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The Japanese VN industry as a whole is unlikely to die... but I imagine we'll see a massive shrink (60% seems likely) in commercial VNs over there when the final barriers go down. As for the industry over here... the saturation of Steam is an issue, but not as big of one as you might think. Initial investment (edit: referring to investment per product, rather than investment in the project as a whole) for digital releases is the tiniest fraction of initial investments for physical releases, so companies can still make a decent profit off of minimal sales through a proxy (in the original meaning of the word) service like Steam. Unfortunately, the saturation of Steam at present (just looking at all the dross that is building up on Steam makes me want to sigh with exasperation) means that people looking for VNs or interested in trying them are much more likely to drop out of the market entirely if they buy a game that is a 'miss'. On the other hand, impulse buys during sales like the one this weekend will tend to create brief bursts of revenue for the companies in question that can potentially justify taking the long view on localization profit issues. Edit2: Now that I'm done faking being an optimist... The thing with Steam bares a rather eerie resemblance to that of the 'first video game age', in the early eighties, when the bottom fell out of a glutted video game market. On the other hand, the much smaller investment in each 'copy' of the game means that the actual risk after development or localization is over is far lower if you are focusing on digital releases... Nonetheless, I find it hard to be optimistic about Japan's end, because: 1) Omake culture ( love of physical swag) 2) A cultural inability to abandon physical copies in most commercial VNs 3) Social pressure against certain types of fetishism is rising (rapegames and lolige) 4) 'Modern' Japanese otakus tend to have less money now than they did ten years ago due to the economy 5) Market culture is stagnant, lacks innovation even within the limits of current trends.

As a director myself, I can confirm that it's pretty much what Funyarinpa said. Example of stuff directors take care of would be: - How many sprite expressions? Which expression should be used for this line of text? Should we create a new expression for this character? - Do we need a CG here? How long should it stay on screen? How many variations? - Does the music fit? Should we change it? Should we create a new OST that fits better the mood? Should we rewrite the scene so that it can fit one of the OST we already have? - Should we add sound effect during this particular scene? - Does the game have an internal coherency and logic about how it does things? (Example of inconsistencies: One CG for each heroine except one; one OST that is used nearly all the time compared to the others; character screen time that doesn't reflect their respective importance in the story; SFX of a school bell ringing one time but not the next time, etc) - Does the game make good use of the assets and doesn't force creations of assets for a one time thing? Example: creating backgrounds that are used for only one scene in the whole story.

All of Makina's h-scenes are among the funniest h-scenes I have ever read. They're pure comedy gold. I love them to death. edit:

Alright, the chapter is finally done. Not going to lie, I have been so freaking exhausted all day, and was having some trouble finishing this one. Hope it came out okay! The next week will BE THE LAST! To be continued!

«Eyes of Gods» is a dramatical visual novel with elements of mystery and cyberpunk which tells us about a struggle, uneasy choices and hope. The development of the storyline wholly depends on selections the player will make in the game. Support us on Steam GreenLight and Indiegogo! THE DEMO VERSION OF THE VISUAL NOVEL “EYES OF GODS” IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD! Demo-version (Windows) - http://www.mediafire.com/download/n4dyvt056njup11/Eyes_of_Gods-1.0-win.zip Demo-version (Mac) - http://www.mediafire.com/download/h80w5r3kjqbyyxj/Eyes_of_Gods-1.0-mac.zip Demo-version (Linux) - http://www.mediafire.com/download/lbi9xy44c4091oe/Eyes_of_Gods-1.0-linux.tar.bz2 Group Facebook: facebook.com/groups/eyesofgods/ Site: http://solarsidegames.com/ The plot People… In a rotten world where people forgot the definition of "humanity", two coalitions fight for power. One of them is the Order who keeps under its heel a puppet government and another one is the Alliance – a gang of yesterday’s bandits who decided to take power. What way to choose ? Who has truth behind him? Should one reject the old rules and rely on the ideas of the future ? The truth is to be looked for in the tricky tangles of people’s destinies, hopes and vicious desires. And what about gods ?... The Order uses the faith in them for its black deeds. And the main asset of the Order are no donations from millions of believers but children born with black eyes. These children are called "seers" because they can see the future and look within the mysteries of the past. It is believed that the seers are chosen by gods and that the Most High watch mortals through their eyes. From infancy the seers are taken away from their families to the Order where they are given to drink potions depriving them of their consciousness. To the regret of the Order, only a few are born seers so scientists try to create "the messengers of gods" artificially, by means of experiments. Certainly, nobody believes in a fairy-tale about the divinity of black eyes anymore, except for the desperate ordinary people who have nobody else to ask for help. But who knows, what if the gods watched for real?... The player is invited to walk through his way with Luca, a hired killer who was born with only one god’s eye. You will have to decide on what party to join in an unfolding conflict between the Order and the Alliance, and also to determine who really Luca is – a simple murderer or something more. Early concept Music A composer has written magnificent soundtracks that you will be able to enjoy during the game. We invite you to hear some fragments of the soundtracks from the novel. https://soundcloud.com/ryrpzexntvku/sets/eyes-of-gods-1 Characters Luca Luca is the main character. He earns money being a hired killer. He has only one “god’s eye “ that he hides under a blindfold. Luca doesn’t want to enter the war (doesn’t matter whether it’s for the right cause or not), his own small world, far away from the Order’s intrigues, is good enough for him. However, one fact changes everything… Early concept: Dora Dora is a victim of the Order’s unsuccessful experiments in an attempt of creating« the seers » artificially. She managed to escape from the Order’s facility when she was ten and she first met Luca in the slums. Dora has a sweet temper but a strong will. From child hood she decided to fight for the Alliance where she found a shelter and a refuge. Early concept: Cloyd Cloyd is a former military man whose sister was a seer. He has been hiding her from the Order for fifteen years but in the end he couldn’t save her. Cloyd has a harsh temper, his own codes of honor, and he won’t stop until he achieves the intended goal. Early concept: White Lady The White Lady is the first leader of the Order. Cruel and mysterious woman, she thinks that she controls the balance of powers in the country. She got her nickname for her color preference in clothing. Early concept: Garey Garey is the leader of the Alliance. He is physically undeveloped but very smart. In the past Garey was a professor of a University, and in his spare time he created his own drug dealing net. Even though he hides himself behind words of virtue, he only cares of himself. Early concept: Spider Spider is the deputy of the White Lady, the second leader of the Order. He is smart, charming, able to find an approach to people. At the same time he is diagnosed with alexithymia (he can’t understand and almost doesn’t feel any emotions). If he had an idol – that would be Hannibal Lector. He is acquainted with Luca. Before joining the Order he had worked with Luca for two years. Early concept: Leland Leland is the third leader of the Order. He loves ballet and makes considerable donations for the needs of art, he also supplies arms. He was married five times but none of his wives could outlive the first year of marriage. Leland is sure that his ancestors were aristocrats. He collects porcelain dolls, five of them have faces of his deceased wives. Early concept: Astra Astra is the fourth leader of the Order. She dreams about taking the place of the White Lady. She has three children ( all girls, she adopted each of them). She favors the illegal organ trade. She was the one who caught Cloyd’s sister. Astra suffers from fits of melancholy. She doesn’t see the sense neither in her and nor in others’ lives. Only the fight for power helps her to distract herself from painful thoughts. Early concept: Abby Abby is Luca’s friend, who he has been raising since she was ten. She is a cheerful girl. She dreams of a new life for her and for Luca. She saves money for moving to a different country. Early concept: Nancy Nancy is a popular seamstress in the slums. It was precisely her who found Luca and raised him like her own son. Nancy is a rather rude and simple woman, she values her relatives more than anything. Art About the project - Follow the hitman’s way who is able to see the future and to look within the mysteries of the past. - Make selections that will effect the storyline. - 12 main and 7 additional endings! - 2 possible love-affairs! - 20+ exciting musical compositions! - More than 60+ unique backgrounds and 60+ CG - scenes! - The game will be available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Fk Decay, I almost spit out my drink, goddamn I forgot how hilarious Makina's H-scenes were ~~ Finished Van Helsing's route in Code Realize This fker was so hard to break. Throughout all of the secret organization conspiracy plots and the "I don't deserve happiness" self pitying and the RAWRRRMUSTHAVEMYREVENGE!@# going on in this route, these two steadily build their relationship from mutual alliance to "i guess this person's pretty cool, especially compared to all the other pricks I met in my sad, lonely life" to "WE'RE NOT FRIENDS!@#" and finally the following l0lromancelogic: Ya asshole, she loves you and you love her, so stop trying to pull the whole "best way to protect each other is to distance ourselves" and go fight the world together!@# POWER OF LOVE!!!1 Though, to be fair, Cardia can die on plenty of occasions; this game has a lot of 50/50 "in the moment" choices during combat scenes ._. so his worries are justified.

Update #5: 182486/434217 (42.03%) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hNQ-u36mto5xgYT_zPGikLGbu95XwrF5fx9m0KnGJac/edit#gid=0

You need to get shot. Though, I enjoyed reading your rant on YuujixMakina

The translations should be adequate. Raidy 1 is overpriced for the amount of content. 2 and 3 are a better value. You'll miss out on some backstory by skipping 1 but it's not a huge deal. You could skip right to 3 I suppose but I don't see any overriding reason to do so.

Pretty sure a director's task is to coordinate the many aspects of a VN from programming to art to writing to music to marketing- Does this music go well in this part of the story? Do the flags work as they should? Do we have interesting adverts that don't spoil too much? How is the pacing? Since the director coordinates and synthesizes all of these viewpoints into one single, cohesive game, they're one of the most important factors to the final outcome of a video game project. Kind of like how a general doesn't go around shooting people by himself but just gives commands, but is still more influential than any infantry, I guess.

To give directions (?) I don't know xD I will try to see if I can find some answers in japanese because it seems that you are the first one to ask such question maybe some user in the forum already knows..

Bloody hell, Klab is really saving the best URs for last! It seems that by process of elimination, Rin will be the next UR.

Confession: I'm always afraid of that, so... well... I guess I already covered the result.

Confession: I'm always afraid of that so my food ends up underheated.

https://www.sankakucomplex.com/2013/04/25/cops-raid-comic-megastore-force-cancellation/ (Yes, I'm linking Sankaku) Most likely explanation is that she's taking the same "better safe than sorry" approach a lot of doujin artists have been taking. You've probably seen a fair number that feature lightsaber censorship (whole genital area covered with white) - that's done to make sure they don't get fucked. Most of them started doing that after the above event and iirc some related stuff. Same reason a lot of magazines that used to employ a few black bars now use mosaics. On the other hand, you've also got magazines and doujins with little censorship. Since the police have a lot of leeway in this matter, it's a matter of "do I want to risk being that guy who actually does get fucked, or do I just hope to get ignored like pretty much everyone else?"

I already own the game but I decided to rebuy it on steam to support more good gameplay vns getting released...I'm hopeful they will actually release the adult content this time around but I'm not overly pissed if they don't. Part of me thinks Jast will take a chance and release a patch though down the line if they think it will help sales (it will probably be a website patch however similar to what they did with Romanesque). It's a good game and for 12 dollars right now (old or not) it's a steal. I would love for them to release the adult content (as bad and shoehorned in as it is) but if they did it would take some time to translate...the vague comment on steam does mean it's not completely off the table however which is more than we usually get for any other vns released on steam. I will remain hopeful and take a wait and see attitude.

Judging from this thread, It seems a lot of people don't really understand the actual reasons behind the japanese censorship. Everything goes back to the Meiji period; Meiji Restoration basically almost banned pornography due to heavy goverment pressure. After WWII, pornography was 'banned' through the Obscenity Law, but still allowed through freedom of expression, guaranteed by the law itself; what people got in the end was a weird kind of paradox, where dicks and vaginas can literally fly on the screen, as long as they stay censored and this censorship involved putting mosaics onto them. What people seem to forget it's still a law. A lot of artists don't want to cross the line, not because they can't or aren't willing to, but because they are afraid of facing a charge for obscenity, which usually results in very high fines. It's not surprising, many artists like Sayori simply don't want to risk getting into legal actions and would rather self-censorship their works... which is what plenty of studios do. With time, it simply became a habit to censor your own work; those who don't, ask themselves for trouble. That said, this only affects the japanese market. We don't have any sort of such censorship here. I'm assuming it's highly possible a lot of artists would rather keep their works in their original state, than censor them, but aren't really knowledgeable about western laws involving pornographic content. It's still possible to release a game in two versions - 'censored' game for the japanese market and an original for the western market, it's just... kind of complicated. Japanese are the type of people, who are very reluctant to changes, out of many various factors, including convenience.

bumpin' cause we back and making progress! sort of.

Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your stay! Do you have a favourite VN? Have a moe:

look at the tags on the season pass

The prologue's disjointed writing is due to the circumstances of how Gethel has trapped Sorami. Her entire world was in flux, at that point. The writing reflected that. Once they make it to Pandora, things become much more consistent and "normal." There are some issues related to what you were complaining about, like how the game will switch from action to comedy and back from time to time, but generally speaking the format for each route is slice-of-life character building and training -> first combat encounter -> celebration and another brief SoL sequence, w/ maybe more training -> action action action action. The balance and pacing can feel a little off at times, but I wouldn't necessarily qualify it as a "mess."

This posts triggers me. Basically, you're judging the VN out on the two first hour of reading? Didn't you think the whole writing mess at the beggining was intentional because it revolves around Gethel who is a REAL MESS of a girl? It doesn't matter anyway, you probably only or didn't reach the opening so try to get to finish one route instead of making hasty judgements.

It's a horror VN with some exploration gameplay. Much of the appeal of the games is discovering the many ways the characters can die (and there are quite a few.) as well as solve the mystery of the school. Although by now, I'm sure everyone already knows that So if exploration and body horror ain't your thing, you can skip this game if you want. But, personally, I feel you'd be doing yourself a disservice.

In my experience, it typically goes like [Random kissing ensues] Female A: "Protag-kun, I feel something hard against me" Male A: "I don't know how that happened." Female A: "It looks painful, I'll relieve it for you" [Oral sex follows] Male A: "I'm sorry I ejaculated all over your face, here's a tiss- oh wait you're eating it all up, why are you doing that pls stop" Female A: "It's okay, it tastes good because it's yours. But it looks like you're still hard, which is physically impossible, guess I have no choice but to have sex with you now even though I'm a virgin and know nothing about sex" Male A: "Guess it can't be helped" [Virgin protag proceeds to display his amazing sex prowess while the girl enjoys having her vagina bleed to death]

I was going to do an exact same thread but you beat me to it 6. The old childhood friend (osananajimi) waking up the MC, fuck this trope! specially when the mc is a dick to the heroine but she is just in love with him just because... I'm actually very curious to know if this happens in Japan for real... Who the hell wakes up early every single day for several years just to wake up another person?most of the time without even asking... it almost sounds like a sociopath... 7. All the heroines are in love with the mc since the first time they saw him without any reason at all. saw him = instant love. Specially when the mc is bland and doesn't even talk most of the time... he is there doing nothing, going to school everyday and yet has 6 girls madly in love with him O.o