sanahtlig

One of my sources tells me that this was prompted by a change in the international legal landscape. If true, the likelihood that Valve will back off is essentially zero. However, that's not to say that Valve wouldn't be ok with highly-sterilized releases of eroge (think MoeNovel) + a patch somewhere else that could not be traced back to Valve in any shape or form.

While a one-stop shop for eroge is definitely a goal worth pursuing, my experience with both stores has been poor. JAST's 16-file manual download (plus bugfix patch that was only available on my site, plus huge unofficial uncensor patch that only worked if you followed a very specific series of steps) for Shiny Days was utterly ridiculous. MangaGamer's DRM was extremely inconvenient. Neither store to my knowledge supports the advanced features (e.g., automatic download management and updates) that users expect nowadays.

From a pure pragmatic standpoint, Steam is nice because it forces publishers to compete for attention. This drives deep discounts and is a key reason why I'd prefer a Steam release + adult patch over a standalone adult version. I don't see that being replicated on a respectable adult platform in the forseeable future.

Reminds me of the parenting style where a child misbehaves, 3 years pass, and then you slap her. When she asks, "What was that for?!", you slap her again.

Quality discussion requires a topic worth discussing. Allow me to assist: the developers of Huniepop and other VN devs on Steam have just been served a notice from Valve that their games will be removed in 2 weeks. Is this the beginning of the end for VNs in the West, or the end of the beginning? Ready, set, go!

To side-step the usual machine translation debate, it's useful to distinguish between the 'hooking' feature of these tools and the 'translation' or 'dictionary look-up' features. Also, the relative "quality" of machine translation isn't a feature of Translation Aggregator, but rather a function of which machine translator you use. These tools often give the user multiple options to choose from. Most people who use machine translation agree that ATLAS provides the best result. Whether that 'best result' is sufficient to satisfy a given user is a different matter and sort of beside the point.

I prepared a few basic questions: What led you to choose Venus Blood Frontier over the many other excellent titles that Ninetail has released over the years? Venus Blood Frontier contains a great deal of sexual content. Why Kickstarter and Steam rather than platforms that are more friendly to adult content (see Crowdfunding sites for Adult Content)? You mentioned that the game would be released on Steam with a patch to restore the adult content. What would be the timing of this patch and how would it be distributed? Other Kickstarter projects have made similar promises but have disappointed (e.g., 8 months after MuvLuv Alternative was released on Steam there's still no adult content patch). Ability to complete the proposed project on time and while meeting quality standards is always a concern on Kickstarter. What experience does the project staff have with localization projects and crowdfunding in general? Early rumors have suggested that a single staff member will be performing multiple roles that are typically distributed among a team of specialists for a project of this size. If true, does this staff member have prior experience in each of these roles? What is the contingency plan if this staff member becomes overwhelmed? Success on Kickstarter depends as much on marketing and publicity as it does on a great product. How does Ninetail plan to reach and appeal to the various fanbases (e.g., of strategy RPGs, visual novels, and ero) that might be interested in this product? A small number of generous contributors typically account for a large share of crowdfunding proceeds. What sort of exclusive rewards do you have planned to appeal to these "super-fans"? A fan translation of Venus Blood Chimera was released in January 2018. What is your attitude towards this project, and to fan translation projects in general? Backers of crowdfunding projects tend to be fans interested in the future of the company moreso than just the success of a given project. If Venus Blood Frontier succeeds, what next?

Much of translating is writing. If you're a terrible writer, your translation probably won't be very good, even if you understand the passage perfectly. An editor can't fix your work if you didn't communicate the meaning effectively to begin with.

The definition of "machine translation" being used and accepted in this thread seems odd to me. A machine translation, by definition, lacks knowledge of context. If a human accurately fills in that context, it's no longer a machine translation. The problem is when an editor, with no knowledge of Japanese, comes along and inaccurately interpolates ambiguous / wrong output. Coincidentally, a translator fluent in Japanese can make context mistakes too, especially if they're translating from a script without ever having played the game (and missing the cues in the visuals and audio that provide added context).

In my opinion, this is the dominant effect. We don't choose VNs to play randomly; we pick games we think we'll like. If I have a greater selection of games to play, I can choose VNs that I'm more likely to like. Whereas if my selection is limited, I'm stuck playing games that have less intrinsic appeal to me, and I'm going to be harsher on them.

So after experimenting with this, I think the crashes might be caused by sound playback. Still need to verify though.

We haven't even discussed the depth of the gameplay yet. There's somewhere near 100 different unit types, each of which can be further customized with game-changing additional skills and equipment. Beyond that, certain units have heavy synergies within a team. These synergies encourage making multiple teams each with a focus on a particular race. There are also bonuses for quick mission clears that unlock higher-tier equipment, as well as drop-increasing skills and items that further increase potential gains. In addition, higher difficulties grant much better equipment drops, adding incentive to challenge yourself. It's a very well-designed system of incentives.

Ninetail announces an upcoming Kickstarter for an English version of Venus Blood Frontier, a corruption-focused strategy RPG with Law and Chaos routes. SRPG eroge Venus Blood Frontier to get an English Kickstarter Discussion thread

I use ITHVNR to hook and Translation Aggregator to display parser / machine TL.

Project leader Keimaru posted some additional info on Twitter: He realizes that the concept of an all-ages Venus Blood is a bit absurd. He's been surprised by the swell of very forward-thinking user feedback. The current plan is to launch the Prefundia in mid-May, but due to user feedback that may be delayed. He's willing to hire additional translation, editing, and debug staff if the Kickstarter does well enough. There's only so much that Ninetail can do at its own discretion, and therefore this is all subject to approval. There's also a comment about "colorful tofu" which I can only assume is a euphemism for porn. Also, I appear to have gotten assasinzassasin in trouble for disclosing too much by tweeting about the discussion here and elsewhere. I do however think that there's been valuable feedback that'll allow them to adjust their plans before they're widely disseminated and the die is already cast, so to speak.

This is actually really valuable feedback. It's the sort of "silent majority" opinion that could very easily fly under the radar yet be very important. Privacy concerns are a major pitfall of trying to sell eroge on Steam. Not everyone wants to broadcast their interest in this genre to the world. That's yet another reason to make this game available on at least one other platform, bringing the tally to at least 3 (no-fuss adult version that doesn't require a patch / isn't pretending to be something it isn't, could enable a release without mosaics, respect for privacy concerns).

Is the problem that company V doesn't want any releases outside Steam, or that specifically they don't want any (official) ADULT releases in English?

Also, something that probably isn't widely known about the VB series is that the scenario/choice structure for optional scenes is pretty complex. You have to juggle heroine favorability, Law, and Chaos points, and various combinations of these unlock additional scenes, character upgrades, and even new unit types. I've literally spent hours trying to plot out dialogue decisions to reach desired endings while collecting as many upgrades as possible. In many games, some upgrades and unit types aren't even available until subsequent playthroughs, and the Law/Chaos split and the additional difficulties and New Game+ features further incentivize additional playthroughs.

A common thread in the VB series is protagonists with villainous characteristics that aren't complete hedonists, sadists, or psychopaths (a common trope in rape games with villainous protagonists). They're cunning and ambitious, yet relatable, and they're ultimately shaped by the player's choices. Prioritize brutal efficiency and hedonism, and you'll end up on the Chaos route. Prioritize justice and compassion, and you'll go down the Law route. Mix the two prudently and you could enjoy the fruits of both... or suffer the potentially fatal consequences of being an embattled ruler that is neither just nor strong.

The protagonist is more mellow in the Law route--but he's still a crafty "ends justifies the means" type, as I recall. Also, when it comes to pretty girls trying to kill him... "to the victor go the spoils".

I'm going to take an educated guess and speculate that voice licensing is the hold-up. It often is. Ninetail probably has the right to publish/re-release the game themselves (e.g., on Steam), but not license releases out to other publishers (such as JAST, MangaGamer). Re-negotiating this could be prohibitively expensive. (You don't need to confirm or deny this. Just my speculation.) Also depending on how the adult release is handled is the issue of mosaics. Mosaics are frowned on in the English market, especially for ero-heavy titles. Once upon a time, games with mosaics were even considered unmarketable. If you want to sell this as a sexy game (and if you want additional sales, you should), mosaics are a problem. But if you want to self-publish a patch, you're legally required to keep the mosaics as a Japanese company. That's why finding a distributor for an adult version is really important. Not just to satisfy existing VN fans, but to potentially reach the much larger porn market as well. There's a lot of people who don't play VNs but like porn and gameplay, but if you keep the mosaics you probably won't reach them.

If I recall correctly, each heroine has a mandatory rape scene when you recruit them. I think there's a handful of consensual scenes if you don't go down each heroine's corruption route. And if you do go down the corruption route... eventually it becomes consensual. I added the new trial mirror to the article as well as plans for an 18+ patch. When I have time later, I'll address the other new developments. For the Prefundia, you should try and disclose what you can about this, and keep searching for a possible alternative. While a patch will satisfy many, there will be those who will be utterly baffled that this game could be sold without H-scenes--and more importantly, those who feel that downloading a separate patch is a nuisance, and those who feel that hiding the true nature of the game is unacceptable. Yes, there have been Kickstarters and Steam releases before that used a patch as a sole workaround, but none of these games were anywhere near as sexual in concept as Venus Blood Frontier. There's also other platforms you may not have considered, such as Nutaku. Nutaku is highly-focused on gameplay titles and nukige, so VBF would probably sell pretty well there. That is, provided they don't demand their own set of content restrictions...

Kickstarter doesn't have to fund the entire project. They're going to sell a product. Yes, finding a platform to host the game is a potential problem. But I've talked to multiple localization companies that would be happy to publish adult versions of games like this, especially if they didn't have to do the heavy lifting.

No? You speak as if somehow a game is less than the sum of its parts: that a game's gameplay detracts from other elements, and vice versa. I specifically look for titles that have gameplay AND the other qualities I'm looking for. By the way, sexual training is actually NOT one of the elements I value. I just don't believe in gutting major themes for the sake of mere convenience. The game is supposed to have those scenes, and if you don't want to see them you can 1) not trigger them or 2) disable those H-scenes in the configuration menu. How does removing story arcs that revolve around H-scenes not affect the story? And in regards to writing, have you heard of the rule "show, not tell"? That rule applies here.

There's games that are more focused on mind-break and impregnation if that's more your cup of tea.