many, you say? Indeed, indeed... Pardon me while I...

I am starting to get a feeling that this is just the first step in an intricate plan to just release a dramatic and actually worthwhile Sakura VN out of fucking nowhere which features the collective cast of the Sakura games so far and is actually a mature and emotionally impactful game. Because otherwise this game is like diarrhea: Several short quantities of worthless, repulsive shit released in startlingly quick succession, leaving a nauseating aftermath. I have an idea for Winged Cloud though. Have an annual Sakura Jam where people are given 48 hours to make a Sakura game from scratch! They'd increase efficiency and well, the games would probably be quite a few times as complex compared to now. Win-win!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEbC-Rq32Q0

Ayana x Sca-Ji This is the most legit ship I can think of.

Tick! Tack! Licensed by MangaGamer Summary The game is the first sequel to Navel's first game, Shuffle!, continuing Nerine's path. The basic set-up is that Rin, Nerine, Itsuki, and Mayumi find a strange watch that transports them back in time, where they met Forbesii before he is married and has Nerine. While he is engaged to Ai, his maid, Sage, is also in love with him, causing a love triangle. The players actions determine who Forbesii ultimately ends up with, and thus who is the mother of Nerine. Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order There are five heroines in Tick! Tack!, including two variations of Nerine, Little Nerine and Red Nerine. These routes can be read in whatever order you like. Route Guideline Nerine Good End Red Nerine Good End Little Nerine Good End Sage Good End Ai Good End Scene Collection #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 Attribution This walkthrough is based on info attained on Mangagamer.org with some adjustments made by me.

Katawa Shoujo Summary Hisao Nakai is a normal kid living a normal life. A senior in High School, things seem to be going his way until, in the middle of a love confession, his heart seizes up and he collapses. Upon waking, Hisao is informed that he has a heart arrhythmia: a condition which will require major lifestyle changes if he wants to stay healthy. Katawa Shoujo is the story of a boy, force-transferred to a school for disabled kids, and his special friends who open his eyes to what life is truly about. Ending Guide Katawa Shoujo is divided into five story arcs (one for each of the central characters), or "routes": Lilly Hanako Emi Rin Shizune You will encounter each of these girls several times in the course of Act 1, and depending on your choices, the game will select a route for you to take. Act 2 (through the end of the game) will be different for each story arc, or "route". What this means, of course, is that Act 1 is extremely complex in terms of choices (and the computer variables and flags associated with them). This complexity makes for an awesome story, but is difficult to explain in a textual walkthrough. Consequently, please consider the following advice: I recommend playing through Act 1 making the choices that come naturally to you, and observing each of the girls carefully. By the end of Act 1, you'll more or less know in your heart which route you want to start with. If you made choices by listening to your heart, you'll probably have already ended up in the route you want! If that's not the case, or you're playing through the game again and want to follow a different route, please see the individual route walkthroughs: they will guide you from the beginning of the game until the end, and will faithfully see you through to your chosen heroine. Thank you for using this walkthrough. Katawa Shoujo is the first visual novel I ever played, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. Also... Lilly forever! Route Walkthroughs PROLOGUE Katawa Shoujo opens to a prologue of sorts (a snowy confession) which leads immediately into Act 1: Life Expectancy. Lily Good and Neutral Endings Hanako Good and Neutral Endings Bad Ending Emi Good and Neutral Endings Bad Ending Rin Good, Neutral and Bad Endings Shizune Good and Bad Endings Note: Katawa Shoujo features notifications on choice screens which will help you see whether or not you've made a choice before. This will help all of the 100%-Driven players out there. As an added resource, please see this incredible flowchart, made by Feuver. If you're missing scenes, I'd focus on getting all the bad ends -- especially in Act 1 (they're probably what you're missing). Attribution This guide was based heavily on both Feuver's flowchart as well as information gleamed directly from personal experience as well as the official Katawa Shoujo site. A big thanks to Four Leaf Studios, the creators of the game, for the wonderful memories and powerful stories they've left us