The Year of Forever

[elegantgamefreak]

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-year-of-forever/x/5986096 there's this new visual novel that's being made to increase popularity of the genre in the US. I think we should help out guys.

[Nosebleed]

I get the idea but there was literally nothing about the novel itself so I'm not sure what to think. There was only a very vague description.

I would want more info on the story/setting/characters before funding anything. 

I'd suggest they complete the decription more before asking for funds.

[Zalor]

 

I get the idea but there was literally nothing about the novel itself so I'm not sure what to think. There was only a very vague description.

I would want more info on the story/setting/characters before funding anything. 

I'd suggest they complete the decription more before asking for funds.

I do agree, it would be nice to have more information. That said my Dad's been pressuring me to donate some of my money to something I care about, so I might as well use it to help fund a western made VN. 

[Flutterz]

Hehe, that's a nice indiegogo you have there... It would be a shame if someone made 1000 $1 donations and made you write all those emails...

[elegantgamefreak]

xD that would be too funny

[elegantgamefreak]

I do agree, it would be nice to have more information. That said my Dad's been pressuring me to donate some of my money to something I care about, so I might as well use it to help fund a western made VN. 

thats true. ill see if i can contact the person

[Nosebleed]

Hehe, that's a nice indiegogo you have there... It would be a shame if someone made 1000 $1 donations and made you write all those emails...

thats true. ill see if i can contact the person

You probably should or someone else should. I'm not saying it's bad but i can't say it's good when I have no clue what it is. 

So basically it needs:

Story summary explaining the setting and events taking place.

Character summary with corresponding character sprites (this is very important) explaining the relationships between the characters, a bit about their personalities, personal lives/past and their 3 sizes

And of course more artwork.

[elegantgamefreak]

well guys i contacted the creator and he replied saying he will do so right away and is watching what people say for feedback! 

[elegantgamefreak]

You probably should or someone else should. I'm not saying it's bad but i can't say it's good when I have no clue what it is. 

So basically it needs:

Story summary explaining the setting and events taking place.

Character summary with corresponding character sprites (this is very important) explaining the relationships between the characters, a bit about their personalities, personal lives/past and their 3 sizes

And of course more artwork.

he also said that since its only one man working on it  he he wants to gain cash to hire another artist to draw more artwork. or if anyone wants to volunteer he would appreciate it. he's currently looking around forums for artists. hopefully this all works out for him. i would love to see more westerners produce more VNs

[Nosebleed]

I understand it's tough. I hope he can manage something. I'm eager to know what this novel is about. I'll check for updates sometime.

[elegantgamefreak]

well guys he fixed it up and added more info. 

[Steve]

If you are still in contact with him, tell him to add a loli character

His artstyle is cute and would work perfectly with lolis

[garejei]

That English really feels off to me, it doesn't seem very well written. That was my first impression. I'm assuming whoever writes the script (and the indiegogo page) is not especially proficient in the language. Not a good sign.

 

I'm not saying it should be Shakespeare or anything but still, when you're dealing with a visual novel, the writing is pretty damn important.

[elegantgamefreak]

The creator told me that he will before finishing the game that he will have the whole script checked over for mistakes and will go over it again to fix it. He said he wanted to make it feel as if you're talking regularly with anyone. He does want however if anyone finds any issues with the writing to please let him know through an email so that he can fix it and make it the best possible game that he can make. this is his email [email protected]

[Clephas]

Detailed character art, examples of tachie, and a more detailed outline of the story and characters.  I could come up with better than that in ten minutes.

[elegantgamefreak]

Hey there guys. I'm the creator of The Year of Forever and I want to thank you all for the feedback in which you'be given me to make the campaign better. I really appreciate it. I will try my best because I want to make VN more popular in the west. If I can at least get more fans to like it than I know I did my job.

[Flutterz]

Hey there guys. I'm the creator of The Year of Forever and I want to thank you all for the feedback in which you'be given me to make the campaign better. I really appreciate it. I will try my best because I want to make VN more popular in the west. If I can at least get more fans to like it than I know I did my job.

And the least surprising twist award goes to...

[elegantgamefreak]

Detailed character art, examples of tachie, and a more detailed outline of the story and characters. I could come up with better than that in ten minutes.

I appreciate your feedback I will try harder to make it better.

[elegantgamefreak]

Sorry let me explain the person who was writing posts up before was not me. my name is John Reyes. The person who was writing before was my cousin. Since I don't have a fuwanovel account I wanted to quickly let you guys know what was going on. Let me create one.

[deusgate]

Ok this is much better. So I am the creator of the game. Sorry about all that. Like I said before any feedback you guys give I appreciate it. Any more feedback on how to improve?

[Guest]

I am the creator of the game .. maybe ? Is this a game ?

 

Yeah and about the game I'd like more actual content to give an opinion, there's not enough yet.

 

Edit : Link doesn't work for me anymore. And I read there was change. Does someone have a valid link ?

[Tay]

You said you're a college student.  Are you taking the semester off? Have you made a VN before? How long do you intend the game to be?

 

These are the sorts of questions I'd want to get answers to before I'd consider pledging (not because I'm cheap, but because I'm a poor grad student).

 

 

EDIT: Thanks to nosebleed, below, for pointing out the 10-15 hours goal. I missed that one when skimming the entry.  

 

This time-goal makes my other questions even more important.  Have you made a VN before?  Are you aware of how much writing a 10-15 hour game requires?  Do you have the time outside school/work to produce that much writing?  Also, any writing credentials or experience?

 

These questions aren't meant to sound harsh.  Since you are asking for money, however, it's important to justify the investment. 

Edited January 11, 2014 by Tay

[Nosebleed]

According to the page the game is intended to be a trilogy, this one being the first volume and taking around 10-15 hours to complete.

 

Again as it was stated before i did notice the level of english can be an issue. I'm not a native english speaker, however, by reading everything on the page i do notice some lack of.. academic quality per say. Keep in mind that if you want this to be a novel it has to have some quality writing, not as far as the dialog but at least the narrative and inner thoughts should have some depth to them.

That said the character sprites are beautiful, they give me the same feel as Clannad. Did you perhaps use Clannad/Kanon as examples or motifs for your sprites? (this is just off topic)

 

Also are those 2 and the protagonist the only main characters in the game?

[Steve]

Well how I see it is this:

 

The full goal 1000$ is maybe enough for 1 person to work on it for 3-4 months while being able to dedicate most of his time into it (with some savings from past as a personal investment) so the 10-15h is possible, but it is not enough to hire academic writer for perfect English. However take in consideration that most of this community reads fan translation, which is also not academic writing and sometimes even the translation itself is the problem (although there are some translations that have really great English, but it depends on the editors working on the project).

Which also leaves the options for the CG/BG artist and programmer very limited, so even if the goal is reached, the quality is not to be expected to be of a several thousand $ project.

However it is important to note that the project will receive all the funds even if the goal is not reached making the funding more like a donation towards the project, however with use of official funding site such as indiegogo. And as the creator says, the project will get completed no matter what, implying it is more of a passion project.

 

So I would have some questions for the creator himself:

1. Where are the remaining funds coming from? Transparency would be very much appreciated by people considering funding.

2. It seems that the project will be commercial in the end and not free, do you have a specific reason for this? This might be connected to the first question, if you are investing lot of your own money into the project, it would be fair to get something back in the end, but we do not know that as it is not explained anywhere.

3. What Tay asked above.

4. Will you add lolis? xD

 

With that said, the best you can do for crowd funding project is to be transparent, tell people about EVERYTHING, even if it might seem personal (how much money you are earning and how much time you spend in part time job etc) but it is required to determine the actual value of the project for people funding.