Dharker Studios is planning to make 8 games this year?

[jetpack003]

I've been looking at this Kickstarter recently and it looks like a company called Dharker Studio is planning to fund a title called Army Girls. That Kickstarter later changed to adding two more titles called Summer Fling and Battle Girls 2140. After they received a lot of funding they decided to add two more games to the Kickstarter which was My Girlfriend and Coterie. There's also three more coming to Steam but not funded by this Kickstarter. That makes a total of eight games in a year.

 

Here the link to their Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dharkerstudio/army-gals/description

Link to the update containing their list of games:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dharkerstudio/army-gals/posts/1492163

 

What I'm wondering is whether making eight games within a year is possible. The amount of titles is huge so it has to be a short story otherwise it's not possible to make 8 on time. I also haven't heard of the company Dharker Studio unless I've been living under a rock all this time. I'm not even sure if they're popular either.

 

What do you guys think about this matter because I honestly don't have a clue to VN companies work?

[Valmore]

Dharker Studios = rebranded AJTilley.com

So yes, I'm certain he can release 8 terrible VNs in 2016.

[jetpack003]

AJTilley? That name sounds familiar.

I'm guessing he's not popular in the VN community.

[MercyZombie]

Oh it's very possibly they can release eight visual novels in a single year. The question is if they can release eight visual novels and still have anything resembling quality.

I say the chances are quite low.

[CeruleanGamer]

25 minutes ago, jetpack003 said:

AJTilley? That name sounds familiar.

I'm guessing he's not popular in the VN community.

I'll let this image describe the plague that is AJTilley:

[Arcadeotic]

Yes, Dharker Studios is basically AJTilley reborn.

Now it is most likely that he is just abusing KS to gain publicity to advertise his craptastic VNs, but I have a habit of never judging anything harshly before I experience it myself, so I'll say this:

It most likely will be complete shit, but there is a fraction of a chance that some part of these 8 titles will be good

[WinterfuryZX]

this pile of crap has already reached 28k GBP...

[CeruleanGamer]

6 hours ago, Arcadeotic said:

will be good

 

[Arcadeotic]

3 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:

Yeah, I doubt it myself as well. But one can always dream.

Let's see how hard my hopes and dreams plummet once more.

[DarkZedge]

7 hours ago, CeruleanGamer said:

I'll let this image describe the plague that is AJTilley:

Doesn't surprise me that they'd release eight games in one year, considering their...uhm....quality standard? right...yeah...let's call it that.

[Ironstorm]

£30k Goal Game Characters

There are two new writers working on the titles one with more visual novel writing experience not that there is much love for to many evn writers. Dharker studio is able to make more visual novels then other studios because they work with lots of different artists and multiple writers & have those that can work full time rather then part time as most indie teams end up being. Still artist paces are very variable.

Still this kinda means that we don't get masterpieces that take a year to make and have a lot of thought put into them. Partly down to visual art expense. Teams that collaborate rather then get paid in commission have a bit more freedom to go at their own pace and take their time.

[solidbatman]

So wait... this fucking asshole is funding several shit piles at once with one kickstarter? And morons actually gave him the money!?

[CeruleanGamer]

Surprisingly, I found this girl very attractive. Whoever is the artist of this one should do all the art. He's the only one capable in the Dharker Studios team:

[Arcadeotic]

4 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:

Surprisingly, I found this girl very attractive. Whoever is the artist of this one should do all his art. He's the only one capable in the Dharker Studios team:

Oh damn, that is really good, I'm looking forward to this artist's future

[WinterfuryZX]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/345700/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

 

On a seconda tought,  they don't seem to be that bad..., they're at least better than winged cloud for sure

[CeruleanGamer]

7 minutes ago, WinterfuryZX said:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/345700/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

 

On a seconda tought,  they don't seem to be that bad..., they're at least better than winged cloud for sure

Hmmm the art doesn't sell me. Too comical/cartoony for me. The fiery haired girl looks fine though. I can tell they had different artists working here and usually that's not a good thing if one artist's art stands as really good or really bad with others. 

[Arcadeotic]

28 minutes ago, WinterfuryZX said:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/345700/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

 

On a seconda tought,  they don't seem to be that bad..., they're at least better than winged cloud for sure

Wow, that art style is blander than that 50 cent rice cracker package I bought in the supermarket.

However, the premise can be proven to be good, but we'll see if it delivers

[Kanbe]

1 hour ago, WinterfuryZX said:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/345700/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

 

On a seconda tought,  they don't seem to be that bad..., they're at least better than winged cloud for sure

I looked at the first image and I was like hey this art seems nice. Then when I got to the actual in game screenshots... 

[Ironstorm]

Finding a good artist that is reliable and good at meeting deadlines or living up to the time they set is pretty tricky. This is a little of why you don't see more from say the better artists. Dharker Studio has 2 good artists in terms of anime style such as Tonee & Kopi but it could take them up to 5 times as long to produce the same amount of art for a visual novel if not longer. Whilst the artists with their own growing style work faster and can finish in a similar time that the writers finish in. This is still all weighed in on short visual novels also. Generally if someone knows they are a really good anime artist they charge a lot, also putting most evn budgets to shame even post kickstarter. If you find a good one early or know someone great, but the environment for that is not exceptionally centralized:D

*edit* added this cause another forum member mentioned something to me.

Writers ability to write quickly is a lot more common then artists ability to produce art quickly or reliably. This of course doesn't mean more time can be spent thinking about the process and the plot/story itself.  Bare in mind  generally with evn's there's a common writing rate(pay) and its determined by word count and not time spent. Generally this is counterd by the writer being in charge of the project or a close friend/collaborate/equal partner of whats going on. In ideal circumstances you'd have a writer/artist working in unison and communicating a lot. Then this falls into the line of needing an artist to be available to communicate frequently/be good at talking or want to engage like that.

[jetpack003]

Another title called Apocalypse has been added to their roster for a 2017 release. The art style looks similarly to the game High School X Romance.

This art style doesn't suit a VN in my opinion since it has a cartoony feel to it. It's better off being added to a video game instead.

Now that I think about it, I haven't seen any promotions or advertisements about their titles in this community. That's weird considering even Quantum Suicide has a topic here.

[CeruleanGamer]

AJTilley probably knows over 90% of all Fuwanovelians can't stand his shit, so he's too afraid to come out here and advertise. Smart of him though because if he did come here, he will get roasted badly. 

[Arcadeotic]

And pretty much the entirety of Fuwa hates AJTilley, so no-one even makes topics about it

Those things would go nuclear faster than you could blink

[Down]

To be frank, I hadn't heard about AJTilley before literally yesterday (or was it two days ago?) so I suspect most fuwans don't know him/don't care and that he doesn't know us/doesn't care.

[Darklord Rooke]

1 hour ago, jetpack003 said:

AThis art style doesn't suit a VN in my opinion since it has a cartoony feel to it. It's better off being added to a video game instead.

Now that I think about it, I haven't seen any promotions or advertisements about their titles in this community. That's weird considering even Quantum Suicide has a topic here.

The art is fine, it's less 'toony' than your typical VN from Japan. I especially like the muscle definition on the lady, and the normal proportioned weapons they're carrying. 

Tilley doesn't tend to be criticised for the artwork (even though the art style in High School Romance might not appeal to some people.) Generally speaking the art is of a decent quality, easily at the forefront for OELVNs. Their storytelling needs work though. They get criticised for their lack of depth in the writing, and their pandering to the lowest common denominator audience (*looks at Beach Bounce*)

That doesn't mean everything about his games is horrid, though.

[finiteHP]

9 hours ago, solidbatman said:

So wait... this fucking asshole is funding several shit piles at once with one kickstarter? And morons actually gave him the money!?

To be fair, he only added other games after the funding went significantly beyond the stretch goals. I was a backer for a while in order to see if the fact Summer Fling uses Copyright Free character sprites was addressed anywhere (it wasn't).  His post about adding Summer Fling was along the lines of 'adding more stretch goals to Army Girls would just lead to feature creep, so rather than taking money for nothing I'll use the rest for this game (Summer Fling) another of my teams is making.'  After he got some more money he asked the backers if in the unlikely event the funding got above the final stretch goal for Summer Fling, did they want him to add a third game.  I imagine after that got funded what conscience he had got thrown out the window though with the realization that if he promises more games the sheep will fund them.